NASA SDO - Aurora; What Causes Them?
Aurora are colorful lights in the night time sky primarily appearing in Earth's polar regions. But what causes them? The culprit behind aurora is our own Sun and the solar plasma that is ejected during a magnetic event like a flare or a coronal mass ejection. This plasma travels outward along with the solar wind and when it encounters Earth's magnetic field, it travels down the field lines that connect at the poles. Atoms in the plasma interacts with atoms in Earth's upper atmosphere.
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NASA SDO - X2-class Solar Flare, January 27, 2012
Our "bad boy" sunspot 1402 continues to unleash flares. At 18:37 UT this active region produced the largest category of flares; an X-class flare. It measured X2 to be exact. Since this active region is rotating over the limb of the Sun the eruption was not Earth directed. But energetic protons accelerated by the blast are now surrounding our planet and a S1-class radiation storm is in progress. S1-class is the lowest of 5 (S1 to S5) and has no biological impact, no satellite operations are impacted but some minor impact on HF radio is experienced. Credit: NASA SDO
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NASA SDO - Lunar Transit, February 21, 2012
Today we were treated to a very special sight; the Moon came in between the SDO satellite and the Sun. For 1 hour and 41 minutes team SDO observed the Lunar Transit. This event only happens a few times a year but gives the SDO Team an opportunity to better understand the AIA instrument on SDO and give it a fine tune. This video shows today's Lunar Eclipse in a variety of wavelengths the AIA instrument observes. Each wavelength shows us a different temperature and layer of the Sun, allowing us to study the Sun and its activities. Credit: NASA SDO
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NASA SDO - Large Sunspot AR1339, November 1 - 8, 2011
The black and white images show the magnetic field - the field is pointing toward us where it is white. The leading spots all have an intense negative polarity and the following spots are mostly positive. The two polarities are pretty well separated and fairly stable, which is why this region hasn't produced even more dramatic activity. The biggest explosions happen when complex magnetic regions annihilate each other. The glittering moving features around the spots follow the crests of magnetic waves. Not much new flux is emerging into this mature region, but there is a lot going on in the vicinity - and just about everywhere else too if you look carefully. The surrounding filamentary structures are weaker field regions that appear bright in intensity. The movie with the granular yellow background shows the Sun's surface brightness. Sunspot group 11339 is already large when it rotates around to the front side of the Sun. The umbra is the darker, cooler part where the magnetic field is very strong and vertical. The surrounding orange penumbra appears very dynamic because waves in the weaker horizontal magnetic field make it look like material is flowing out of the spot. Watch how the darkest regions develop in time. The largest spot is more than five times the size of our Earth. What you cannot tell from these pictures is which direction the magnetic field is pointing. Credit: NASA SDO
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The video from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager onboard SDO shows the Active Region 1393 from January 6 through January 8 and demonstrates how sunspots can quickly change shape and size. Sunspots are planet-sized magnets created by the Sun's inner magnetic dynamo. Like all magnets in the Universe, sunspots have north (N) and south (S) magnetic poles Sunspots, temporary disturbances in the Sun's photosphere, are the most visible advertisement of the solar magnetic field. They appear dark because temperatures are considerably lower than in surrounding areas. Sunspots occur where the magnetic field lines emerge from the inside of the Sun to form expanding loops above its surface. Sunspots usually show up as small forms that are irregularly shaped, and grow within days or weeks to their full size. While they can last weeks or months, they do eventually disappear, often by breaking into smaller and smaller sunspots. Credit: NASA SDO
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NASA SDO - Traveling Sunspots (Feb 7 - 20, 2011)
A beautiful video showing a full side to side passing of an active region and the movement of sunspots as seen by the HMI instrument. The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager extends the capabilities of the SOHO/MDI instrument with continual full-disk coverage at higher spatial resolution and new vector magnetogram capabilities. Credit: NASA SDO
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Over the past 24 hours we have seen some beautiful solar events. None of them have a direct impact on Earth, but they are astonishing to watch. It just shows how an active Star our Sun really is. Far from boring. On December 8, 2011 a twisting prominence eruption occurred on the lower eastern limb. The view through the AIA 304 angstrom filter shows us this beautiful eruption. In the early hours of December 9, 2011 SDO observed a little bit of a different eclipse. An erupting cloud of plasma was eclipsed by a dark magnetic filament. The eruption is still on the far side of the Sun, behind the eastern limb and is slowly moving forward and over the limb sometime next week. In front you can observe the filament of relatively cool dark material floating across the Sun's surface in the foreground. That filament partially blocks the view of the hot plasma eruption behind it. Credit: NASA SDO
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NASA SDO - Filament Snap, November 14, 2011
And within just a few hours the very massive filament (see post from earlier today) is approx. 1/3 shorter. This movie shows the developments from 13:00 to 16:00 UT on November 14, 2011. A solar prominence (also known as a filament when viewed against the solar disk) is a large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface. Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun's hot outer atmosphere, called the corona. A prominence forms over timescales of about a day, and stable prominences may persist in the corona for several months, looping hundreds of thousands of miles into space. Scientists are still researching how and why prominences are formed. The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas comprised of electrically charged hydrogen and helium. The prominence plasma flows along a tangled and twisted structure of magnetic fields generated by the sun's internal dynamo. An erupting prominence occurs when such a structure becomes unstable and bursts outward, releasing the plasma. Credit: NASA SDO
