When the science team released its first images in April of 2010, SDO's data exceeded everyone's hopes and expectations, providing stunningly detailed views of the sun. In the three years since then, SDO's images have continued to show breathtaking pictures and movies of eruptive events on the sun. Such imagery is more than just pretty, they are the very data that scientists study. By highlighting different wavelengths of light, scientists can track how material on the sun moves. Such movement, in turn, holds clues as to what causes these giant explosions, which, when Earth-directed, can disrupt technology in space.
SDO is the first mission in a NASA's Living With a Star program, the goal of which is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to address those aspects of the sun-Earth system that directly affect our lives and society. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. built, operates, and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.
SDO: Year One here.
SDO: Year 2 here.
Information about the individual clips used in this video is here.
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Music: Mistake (Davide Rossi Re-Work - Instrumental) courtesy of Moby Gratis.
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"https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11473/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Eyes On The Sun", "description": "Not a day goes by that our sun isn't doing something fascinating. That's why in February 2010, NASA launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory with the sole purpose of spying on our massive star. Instruments aboard the spacecraft track active regions—magnetically complex and intense areas the size of planets—as they travel through the sun's atmosphere. These dynamic regions are sources of solar flares and coronal mass ejections, powerful explosions that can affect spacecraft and disrupt power grids and communications here on Earth. By observing such features, scientists can better predict solar activity. Watch the video to see a time-lapse of two active regions on the sun. || ", "release_date": "2014-04-10T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:51:01.150957-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 456324, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011400/a011473/ss-1280.jpg", "filename": "ss-1280.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Explore views of active regions on the sun taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } }, { "id": 11460, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11460/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "SDO: Year 4", "description": "The sun is always changing and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is always watching. Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, SDO keeps a 24-hour eye on the entire disk of the sun, with a prime view of the graceful dance of solar material coursing through the sun's atmosphere, the corona. SDO's fourth year in orbit was no exception: NASA is releasing a movie of some of SDO's best sightings of the year, including massive solar explosions and giant sunspot shows. SDO captures images of the sun in 10 different wavelengths, each of which helps highlight a different temperature of solar material. Different temperatures can, in turn, show specific structures on the sun such as solar flares, which are giant explosions of light and x-rays, or coronal loops, which are streams of solar material traveling up and down looping magnetic field lines. The movie shows examples of both, as well as what's called prominence eruptions, when masses of solar material leap off the sun. The movie also shows a sunspot group on the solar surface. This sunspot, a magnetically strong and complex region appearing in mid-January 2014, was one of the largest in nine years. Scientists study these images to better understand the complex electromagnetic system causing the constant movement on the sun, which can ultimately have an effect closer to Earth, too: Flares and another type of solar explosion called coronal mass ejections can sometimes disrupt technology in space. Moreover, studying our closest star is one way of learning about other stars in the galaxy. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. built, operates, and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.SDO: Year One here.SDO: Year 2 here.SDO: Year 3 here.Information about the individual clips used in this video is here. || ", "release_date": "2014-02-11T12:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:51:12.304065-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 458587, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011400/a011460/304_Year_4_blend_FINAL_16x9_1080.jpg", "filename": "304_Year_4_blend_FINAL_16x9_1080.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Massive solar flares, graceful eruptions of solar material, and an enormous sunspot make up some of the imagery captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory during its fourth year in orbit. Music: Stella Maris courtesy of Moby Gratis.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.For complete transcript, click here.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 4026, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4026/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "July 2012: Coronal Rain", "description": "A moderate solar flare was emitted by the sun on July 19, 2012. At 5:58 UTC it peaked at M7.7 on the flare scale, which makes it fairly powerful, but still much weaker than X-class flares, which are the largest. What made this particular event so noteworthy was the associated activity in the sun's corona. For the next day, hot plasma in corona cooled and condensed along the strong magnetic fields of the region that produced the flare. Magnetic fields are invisible, but the plasma is very obvious in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 304 angstroms, which highlights material at a temperature of about 50,000 Kelvin. This plasma is attracted to the magnetic fields and outlines them very clearly as it slowly falls back to the solar surface. This process of condensing plasma falling to the surface is called coronal rain.The footage in this video was collected by the Solar Dynamics Observatory's AIA instrument. SDO collected one frame every 12 seconds so each second in this video corresponds to 6 minutes of real time. The video covers 4:30 UTC on July 19th to 2:00 UTC on July 20th, a period of 21 hours and 30 minutes.Music—\"Thunderbolt\" by Lars Leonhard || ", "release_date": "2013-02-20T10:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:09:50.215978-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 469747, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004000/a004026/AIA304July2012rain_stand.HD1080i.03000.jpg", "filename": "AIA304July2012rain_stand.HD1080i.03000.