Images and movies are now available from NASA. I’ve posted them here as promised. The movies available at links below are stunning, Enjoy. Press release also follows. – Anthony
Images from the SDO Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA)
The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) views the lower atmosphere of the Sun in ultraviolet wavelengths where we can see hot plasma moving along magnetic field lines.
CME Event of April 8, 2010 Full Disk (multiband)
CME Event of April 8, 2010 (multband)
Zoom-In on Launching Filament (multi-band)
Close-Up of Launching Filament (Bands 304)
Full-Disk View of Launching Filament (Bands 304)
Zoom-in of Launching Filament (Bands 304)
Images from the SDO Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI)
The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) images the Sun in a set of narrow wavelengths which enables us to study motions at the solar surface and collect magnetic field information.
Continuum Full Disk View – March 29, 2010
Continuum Sunspot Closeup – March 29, 2010
Continuum Sunspot Zoom-in – March 29, 2010
Continuum Full Disk View – April 7, 2010
Magnetogram Full Disk View – March 29, 2010
Magnetogram Sunspot Close-Up – March 29, 2010
Magnetogram Sunspot Zoom-In – March 29, 2010
Magnetogram Full Disk View – April 7, 2010
Dopplergram Sunspot Close-Up – March 29, 2010
Here’s the press release:
Dwayne C. Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
Susan Hendrix
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-7745
susan.m.hendrix@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 10-091
NASA’S NEW EYE ON THE SUN DELIVERS STUNNING FIRST IMAGES
WASHINGTON – NASA’s recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is returning early images that confirm an unprecedented new capability for scientists to better understand our sun’s dynamic processes. These solar activities affect everything on Earth.
Some of the images from the spacecraft show never-before-seen detail of material streaming outward and away from sunspots. Others show extreme close-ups of activity on the sun’s surface. The spacecraft also has made the first high-resolution measurements of solar flares in a broad range of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths.
“These initial images show a dynamic sun that I had never seen in more than 40 years of solar research,” said Richard Fisher, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “SDO will change our understanding of the sun and its processes, which affect our lives and society. This mission will have a huge impact on science, similar to the impact of the Hubble Space Telescope on modern astrophysics.”
Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, SDO is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the sun. During its five-year mission, it will examine the sun’s magnetic field and also provide a better understanding of the role the sun plays in Earth’s atmospheric chemistry and climate. Since launch, engineers have been conducting testing and verification of the spacecraft’s components. Now fully operational, SDO will provide images with clarity 10 times better than high-definition television and will return more comprehensive science data faster than any other solar observing spacecraft.
SDO will determine how the sun’s magnetic field is generated, structured and converted into violent solar events such as turbulent solar wind, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These immense clouds of material, when directed toward Earth, can cause large magnetic storms in our planet’s magnetosphere and upper atmosphere. SDO will provide critical data that will improve the ability to predict these space weather events.
Space weather has been recognized as a cause of technological problems since the invention of the telegraph in the 19th century. These events produce disturbances in electromagnetic fields on Earth that can induce extreme currents in wires, disrupting power lines and causing widespread blackouts. These solar storms can interfere with communications between ground controllers, satellites and airplane pilots flying near Earth’s poles. Radio noise from the storm also can disrupt cell phone service.
SDO will send 1.5 terabytes of data back to Earth each day, which is equivalent to a daily download of half a million songs onto an MP3 player. The observatory carries three state-of the-art instruments for conducting solar research.
The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager maps solar magnetic fields and looks beneath the sun’s opaque surface. The experiment will decipher the physics of the sun’s activity, taking pictures in several very narrow bands of visible light. Scientists will be able to make ultrasound images of the sun and study active regions in a way similar to watching sand shift in a desert dune. The instrument’s principal investigator is Phil Scherrer of Stanford University. HMI was built by a collaboration of Stanford University and the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory.
The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly is a group of four telescopes designed to photograph the sun’s surface and atmosphere. The instrument covers 10 different wavelength bands, or colors, selected to reveal key aspects of solar activity. These types of images will show details never seen before by scientists. The principal investigator is Alan Title of the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif., which built the instrument.
The Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment measures fluctuations in the sun’s radiant emissions. These emissions have a direct and powerful effect on Earth’s upper atmosphere — heating it, puffing it up, and breaking apart atoms and molecules. Researchers don’t know how fast the sun can vary at many of these wavelengths, so they expect to make discoveries about flare events. The principal investigator is Tom Woods of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. LASP built the instrument.
