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-
Zeke the Sneak (14:11:26) :
My money goes with Pluto having a magnetic field, and that it will have a similar magnetic axis with Uranus and Neptune. 🙂
You got money to lose? Go to Las Vegas, instead. Works much more quickly.
Leif Svalgaard (14:24:30) :
Just like geomagnetic activity would be impossible withOUT solar wind plasma, as Lord Kelvin showed so long ago.
Leif Svalgaard (14:24:30) :
By contrast, Neptune was found within a few days after the prediction was delivered.
[upon checking] Actually, the very night after the prediction was received after less than an hour of searching. It took a few more days to confirm that the orbit was correct.
That telescope our Kansas farmer Clyde Tombaugh used, and his meager pay, were there because of Lowell’s lifelong passion to find Planet X. Again, he was looking for it based on discrepancies in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune–and they found it. It turned out later to be far too tiny to cause the residuals.
So back to the original point: inferring whatever you like because gravitational theory requires it (as is done with dark matter) has not always worked out so well in the past.
PS, Two more examples of trouble with gravitational theory: “Orbital dynamicists have long known that Newton’s law of gravity applied to the solar system predicts chaos in the short term…A strict application of Newtonian dynamics would render retro-calculation of planetary histories impossible.”
and, modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) has been proposed to describe galactic motions.
read more: “Newton’s Electronic Clockwork System” by Wal Thornhill
Leif Svalgaard (14:25:59) :
You got money to lose? Go to Las Vegas, instead. Works much more quickly.
I don’t need Las Vegas, I have NASA.
So you don’t think Pluto will have a magnetic field?
Correction, “Electric,” not Electronic. Thanks
FRom Time Physics….
‘…….Time is possibly an emergent concept that arises secondary to the presence of motion and forces. It is proposed here that the motion and forces are due to expansion of the universe. Slower expansion of space around large masses like earth and sun could be considered as the cause of slower time linking time to the expansion of space. Gravity can be explained on basis of tendency of matter composed of billions of particles orbiting at tremendous velocities to move from faster to slower time when placed in a time differential. This explains why gravity is always attractive. This new approach towards understanding time eliminates the infinite gravity or singularity of black holes. It also shows us that not only gravity of large masses but motion of objects also can curve space which leads to the beautiful mechanism of length contraction. It leads to a deeper under
standing of why time slows with motion and in gravity. It also provides a clear explanation of why there cannot be a twin paradox…’
Okay. I’ll drop ‘Time’ now. This still looks like what it does not what it is.
Zeke the Sneak (15:28:29) :
So back to the original point: inferring whatever you like because gravitational theory requires it (as is done with dark matter) has not always worked out so well in the past.
We are not inferring what we like. The data forces the conclusion on us. If our theory of gravitation is correct [which we think it is], then there is no choice in the matter.
A strict application of Newtonian dynamics would render retro-calculation of planetary histories impossible.”
That is not because of ‘trouble’, but because of the nature of the equations.
and, modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) has been proposed to describe galactic motions.
But does not cover all the other things, and is in any case a wishful attempt to ignore the disliked truth.
Zeke the Sneak (15:35:52) :
So you don’t think Pluto will have a magnetic field?
No, for several reasons.
johnnythelowery (17:23:30) :
None of what you quote makes any difference, nor is needed. there are no problems or paradoxes if the theory is applied correctly.
Okay. I’ll drop ‘Time’ now. This still looks like what it does not what it is.
I don’t know if there is a difference as far as existence is concerned. Something has to exist both to ‘do’ some thing or to ‘be’ something.
Leif: Pardon my musings please. I just can’t see, even conceptually, how an internal clock of a Satellite, measuring the quartz pulses internal to the satellite, would be affected by a the speeding up of time…as ‘time’ accelerates, or lessens the restraint, on the pulses of the quartz, if it isn’t a force, which has to be carried by a medium. Anyway, that is clearly my problem! 🙂
johnnythelowery (19:47:20) :
Leif: Pardon my musings please. I just can’t see, even conceptually, how an internal clock of a Satellite, measuring the quartz pulses internal to the satellite, would be affected by a the speeding up of time
One definition of time [that most physicists would accept] is that time is what is measured with a clock. so if two identical clocks can show different time when placed in different environments [e.g. a gravitational field] then their time is just different [and this is an experimental fact, if we like it or not]. Perhaps your problem is that you feel [like Newton] that there has to be a ‘master clock’ somewhere, that somehow shows the ‘real’ time. Except there is no master clock.
*******
24 04 2010
Leif Svalgaard (19:55:25) :
One definition of time [that most physicists would accept] is that time is what is measured with a clock. so if two identical clocks can show different time when placed in different environments [e.g. a gravitational field] then their time is just different [and this is an experimental fact, if we like it or not]. Perhaps your problem is that you feel [like Newton] that there has to be a ‘master clock’ somewhere, that somehow shows the ‘real’ time. Except there is no master clock.
******
Your reply brought up a thought. Gravity and/or relative velocity slow down clocks — to the point of almost stopping inside the event horizon of a black hole.
If so, couldn’t there be a “maximum possible” clock-rate somewhere in the universe where both velocity and gravity were at an absolute minimum? If so, wouldn’t that be a “master” or “reference” clock, because no other clock anywhere could run faster?
WIKI Quartz clock
‘….If the crystal is accurately shaped and positioned, it will oscillate at a desired frequency; in clocks and watches, the frequency is usually 32,768 Hz, as a crystal for this frequency is conveniently small, and as this frequency is a power of two and can easily be counted using a 15-bit binary digital counter. Once the circuit supplying power to the crystal counts that this number of oscillations have occurred, it increases the recorded time by one second…’
WIKI Time-Second
‘….With the advent of atomic clocks, it became feasible to define the second based on fundamental properties of nature. Since 1967, the second has been defined to be the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom.[1]….’