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "An HD1080 movie of the coronal rain (right limb of sun) in the 304 Å wavelength.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 4033, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4033/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Monster Prominences with an Earth Eclipse (September 16, 2012)", "description": "On September 16, 2012 the sun had a beautiful prominence (see Wikipedia) that slowly twisted and dissipated over several hours. It was captured in 304 angstrom light by the Solar Dynamics Observatory's AIA instrument at 4k resolution and 12s imaging cadence. The prominence was immediately followed by one of the many eclipses that SDO experiences during September, when its orbit places the Earth between it and the sun. || ", "release_date": "2013-02-11T10:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:10:11.755299-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 468983, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004000/a004033/Sept2012eclipse.01000_web.png", "filename": "Sept2012eclipse.01000_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Full colorized 4Kx4K frames of SDO data.", "width": 320, "height": 320, "pixels": 102400 } }, { "id": 4037, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4037/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Sunspot Growth in June 2012", "description": "Groups of sunspots grow and die over a matter of days. This is a movie built from images taken by the SDO/HMI instrument over the course of 13 days during the rise of solar cycle 24. || ", "release_date": "2013-02-11T10:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:10:16.630430-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 468841, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004000/a004037/June2012sunspots_stand.HD1080i.00500.jpg", "filename": "June2012sunspots_stand.HD1080i.00500.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "An HD movie of the sunspot evolution.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 4038, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4038/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Solar Prominence Dance - December 31, 2012", "description": "On the final day of 2012, the sun presented a beautiful twisting prominence that rose high into the corona for about 3 hours. It was most visible in extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 304 angstroms. This wavelength highlights plasma with temperatures of around 50,000 Kelvin. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the event at 4k resolution and a high imaging cadence of one image every 12 seconds. || ", "release_date": "2013-02-11T10:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:10:19.680024-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 468796, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004000/a004038/Dec2012SolarBallet_stand.HD1080i.00400.jpg", "filename": "Dec2012SolarBallet_stand.HD1080i.00400.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "HD movie of the prominence.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 4039, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4039/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "SDO: September 13, 2012 Earth Eclipse", "description": "Twice a year, for three weeks near the equinox, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) moves into its eclipse season — a time when Earth blocks its view of the sun for a period of time each day. Any spacecraft observing the sun from an orbit around Earth has to contend with such eclipses, but SDO's orbit is designed to minimize them as much as possible. On September 13, during the Fall 2012 eclipse season, SDO experienced on such eclipse followed by an unusually large, dark prominence that lifted up off the surface. The prominence was visible in extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 304 angstroms. This wavelength highlights plasma with temperatures of around 50,000 Kelvin. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the event at 4k resolution and a high imaging cadence of one image every 12 seconds. || ", "release_date": "2013-02-11T10:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:10:21.510077-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 468653, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004000/a004039/Sept2012Eclipse_stand.HD1080i.00800.jpg", "filename": "Sept2012Eclipse_stand.HD1080i.00800.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "HD movie of the prominence & eclipse", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 4027, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4027/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "A July 2012 CME from SDO", "description": "On July 18, 2012, a fairly small explosion of light burst off the lower right limb of the sun. Such flares often come with an associated eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME — but this one did not. Something interesting did happen, however. Magnetic field lines in this area of the sun's atmosphere, the corona, began to twist and kink, generating the hottest solar material — a charged gas called plasma — to trace out the newly-formed slinky shape. The plasma glowed brightly in extreme ultraviolet images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and scientists were able to watch for the first time the very formation of something they had long theorized was at the heart of many eruptive events on the sun: a flux rope.Eight hours later, on July 19, the same region flared again. This time the flux rope's connection to the sun was severed, and the magnetic fields escaped into space, dragging billions of tons of solar material along for the ride — a classic CME. || ", "release_date": "2013-01-31T13:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:09:56.411063-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 469779, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004000/a004027/AIA171July2012CME_stand.HD1080i.01000.jpg", "filename": "AIA171July2012CME_stand.HD1080i.01000.