The Active Sun from SDO: 193 Ångstroms
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- Visualizations by:
- Tom Bridgman
- View full credits
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observes the Sun with many different instruments, in many different wavelengths of light. Many of these capabilities are not possible for ground-based observatories - hence the need for a space-based observing platform.
This movie is generated for a wavelength of 193 Ångstroms (19.3 nanometers) which highlights a spectral line emitted by iron atoms that have lost 11 electrons (also known as iron-12 or Fe XII) at temperatures of 1,000,000 K as well as iron atoms that have lost 23 electrons (also known as iron-24 or FeXXIV) at temperatures of 20,000,000K. The former represents a slightly higher region of the corona and the latter represents the much hotter material of a solar flare. This wavelength also makes coronal holes (which appear as dark regions near the solar surface) more visible.
This visualization is one of a set of visualizations (others linked below) covering the same time span of 17 hours over the full wavelength range of the mission. They are setup to play synchronously on a Hyperwall, or can be run individually.
The images are sampled every 36 seconds, ⅓ of the standard time-cadence for SDO. This visualization is useful for illustrating how different solar phenomena, such as sunspots and active regions, look very different in different wavelengths of light. These differences enable scientists to study them more completely, with an eventual goal of improving Space Weather forecasting.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, the SDO Science Team, and the Virtual Solar Observatory.
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Animator
- Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
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Scientist
- Phil Chamberlin (NASA/GSFC)
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Producers
- Genna Duberstein (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
- Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
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SDO AIA 193 (193 Filter)
ID: 679This 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.
Related Pages
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ID: 3979 Visualization
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Read moreThe Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observes the Sun with many different instruments, in many different wavelengths of light. Many of these capabilities are not possible for ground-based observatories - hence the need for a space-based observing platform.This movie is generated for a wavelength of 131 Ångstroms (13.1 nanometers) which highlights a spectral line emitted by iron atoms that have lost 19 and 22 electrons (also known as iron-20 or Fe XX; and iron-23 or FeXXIII) at temperatures of 10,000,000 K. Temperatures like this represent material in a solar flare.This visualization is one of a set of visualizations (others linked below) covering the same time span of 17 hours over the full wavelength range of the mission. They are setup to play synchronously on a Hyperwall, or can be run individually.The images are sampled every 36 seconds, 1/3 of the standard time-cadence for SDO. This visualization is useful for illustrating how different solar phenomena, such as sunspots and active regions, look very different in different wavelengths of light. These differences enable scientists to study them more completely, with an eventual goal of improving Space Weather forecasting. ||
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ID: 3983 Visualization
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Read moreThe Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observes the Sun with many different instruments, in many different wavelengths of light. Many of these capabilities are not possible for ground-based observatories - hence the need for a space-based observing platform.This movie is generated for a wavelength of 304 Ångstroms (30.4 nanometers) which highlights a spectral line emitted by helium atoms that have lost 1 electron (also known as helium-2 or He II) at temperatures of 50,000 K. This light is emitted from the upper transition region and the chromosphere. Solar prominences are readily visible at this wavelength.This visualization is one of a set of visualizations (others linked below) covering the same time span of 17 hours over the full wavelength range of the mission. They are setup to play synchronously on a Hyperwall, or can be run individually.The images are sampled every 36 seconds, 1/3 of the standard time-cadence for SDO. This visualization is useful for illustrating how different solar phenomena, such as sunspots and active regions, look very different in different wavelengths of light. These differences enable scientists to study them more completely, with an eventual goal of improving Space Weather forecasting. ||
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ID: 3984 Visualization
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Read moreThe Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observes the Sun with many different instruments, in many different wavelengths of light. Many of these capabilities are not possible for ground-based observatories - hence the need for a space-based observing platform.This movie is generated for a wavelength of 335 Ångstroms (33.5 nanometers) which highlights a spectral line of iron that has lost 15 electrons (also known as iron-16 or Fe XVI) at temperatures of 2,500,000 K. These images show active regions in the corona.This visualization is one of a set of visualizations (others linked below) covering the same time span of 17 hours over the full wavelength range of the mission. They are setup to play synchronously on a Hyperwall, or can be run individually.The images are sampled every 36 seconds, 1/3 of the standard time-cadence for SDO. This visualization is useful for illustrating how different solar phenomena, such as sunspots and active regions, look very different in different wavelengths of light. These differences enable scientists to study them more completely, with an eventual goal of improving Space Weather forecasting. ||