“These amazing images, which show our dynamic sun in a new level of detail, are only the beginning of SDO’s contribution to our understanding of the sun,” said SDO project scientist Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
SDO is the first mission of NASA’s Living with a Star Program, or LWS, and the crown jewel in a fleet of NASA missions that study our sun and space environment. The goal of LWS is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to address those aspects of the connected sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. Goddard built, operates and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
To view the images and learn more about the SDO mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/sdo
-end-
======================
h/t to Dr. Leif Svalgaard
Dwayne C. Brown
Headquarters, Washington April 21, 2010
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
Susan Hendrix
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-7745
susan.m.hendrix@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 10-091
NASA’S NEW EYE ON THE SUN DELIVERS STUNNING FIRST IMAGES
WASHINGTON – NASA’s recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is returning early images that confirm an unprecedented new capability for scientists to better understand our sun’s dynamic processes. These solar activities affect everything on Earth.
Some of the images from the spacecraft show never-before-seen detail of material streaming outward and away from sunspots. Others show extreme close-ups of activity on the sun’s surface. The spacecraft also has made the first high-resolution measurements of solar flares in a broad range of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths.
“These initial images show a dynamic sun that I had never seen in more than 40 years of solar research,” said Richard Fisher, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “SDO will change our understanding of the sun and its processes, which affect our lives and society. This mission will have a huge impact on science, similar to the impact of the Hubble Space Telescope on modern astrophysics.”
Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, SDO is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the sun. During its five-year mission, it will examine the sun’s magnetic field and also provide a better understanding of the role the sun plays in Earth’s atmospheric chemistry and climate. Since launch, engineers have been conducting testing and verification of the spacecraft’s components. Now fully operational, SDO will provide images with clarity 10 times better than high-definition television and will return more comprehensive science data faster than any other solar observing spacecraft.
SDO will determine how the sun’s magnetic field is generated, structured and converted into violent solar events such as turbulent solar wind, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These immense clouds of material, when directed toward Earth, can cause large magnetic storms in our planet’s magnetosphere and upper atmosphere. SDO will provide critical data that will improve the ability to predict these space weather events.
Space weather has been recognized as a cause of technological problems since the invention of the telegraph in the 19th century. These events produce disturbances in electromagnetic fields on Earth that can induce extreme currents in wires, disrupting power lines and causing widespread blackouts. These solar storms can interfere with communications between ground controllers, satellites and airplane pilots flying near Earth’s poles. Radio noise from the storm also can disrupt cell phone service.
SDO will send 1.5 terabytes of data back to Earth each day, which is equivalent to a daily download of half a million songs onto an MP3 player. The observatory carries three state-of the-art instruments for conducting solar research.
The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager maps solar magnetic fields and looks beneath the sun’s opaque surface. The experiment will decipher the physics of the sun’s activity, taking pictures in several very narrow bands of visible light. Scientists will be able to make ultrasound images of the sun and study active regions in a way similar to watching sand shift in a desert dune. The instrument’s principal investigator is Phil Scherrer of Stanford University. HMI was built by a collaboration of Stanford University and the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory.
The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly is a group of four telescopes designed to photograph the sun’s surface and atmosphere. The instrument covers 10 different wavelength bands, or colors, selected to reveal key aspects of solar activity. These types of images will show details never seen before by scientists. The principal investigator is Alan Title of the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif., which built the instrument.
The Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment measures fluctuations in the sun’s radiant emissions. These emissions have a direct and powerful effect on Earth’s upper atmosphere — heating it, puffing it up, and breaking apart atoms and molecules. Researchers don’t know how fast the sun can vary at many of these wavelengths, so they expect to make discoveries about flare events. The principal investigator is Tom Woods of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. LASP built the instrument.
“These amazing images, which show our dynamic sun in a new level of detail, are only the beginning of SDO’s contribution to our understanding of the sun,” said SDO project scientist Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
SDO is the first mission of NASA’s Living with a Star Program, or LWS, and the crown jewel in a fleet of NASA missions that study our sun and space environment. The goal of LWS is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to address those aspects of the connected sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. Goddard built, operates and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
To view the images and learn more about the SDO mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/sdo
-end-
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Look at all that lava!
How come theres no ash like in Iceland? Geuss its more like a Hawaian Fire Mountain, pity about those black spots everywhere, spoilin’ the photo.
Can’t they shop those out?
I don’t get it,… looks like the MET got it wrong again.
Leif Svalgaard (18:27:24) :
George E. Smith (15:13:29) :
Do you know off-hand what sort of electric field strengths are to be found in these parts of the sun; just for order of magnitude reference ?
