Taking A Slice Of Light
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- Visualizations by:
- Tom Bridgman
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- Written by:
- Karen Fox
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- Produced by:
- Genna Duberstein
- View full credits
How does energy and solar material move from the sun’s surface and through its million-degree atmosphere? That’s the question NASA’s IRIS spacecraft is helping scientists to explore. Activity on the sun, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, are partially powered by changes in a layer of the sun’s atmosphere called the chromosphere. To better understand the properties of this dynamic region, an instrument aboard the spacecraft collects images of the sun and a special kind of data called spectra. Spectra are basically measurements that show the intensity of light at specific wavelengths. Once every few seconds, IRIS obtains this data from a thin slice of the sun. The data can reveal the speed and temperature of solar material observed by the spacecraft. The findings are used in models that help scientists probe the mechanisms behind solar eruptions, which can impact the space environment around our planet. Watch the video to learn more.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Animator
- Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
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Writer
- Karen Fox (ADNET) [Lead]
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Scientists
- Adrian Daw (NASA/GSFC)
- Bart De Pontieu (Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab)
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Producer
- Genna Duberstein (ADNET) [Lead]
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Related pages
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ID: 4318 Visualization
A Slice of Light: How IRIS Observes the Sun
Read moreShort version of the IRIS visualization with windowed SJI imagery. || The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) explorer is one of the latest imaging spectrographs developed for NASA missions, this one designed for exploring the energization process in the solar chromosphere at higher resolution than previously possible.An imaging spectrograph not only takes an image of the region of interest, but also has a small slit in the imager (seen as a dark line about half-way across the image) which passes a thin ribbon of light to a spectroscope. The spectroscope spreads the light out in its component frequencies or spectrum. Monitoring of specfic spectral lines provides additional information on the velocity (and therefore temperature) of plasma in the observed region.In the visualization presented here, the IRIS slit-jaw imager (SJI) takes images with two different filters, one at 1330 angstroms (gold color table), the other at 1400 angstroms (bronze color table), and these images are displayed overlaying corresponding imagery from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) 304 angstrom filter (grayscale). The spectra, in this case a closeup view on the 1403 angstrom line from 3-times ionized silicon (designated Si IV), is presented on a semi-transparent plane perpendicular to the images, at the position of the slit in the imager. This allows us to see correlations between features in the images and spectra. For example, some of the bright spots in the image correlate to wider regions along the line suggesting higher temperatures and/or velocities of the plasma emitting the spectral line.To better examine the region, the instrument also scans the slit over the region of interest, collecting multiple spectra. This allows scientists to compare and correlate structures seen in images with speeds and temperatures of the plasma.Imaging spectrographs have been flown on other NASA missions, such as the STIS instrument on the Hubble space telescope. ||
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ID: 11897 Produced Video
A Slice of Light: How IRIS Observes the Sun
Read moreWatch this video on the NASAexplorer YouTube channel.0 || On June 27, 2013, NASA launched IRIS, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph. IRIS gives us our first detailed image of a layer of the sun’s atmosphere called the chromosphere. Boasting the highest temporal and spatial resolution to date, IRIS provides imagery and a special kind of data called spectra. In this video, we will look at IRIS data from a solar flare on March 11, 2015. ||
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