NASA’s SDO Captures Stunning 4K View of April 17 Solar Flare
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- Visualizations by:
- Tom Bridgman
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- Produced by:
- Genna Duberstein
- View full credits
Complete transcript available.
Watch this video on the " target="_blank" >NASA Goddard YouTube channel.
On April 17, 2016, an active region on the sun’s right side released a mid-level solar flare, captured here by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. This solar flare caused moderate radio blackouts, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. Scientists study active regions – which are areas of intense magnetism – to better understand why they sometimes erupt with such flares. This video was captured in several wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light, a type of light that is typically invisible to our eyes, but is color-coded in SDO images for easy viewing.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Visualizer
- Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
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Writer
- Sarah Frazier (SGT)
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Editor
- Genna Duberstein (ADNET)
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Producer
- Genna Duberstein (ADNET) [Lead]
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Related pages
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ID: 12229 Produced Video
An Explosion On The Sun
Read moreA NASA spacecraft captures stunning views of a solar flare. || On April 17, 2016, the sun emitted a huge burst of radiation known as a solar flare. The flare appeared as a bright flash of light in images taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, spacecraft, which watches the sun constantly. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however—when intense enough—they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. This particular flare was of moderate strength and only caused brief radio blackouts. It came from a large dark spot on the sun, called a sunspot. These dynamic regions can grow to many times the size of planets and have complex magnetic activity that lead to solar eruptions. Watch the video for a look at the solar flare, as seen by SDO. ||
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