Now, it doesn’t make sense to talk about an electric field without specifying a reference frame. If you move with velocity v a conductor in a magnetic field B, then the electric field in the frame of the conductor will be of order E = v x B. With v = 100 m/s and B = 0.2 Tesla, E becomes of order 20 Volt/meter. If the conductor is very large [millions of meters], voltage across the conductor will be in the millions of Volt. Such a large voltage cannot be sustained in a reasonably good conductor as a current will flow to short out the field, requiring a continuous movement to maintain the voltage. The current can heat the plasma explosively with the result that the organized movement is disrupted [CME leaving the sun] and the current dissipated. The energy for all this fireworks comes from the movement of the plasma that twists and amplifies the magnetic field storing energy in the magnetic field, increasing the electric field and the current until everything blows up and the pent up energy is expended. This quickly becomes very complicated as the currents also have magnetic fields that can act back on the moving plasma.
Sometimes, I just like to appreciate the light and warmth the sun gives us. I guess I’ll leave it to guys like you to figure out the “how”. But it is a marvelous machine!!!!, full of vibrant colors and activity that all can enjoy on various levels!!!
Once again I will have to say, there is no diamond that can outshine the Sun and I would rather have a piece of the Sun on my finger than a shiny Earth bound rock.
just a heads up,
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/20/tarter.TED.SETI/index.html
SETI To Release Data To the Public
“Mountain View, California (CNN) — At this moment we have reached a major turning point for both science and the public at large. The SETI Institute is now offering the world the first taste of raw SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) data collected by the Allen Telescope Array in California. With this we move closer to fulfilling the institute’s mission, which is to search for our beginnings and our place among the stars
Throughout the institute’s 25-year history (we are a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to scientific research, education and public outreach), we have analyzed these raw data with custom algorithms operating on semi-custom hardware. Now we are transitioning to readily available hardware and servers because technology has caught up to us — hooray! “
I was just looking at the SOHO photos and was thinking about in 2006, when NASA scientists said we would be at Peak sunspots in 2010… If this is peak… WTF is the next minimum going to be like… ok all joking aside, what is the longest cycle from peak to peak? ie the last cycle Peaked in 2000, with 2013 being 13 years if it takes longer than 2013 for this cycle to peak. What was the longest period between peaks?
Ale Gorney (19:28:48) :
just a heads up,
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/20/tarter.TED.SETI/index.html
SETI To Release Data To the Public
—————————-
We believe SETI when they say there is nothing out there 🙂
SETI To Release Data To the Public
“With this we move closer to fulfilling the institute’s mission, which is to search for our beginnings and our place among the stars”
Our beginnings…
…among the stars?
It’s up and about for the first meteorite shower! Odds it makes it to the end of the year?
SETI: Keep the data. We believe you. There is nothing out there! No need for McIntyre to foraging around in your shorts!
SETI To Release Data To the Public>>
These SETI folks have NOT been keeping up with the state of science. They clearly have been so focused on their work that they didn’t pay attention to how things are done now. Could someone pass them this brief summary?
1. Decide what the answer is.
2. Discard any data that does not fit the answer. Since the answer has already been decided, any data that doesn’t fit is obviously wrong.
3. If, after the obviously wrong data has all been discarded, there are still some gaps in the answer, you don’t have to get it from SETI data. There’s no trick to this. You just get data from a whole pile of other places and stick it in. Tree rings, philosophy papers, there’s data all over the place you can use. You can even make some up, but you have to have a computer program that randomizes it for you. Just keep on sticking various pieces in until you get what you know is the right answer.
4. Make photo copies of all your work and distribute it to your friends. Each one must cut up their copy and rearrange it in an original pattern, but with the same final answer. Mark each other’s work. Everyone gets an A.
I did this myself and confirmed that the SDO thing is STUNNING. I mean STUNNING! Had to mix some tree rings in, couple of clams, got a ton of data out of a UHI study, but I have it working now. All I gotta do is click and the photos come right up. Can’t reproduce it though, lost the data, so I just keep repeating STUNNING! because I already know that’s the answer.
May I suggest you not be too picky. As I’m sure you must know, many words have more than one meaning and enormity is no exception: see defs. #3,4
From the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary:
“Main Entry: enor·mi·ty
Pronunciation: \i-ˈnȯr-mə-tē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural enor·mi·ties
Date: 15th century
1 : an outrageous, improper, vicious, or immoral act [the enormities of state power — Susan Sontag] [other enormities too juvenile to mention — Richard Freedman]
2 : the quality or state of being immoderate, monstrous, or outrageous; especially : great wickedness [the enormity of the crimes committed during the Third Reich — G. A. Craig]
3 : the quality or state of being huge : immensity [the inconceivable enormity of the universe]
4 : a quality of momentous importance or impact [the enormity of the decision]
Leif Svalgaard (13:48:41) :
There’ll be new images every few seconds, so the process will have to be automated. Or perhaps just picking one a day.