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Three energized active regions that were lined up latitudinally (along a North-South line) rotated into profile view at the Sun's edge and put on a good solar show (Oct. 21-23, 2011). They were observed in extreme ultraviolet light. The magnetic forces of the active regions were feverishly connecting and reconnecting the entire time. Towards the end of the clip, the middle region spurted off a burst of plasma and then the upper one erupted with a flare, followed by cascades of bright loops reorganizing themselves above it. SDO's high resolution images and fast cadence of images let us see a level of detail never before possible. Credit: NASA SDO
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NASA SDO - Spectacular Prominence Eruption, June 7, 2011
The Sun unleashed an M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare with a substantial coronal mass ejection (CME) on June 7 that is visually spectacular. The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface. SDO observed the flare's peak at 1:41 AM EST. SDO recorded these images in extreme ultraviolet light and they show a very large explosion of cool gas. It is somewhat unique because at many places in the eruption there seems to be even cooler material -- at temperatures less than 80,000K. When viewed in SOHO's coronagraphs, the event shows bright plasma and high-energy particles roaring from the Sun. This Earth-directed CME is moving at 1400 km/s according to NASA models. Due to its angle, however, effects on Earth should be fairly small. Nevertheless, it may generate space weather effects here on Earth in a few days. Credit: NASA SDO
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NASA SDO - Prominence & Flare, March 23, 2012
Within a very short time a beautiful prominence erupted on the upper western limb and a M1-class solar flare happened on the lower eastern limb. Enjoy this beautiful view through various wavelengths of the AIA instrument on board NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA SDO
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NASA SDO - Lovejoy's Journey around the Sun
Comet Lovejoy traveled behind the Sun and reemerged as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA SDO
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NASA SDO - M8.7-Class Solar Flare from January 23, 2012
The Chinese New Year certainly started with a bang this morning. At approx. 04:00 UT a strong and long duration M8.7-class solar flare exploded from Active Region 1402. NASA SDO captured this event and thanks to ESA/NASA SOHO and NASA STEREO Behind spacecrafts, we have also learned of a very quick moving Coronal Mass Ejection. The CME is traveling at approx. 2,200 km per second and the Goddard Space Weather Lab predicts the arrival of this CME on earth to be January 24, 2012 at approx. 14:18 UT (+/- 7 hours). It also shows that Mars will get hit too, several hours after Earth. These kinds of events can cause problems for spacecrafts in geosynchronous, polar and other orbits passing could be affected by the cloud's arrival. In addition, strong geomagnetic storms are possible, so high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for Aurorae. Credit: NASA SDO
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NASA SDO - Returning Sunspot (AR1429)
The active region (AR 1429), the source of many strong flares and geomagnetic storms in the beginning of March 2012, has completed its journey around the Sun and is peaking over the Eastern limb of the Sun. But it is not nearly the behemoth it was four weeks ago. The view through the HMI telescope shows the movement and development of this sunspot in early March and shows how this region is returning the end of March. The AIA 171 angstrom view shows the coronal loops, arcs extending off the Sun where plasma moves along magnetic field lines. This video also includes a view of early and late March 2012 activities. As the saying goes - "A trip around the Sun can make you decay...".
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NASA SDO - Earth Eclipse, March 13, 2012
Twice a year NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory sees our own Earth move in between its telescopes and the Sun and for about three weeks the Earth passes between SDO and the Sun at about midnight Boulder time. The length of the occultation will vary from short to almost 80 minutes. Today's eclipse started at at 06:21 UT time and lasted for 1 hour and 19 minutes. Here is a view of Earth's move between SDO and the Sun in a variety of wavelengths. un in a variety of wavelengths. Credit: NASA SDO
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NASA SDO - M9-class Solar Flare, July 30, 2011
In the early hours of July 30, 2011 a fairly strong, but brief, M9-class solar flare occurred on Active Region 1261. Because it was brief it appears not to have hurled a large coronal mass ejection (CME) outwards. Additional analysis are underway. Credit: NASA SDO
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NASA SDO - 3D Sun (HD Version - 3D Glasses Needed)
NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) - designed to understand the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth. SDO is helping us understanding the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously. SDO's goal is to understand, driving towards a predictive capability, the solar variations that influence life on Earth and humanity's technological systems by determining. Put on your 3D glasses and enjoy our active Sun in white light fading into EUV and back and froth a couple of times. Credit: NASA SDO
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The Lovely Loops A close-up view of the Sun's edge shows vast loop structures made of superheated plasma, just one of which is the size of several Earths. These loops can have a wide range of temperatures, many reaching several million degrees Kelvin. The upper one of a pair of new, solar active regions that just rotated into view offered a beautiful profile view of those cascading loops spiraling above it (Jan. 15-16, 2012) following a solar flare eruption. With its ability to capture the Sun in amazing detail, SDO observed it all in extreme ultraviolet light. This particular video clip used an image every minutes to present the motion. Credit: NASA SDO
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