First Flare movie for the RHESSI Instrument (Speed 105x Normal)

  • Released Wednesday, March 20, 2002
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An animation of an M-class flare viewed by the RHESSI instrument on February 20, 2002. On tape, this version plays at the maximum speed of one frame corresponding to 3.5 seconds of data collection time. The flare was located at -17.8 degrees South, 9.8 degrees West (heliographic coordinates) in NOAA active region number 9830.

Zoom in on the location of the RHESSI flare.

Full Sun at 195 angstroms from SOHO-EIT.

Full Sun at 195 angstroms from SOHO-EIT.

First x-ray flash visible to RHESSI. The color scale runs from red (low intensity) thru green to blue (highest intensity).

First x-ray flash visible to RHESSI. The color scale runs from red (low intensity) thru green to blue (highest intensity).

First flare location fades as second flash is on the rise.

First flare location fades as second flash is on the rise.

X-rays from the second portion of this flare event.

X-rays from the second portion of this flare event.

The event in Hydrogen-alpha from Big Bear Solar Observatory. Early stage of gas ejection.

The event in Hydrogen-alpha from Big Bear Solar Observatory. Early stage of gas ejection.

The event in Hydrogen-alpha from Big Bear Solar Observatory. Later stage of gas ejection.

The event in Hydrogen-alpha from Big Bear Solar Observatory. Later stage of gas ejection.

Video slate image reads "HESSI's first M-class X-ray flare. February 20, 2002. Uniform speed version".

Video slate image reads "HESSI's first M-class X-ray flare. February 20, 2002. Uniform speed version".

For More Information

See http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020320hessixray.html

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Wednesday, March 20, 2002.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:57 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

  • [RHESSI: X-ray Imaging Spectrometer]

    ID: 101
    Sensor: X-ray Imaging Spectrometer

    The RHESSI instrument is an imaging spectrometer observing the Sun at X-ray to gamma-rays (photon energies of 3 keV to 17 MeV) at time resolutions of a few seconds. (eV stands for "electron volt" and is a unit of energy. Note that photons of visible light have energies of 2-3 eV. 1 keV is a thousand electron volts and 1 MeV is a million electron volts.

    This dataset can be found at: http://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/hessi/

    See all pages that use this dataset

  • H-alpha [Big Bear Solar Observatory: H-alpha Telescope]

    ID: 265
    Type: Observed Data Sensor: H-alpha Telescope

    Solar imagery in Hydrogen-alpha spectral line

    This dataset can be found at: http://www.bbso.njit.edu

    See all pages that use this dataset

  • SOHO/EIT 195 (195 Filter) [SOHO: Extreme-UV Imaging Telescope (EIT)]

    ID: 477
    Sensor: Extreme-UV Imaging Telescope (EIT)

    This dataset can be found at: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov

    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.