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ID: 3985 Visualization
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Read moreThe Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observes the Sun with many different instruments, in many different wavelengths of light. Many of these capabilities are not possible for ground-based observatories - hence the need for a space-based observing platform.This movie is generated for a wavelength of 1600 Ångstroms (160.0 nanometers) which highlights a spectral line of carbon that has lost 3 electrons (also known as carbon-4 or C-IV) at temperatures of 10,000 K. C IV at these temperatures is present in what's called the transition region between the sun's surface and the lowest levels of the sun's atmosphere, the chromosphere.This visualization is one of a set of visualizations (others linked below) covering the same time span of 17 hours over the full wavelength range of the mission. They are setup to play synchronously on a Hyperwall, or can be run individually.The images are sampled every 36 seconds, 1/3 of the standard time-cadence for SDO. This visualization is useful for illustrating how different solar phenomena, such as sunspots and active regions, look very different in different wavelengths of light. These differences enable scientists to study them more completely, with an eventual goal of improving Space Weather forecasting. ||
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ID: 3987 Visualization
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ID: 3988 Visualization
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ID: 3989 Visualization
The Active Sun from SDO: HMI Magnetogram
Read moreThe Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observes the Sun with many different instruments, in many different wavelengths of light. Many of these capabilities are not possible for ground-based observatories - hence the need for a space-based observing platform.The Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI) aboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory takes a series of images every 45 seconds in a very narrow range of wavelengths in visible light of the solar photosphere. The wavelengths correspond to a region around the 6173 Ångstroms (617.3 nanometers) spectral line of neutral iron (Fe I). From this series of images, it constructs a set of images which extract other characteristics of the photosphere. For this dataset, it measures the splitting of the spectral lines to determine the intensity of the magnetic field on the solar surface. White represents north magnetic polarity and black represents south magnetic polarity.This visualization is one of a set of visualizations (others linked below) covering the same time span of 17 hours over the full wavelength range of the mission. They are setup to play synchronously on a Hyperwall, or can be run individually.The images are sampled every 36 seconds, 1/3 of the standard time-cadence for SDO. This visualization is useful for illustrating how different solar phenomena, such as sunspots and active regions, look very different in different wavelengths of light. These differences enable scientists to study them more completely, with an eventual goal of improving Space Weather forecasting. ||
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ID: 3990 Visualization
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Read moreThe Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observes the Sun with many different instruments, in many different wavelengths of light. Many of these capabilities are not possible for ground-based observatories - hence the need for a space-based observing platform.The Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI) aboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory takes a series of images every 45 seconds in a very narrow range of wavelengths in visible light of the solar photosphere. The wavelengths correspond to a region around the 6173 Ångstroms (617.3 nanometers) spectral line of neutral iron (Fe I). From this series of images, it constructs a set of images which extract other characteristics of the photosphere. For this dataset, it measures the shifting of the spectral lines to determine the velocity of gas flows on the solar surface. This spectral line shift is due to the Doppler effect (Wikipedia). Blue represents motion towards the observer. Red indicates motion away from the observer. For the images below, the color is dominated by the solar rotation, so the solar limb on the right is moving away from us (and therefore red) while the left limb is moving towards us (and therefore blue). Motions on the solar surface generate the rippling in the color and you can see evidence of surface flows around the sunspot near the left limb. This visualization is one of a set of visualizations (others linked below) covering the same time span of 17 hours over the full wavelength range of the mission. They are setup to play synchronously on a Hyperwall, or can be run individually.The images are sampled every 36 seconds, 1/3 of the standard time-cadence for SDO. This visualization is useful for illustrating how different solar phenomena, such as sunspots and active regions, look very different in different wavelengths of light. These differences enable scientists to study them more completely, with an eventual goal of improving Space Weather forecasting. ||
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Read more5x3 Layout view. This version has the imagery organized in order of increasing wavelength, from upper left to lower right for AIA. The HMI products occupy the bottom row. || SDOJewelbox_5x3.0100.jpg (2400x810) [317.7 KB] || SDOJewelbox_5x3.0100_web.png (320x108) [28.9 KB] || SDOJewelbox_5x3.0100_thm.png (80x40) [3.7 KB] || SDOJewelbox_5x3.0100_searchweb.png (320x180) [29.2 KB] || SDOJewelbox_5x3.webmhd.webm (960x540) [3.3 MB] || SDOJewelbox_5x3.mov (2400x810) [91.5 MB] || SDOJewelbox_5x3.mp4 (2400x810) [91.5 MB] || frames/2400x810_80x27_30p/ (2400x810) [128.0 KB] ||
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