Thier image process is resulting in them looking pale.
Whatever is done is automated anyway, so it boils down to how they go about visualizing the individual images. Needs artistic help.
Compare them to the STEREO images I have on your site.
See what I mean?
Impressive images and animations.
Appreciate if after verification that you could correct this statement from your opening paragraph
“where we can see hot plasma moving along magnetic field lines. ”
As you know magnetic field lines do not exist just as isobars do not exist. They are constructs to enable visualisation of magnetic field strength and direction. Dont be sloppy in the same fashion as warmers.
The statement also begs the question as to how exactly plasma would move along a level magnetic field rather than from weaker to stronger?
GL
Graeme W (17:56:50) :
“I just read in a newspaper report concerning the SDO:
Dean Pesnell, the chief scientist, said it has already disproved at least one theory, but he didn’t give any details.
Does anyone know what theory that might have been?”
Read somewhere that it was in connection with how solar flares form and evolve, but not seen anything explaining which theory.
Deja Vu?
This is absolutely awsome, big respect for the Sun, as always & fantastic pictures. Much in this post tells of what we already know. I’m not knocking, honestly!
However, I really do think NASA should go to or employ a different PR company/trainer, or just sack the existing one! “SDO will”, “scientists will”, “the experiment will”…….etc. Should they not show a little more respect & say “hope to”, “should be able to”, “the aim is to”, “the intention it to”, or just “the experiment is designed to”…..etc? The word “will” in this context suggests a definite outcome in a scientific experiment. How are they so convinced by that? I’m all for a positive mental attitude, but this is taking things too far! How many times has an experiment failed to deliver the “will” so forcefully implied by the hype? I fully appreciate this is US tax-dollars here & this is just a press release, but come on. I predict that what we will find out is that we have learned quite a bit more about the Sun & how it “might” be working, & indeed “may” affect our climate, but expectation seems to be very high in this one. To use the current buzzword terminology, unless a “paradigm shift” occurs at NASA (& I for one am sick & tired of hearing the term), this won’t affect the fact that we know very little about element “A”, but know for certain that it has very little effect upon element “B”, & that regardless of whatever that effect is”, it is completely overpowered by element “C”! Now that’s real PNS!
OT I had never heard of the expression “paradigm shift” until this century! Is it just little ol me?
Wow! I’m officially gobsmacked! This is NASA doing what it does best. They’re on a roll so maybe it’s time they ditched the gremlin plagueing GISS?
Sorry, in light of Dame Helen Mirren’s (corrrr!) Hollywood outburst I should have advised that I wrote my comment wearing my dark Nehru suit sat down whilst stroking a white fluffy cat uttering the words in finest clipped English, “Now you must die, Mr Bond!”
Grey Lensman (23:35:39) :
As you know magnetic field lines do not exist just as isobars do not exist. They are constructs to enable visualisation of magnetic field strength and direction. Dont be sloppy in the same fashion as warmers.
In a magnetized plasma, field lines acquire ‘existence’ by the virtue of matter being bound to them. It is a very useful construct going far beyond just visualization. ‘Existence’ is a slippery concept. E.g. does ‘time’ exist?
The statement also begs the question as to how exactly plasma would move along a level magnetic field rather than from weaker to stronger?
Particles gyrate about field lines and will drift parallel to the field. e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiding_center
Leif Svalgaard (04:06:29) :
‘Existence’ is a slippery concept. E.g. does ‘time’ exist?
That’s a great idea for a You Tube video or TV Special.
I wouldn’t mind seeing that.
Just goes to show you that beauty is not only limited to what our eyes can see.
Leif
Any hopes at this time of being able to detect gravity wave indicators from the new internal visualization capability?
Alan the Brit (01:42:17) : OT I had never heard of the expression “paradigm shift” until this century! Is it just little ol me?
How would this site with you, Alan?
Pascvaks (05:52:49) :
Any hopes at this time of being able to detect gravity wave indicators from the new internal visualization capability?
Yes there is, http://solar-center.stanford.edu/FAQ/Qsolwaves.html . For other readers, ‘gravity waves’ are not the same as the ‘gravitational waves’ predicted by General Relativity. Gravity waves are simply waves in a fluid where the restoring force is gravity [or ‘anti-gravity’ also called buoyancy], e.g. ordinary ocean waves.
Roger Carr (06:04:43) :
This is a paradigm “shift”
http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=ah63dzac