NASA's Many Views of a Massive CME

  • Released Wednesday, September 24, 2014
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On July 23, 2012, a massive cloud of solar material erupted off the sun's right side, zooming out into space. It soon passed one of NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, spacecraft, which clocked the CME as traveling between 1,800 and 2,200 miles per second as it left the sun. This was the fastest CME ever observed by STEREO.

Two other observatories – NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and the joint European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory — witnessed the eruption as well. The July 2012 CME didn't move toward Earth, but watching an unusually strong CME like this gives scientists an opportunity to observe how these events originate and travel through space.

STEREO's unique viewpoint from the sides of the sun combined with the other two observatories watching from closer to Earth helped scientists create models of the entire July 2012 event. They learned that an earlier, smaller CME helped clear the path for the larger event, thus contributing to its unusual speed.

Such data helps advance our understanding of what causes CMEs and improves modeling of similar CMEs that could be Earth-directed.

Three NASA observatories work together to help scientists track the journey of a massive coronal mass ejection, or CME, in July 2012.

Credit: NASA/SDO/STEREO/ESA/SOHO/Wiessinger

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

For complete transcript, click here.

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory coronagraph view of the July 23, 2012 CME. Frames cover July 22-24.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory coronagraph view of the July 23, 2012 CME. Frames cover July 22-24.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO

For More Information

See http://www.nasa.gov/goddard/mapping-the-journey-of-a-giant-coronal-mass-ejection/

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. However, individual items should be credited as indicated above.

This page was originally published on Wednesday, September 24, 2014.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 12:18 AM EST.

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Tapes

This visualization originally appeared on the following tapes:
  • NASA's Heliophysics Fleet Watches the July 2012 CME (ID: 2014078)
    Thursday, September 11, 2014 at 4:00AM
    Produced by - Robert Crippen (NASA)

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