January 31, 2013 CME and Prominence Eruption
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- Visualizations by:
- Tom Bridgman
- View full credits
On Jan. 31, 2013 at 2:09am EST, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME. Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and ESA/NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 575 miles per second, which is a fairly typical speed for CMEs. Historically, CMEs at this speed are mild.
Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME is a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and reach Earth one to three days later.
Earth-directed CMEs can cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when they connect with the outside of the Earth's magnetic envelope, the magnetosphere, for an extended period of time. In the past, CME's such as this have caused auroras near the poles but didn't disrupt electrical systems on Earth or interfere with GPS or satellite-based communications systems.

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured these image of a coronal mass ejection (CME), erupting on the left side of the sun early in the morning of Jan 31, 2013, as it was moving away from the sun into space. These images from SOHO are called coronagraphs, in which the bright light of the sun is blocked in order to make the dimmer structures in the sun's atmosphere, or corona, visible.
Credit: ESA&NASA/SOHO

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured these image of a coronal mass ejection (CME), erupting on the left side of the sun early in the morning of Jan 31, 2013, as it was moving away from the sun into space. These images from SOHO are called coronagraphs, in which the bright light of the sun is blocked in order to make the dimmer structures in the sun's atmosphere, or corona, visible. No Labels.
Credit: ESA&NASA/SOHO
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Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO
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Animator
- Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
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Writer
- Karen Fox (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
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Video editor
- Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Producer
- Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Tapes
This visualization originally appeared on the following tapes:-
2013 Heliophysics Breaking News
(ID: 2013021)
Tuesday, December 31, 2013 at 5:00AM
Produced by - Robert Crippen
Datasets used in this visualization
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SOHO
ID: 93SOHO monitors the Sun with a variety of instruments. Among the SOHO instruments is the Michelson Doppler Interferometer (MDI) and the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT).
This dataset can be found at: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov
See all pages that use this dataset -
SOHO
ID: 95This dataset can be found at: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov
See all pages that use this dataset -
SDO
ID: 168This dataset can be found at: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
See all pages that use this dataset -
SDO AIA 304 (304 Filter)
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.