Space Weather

  • Released Thursday, September 20, 2012
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This movie takes us on a space weather journey from the center of the sun to solar eruptions in the sun's atmosphere all the way to the effects of that activity near Earth. The view starts in the core of the sun where atoms fuse together to create light and energy. Next we travel toward the sun's surface, watching loops of magnetic fields rise up to break through the sun's atmosphere, the corona. In the corona is where we witness giant bursts of radiation and energy known as solar flares, as well as gigantic eruptions of solar material called coronal mass ejections or CMEs. The movie follows one of these CME's toward Earth where it impacts and compresses Earth's own protective magnetic bubble, the magnetosphere. As energy and particles from the sun funnel along magnetic field lines near Earth, they ultimately produce aurora at Earth's poles.

Space Weather animation

Fusion

Ignition

Core

Loops

Breaching the surface of the Sun

Loops on the Sun's surface

Flares on the Sun

Prominence on the Sun

CME on the Sun

CME leaving the Sun

CME approaching Earth

Earth and magnetosphere revealed and CME Impact

Frontside reconnection and aurora

Backside reconnection and aurora

Aurora at the South pole

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
Conceptual Image Lab, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Thursday, September 20, 2012.
This page was last updated on Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 12:18 AM EDT.

Missions

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