SDO Eclipses & Transits: March 2013
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) orbits the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit (see The 2012 Earth-Orbiting Heliophysics Fleet and RBSP & SDO: Newest Heliophysics Missions) which keeps the spacecraft in contact with the ground station.
This motion of the spacecraft around Earth, combined with the motion of the Moon around Earth, and the motion of Earth around the Sun creates opportunities for eclipses and transits involving these other bodies (see Lunar Transit from Solar Dynamics Observatory (2010). On rare occasions, SDO can see an eclipse and transit on the same day, as illustrated in these images collected from March 11, 2013.
These eclipses and transits are not just visually interesting, but important for mission planners as SDO receives much of the electrical power needed to function through solar panels. During these times, SDO needs to operate safely with power from onboard batteries until the time that full solar power can be restored.
Sun eclipsed by Earth from Solar Dynamics Observatory. Time 2013-03-11T06:29:07UT
Sun eclipsed by Earth from Solar Dynamics Observatory. Time 2013-03-11T06:29:19UT
Sun eclipsed by Earth from Solar Dynamics Observatory. Time 2013-03-11T06:29:31UT
Sun eclipsed by Earth from Solar Dynamics Observatory. Time 2013-03-11T06:29:43UT
Sun eclipsed by Earth from Solar Dynamics Observatory. Time 2013-03-11T06:29:55UT
The Moon transits the Sun from Solar Dynamics Observatory. Time 2013-03-11T11:59:00UT
The Moon transits the Sun from Solar Dynamics Observatory. Time 2013-03-11T11:59:12UT
The Moon transits the Sun from Solar Dynamics Observatory. Time 2013-03-11T11:59:32UT
The Moon transits the Sun from Solar Dynamics Observatory. Time 2013-03-11T11:59:52UT
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animator
- Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
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Producer
- Scott Wiessinger (USRA)
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Scientist
- None None (SDO Science Team and the Virtual Solar Observatory)
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Project support
- Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
- Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Release date
This page was originally published on Tuesday, February 11, 2014.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:51 PM EDT.
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
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AIA 304 (304 Filter) [SDO: AIA]
ID: 677This dataset can be found at: http://jsoc.stanford.edu/
See all pages that use this dataset
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.