So the oscillations in the internal quartz clock inside the satellite has sped up in relation to the quartz clock oscillations on earth occurring in the earth ‘second’. So Time +/- is the by product of the effect of gravity on particles (oscillations in the quartz) but the constant ‘time’ is arbitrary and emergent. Therefore, time is what makes the particle, say, an electron, orbit a nucleus. and, what makes an electron speed up or slow down in it’s orbit of the nucleus is the speeding up and slowing down of time. Time is the force that makes the electron orbit the nucleus! The speed of time is the arbitrary calibration of particle movement measured against another. 🙂 Complete bolox?
beng (08:42:53) :
the universe where both velocity and gravity were at an absolute minimum?
Velocity with respect to what?
johnnythelowery (10:49:48) :
Time is the force that makes the electron orbit the nucleus! The speed of time is the arbitrary calibration of particle movement measured against another. 🙂 Complete bolox?
I would say so, but many people believe much nonsense, so you are in good [or at least crowded] company.
Leif: Thanks for the input and patience. I’m going to go away and think about this and what you’ve said. BTW-my 10 year old son came home from school, saw your name, and asked me if you were a Viking!?
A. E. “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
johnnythelowery (12:46:14) :
asked me if you were a Viking!?
Describes my attitude: http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/hagar/about.htm
Ha! Love it. I’ll show him.
vukcevic (13:09:27) :
Zeke the Sneak (11:41:24)
Hi Zeke
Talking about the outer planets, there is also the Uranus’ magnetic anomaly.
Despite orientation of its rotation axes, Uranus’ magnetic field is roughly perpendicular to the celestial equator as is for the rest of the (magnetic) planets.
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/LFC14.htm
One might speculate that this odd phenomenon points to some kind of as yet unknown magnetic linkage between the magnetic bodies of the solar system.
~
Ah yes magnetic anomalies, southern hemis are in right now I believe.
Checked out the pluto images yet?
http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2010/04/15/hs-2010-06-a-web_print_strip558.jpg
NASA – The Mysterious Molasses Markings of Pluto
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/14apr_molasses/
Could we be seeing indicators of internal cylinders? at work here on Pluto? Southern hemi cooler and less brighter?
Leif Svalgaard (18:42:12) :
Zeke the Sneak (15:35:52) :
So you don’t think Pluto will have a magnetic field?
No, for several reasons.
~
eh? Several reasons?
SDO, all cool, except the RGB like Rob mentioned. Thought they had ya Rob, but looks like they need to work on it a bit yet.
Two weeks later and the “corrupt” drive is readable. We will keep working on this. Why..
“”” Leif Svalgaard (18:42:12) :
…….
Okay. I’ll drop ‘Time’ now. This still looks like what it does not what it is.
I don’t know if there is a difference as far as existence is concerned. Something has to exist both to ‘do’ some thing or to ‘be’ something. “””
Leif I would argue the opposite. Something has to do something, or be something, in order to exist. I would go further and postulate that something has to do at least two different things in order to exist.
If I observe some previously unobserved or at least un-noticed phenomenon; that happens more than once; so I believe I am not seeing Scottish mist; I could announce that I have just discovered a “Thingamebob” which is a new fundamental particle say.
Ok so far so good; but I don’t think I can justify calling a subsequent observance of that new phenomenon, as proof that Thingamebobs exist. Proof of its existence must be by detection of some second property of Thingamebobs; otherwise I am just making a circular argument.
Well that’s the way I feel about it. After all, neutrinos do have more than one observable property don’t they ?
Well that much I do know; one of the exciting things about research in the Radio-Physics Department at the UofA, was the measurment of electric fields under storm clouds.
So every time a nice thunderstorm was promised, we would all take off down to the harbor to some remote pier, where we could launch somebody’s new Masters Thesis remote reporting electronic contraption; usually constructed out of surplus radiosonde beacon electronic boxes, and launched under an ordinary equally surplus weather balloon.
Now you have to remember that we were too poor to be able to afford Helium down there on the other side of the Pizza, so we had to fill those ballons with ordinary Hydrogen.
So we were all playing “dare you to hit me” with Thor, hanging onto that balloon and its payload for long enough to get it inflated and launched into the menacing overhead.. And it also helped to be in close proximity to sea water to ensure a really good ground when the thunderclap we never would hear happened overhead.
Somehow, we did survive. So yes I am familiar with the electric fields under clouds.
George E. Smith (16:53:38) :
Leif I would argue the opposite. Something has to do something, or be something, in order to exist.
‘be’ and ‘exist’ is circular, and if something doesn’t exist [or ‘is’ not there] then it can’t do something.
George E. Smith (17:14:21) :
So yes I am familiar with the electric fields under clouds.
And the point was that they are much stronger than electric fields on the sun, because the air is basically an insulator and a plasma is not. Once you create a plasma [lightning] the electric field shorts out.
My goal as a retiree (10 years away): Not to have to do one damned thing. Does that mean I will not exist? If it means no more phone calls, or worse, having to make them, I am all for the phrase, “To be or not to be, that is the question”.
Pamela Gray (18:35:01) :
My goal as a retiree (10 years away): Not to have to do one damned thing.
Big difference between having to do something and wanting to do something.
Pam: You’ll have to pay taxes so yes you’ll still exist.
Let’s do time another time!