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "1080 HD movie of the CME launch in the 171angstrom AIA filter.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 3999, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3999/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "The View from SDO: The August 31, 2012 Filament Eruption", "description": "The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observed a large filament eruption on August 31, 2012. This visualization was generated using high time resolution (12 seconds) data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA). Two datasets are used, the SDO/AIA 304 Ångstrom wavelength (orange color table) and the 171 Ångstrom wavelength (gold color table). These are wavelengths in the ultraviolet band of the electromagnetic spectrum. They are not visible to the human eye or to ground-based telescopes so coded colors are used in presentation.It is the source material for \"August 31, 2012 Magnificent CME\" visualization. || ", "release_date": "2012-10-26T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:09:12.832758-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 471365, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003999/AIA171AugustCME.00800_web.png", "filename": "AIA171AugustCME.00800_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "SDO movie at 171Ångstroms of the filament eruption on August 31, 2012. 1Kx1K movie & 4Kx4K frames.", "width": 320, "height": 320, "pixels": 102400 } }, { "id": 11120, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11120/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Active Region on the Sun Emits Another Flare", "description": "The sun emitted a significant solar flare on Oct. 22, 2012, peaking at 11:17 p.m. EDT. The flare came from an active region on the left side of the sun that has been numbered AR 1598, which has already been the source of a number of weaker flares. This flare was classified as an X.1-class flare. \"X-class\" denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, and on. An X-class flare of this intensity can cause degradation or blackouts of radio communications for about an hour. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. 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 can disrupt radio signals for anywhere from minutes to hours. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, which is the United States government's official source for space weather forecasts and alerts, categorized the radio blackout associated with this flare as an R3, on a scale from R1 to R5. It has since subsided. Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment, since the sun's normal 11-year activity cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum, which is expected in 2013. Humans have tracked this solar cycle continuously since it was discovered in 1843, and it is normal for there to be many flares a day during the sun's peak activity. The first X-class flare of the current solar cycle occurred on Feb. 15, 2011 and there have been 15 X-class flares total in this cycle, including this one. The largest X-class flare in this cycle was an X6.9 on Aug. 9, 2011. This is the 7th X-class flare in 2012 with the largest being an X5.4 flare on March 7. This flare did not have an associated Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), another solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and affect electronic systems in satellites and on Earth. Watch this video on YouTube. || ", "release_date": "2012-10-23T10:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:52:41.293658-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 471137, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a011120/X1_Oct_23_4-ply-No_Labels_web.jpg", "filename": "X1_Oct_23_4-ply-No_Labels_web.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "By observing the sun in a number of different wavelengths, NASA's telescopes can tease out different aspects of events on the sun. These four images of a solar flare on Oct. 22, 2012, show from the top left, and moving clockwise: light from the sun in the 171 angstrom wavelength, which shows the structure of loops of solar material in the sun's atmosphere, the corona; light in 335 angstroms, which highlights light from active regions in the corona; a magnetogram, which shows magnetically active regions on the sun; light in the 304 wavelength, which shows light from the region of the sun's atmosphere where flares originate. Credit: NASA/SDO/GSFC", "width": 320, "height": 320, "pixels": 102400 } }, { "id": 11095, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11095/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "August 31, 2012 Magnificent CME", "description": "On August 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, with a glancing blow. causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3. || ", "release_date": "2012-09-04T14:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:52:48.922764-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 472497, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011000/a011095/304-171_Overlay_Blend_Crop.jpg", "filename": "304-171_Overlay_Blend_Crop.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "An overlay blended version of the 304 and 171 angstrom wavelengths. Cropped.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 3963, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3963/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Active Region 1520 from SDO", "description": "This is source material for the SDO view of Active Region 1520 in July of 2012. || ", "release_date": "2012-07-17T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:07:31.994800-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 474541, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003963/SDO_SDO_AR1520_171.00500_web.png", "filename": "SDO_SDO_AR1520_171.00500_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This is 4Kx4K source frames and 1Kx1K movie of Active Region 1520.", "width": 320, "height": 320, "pixels": 102400 } }, { "id": 11044, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11044/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Before the Flare: AR1520 and Shimmering Coronal Loops", "description": "The sun emitted a large flare on July 12, 2012, but earlier in the week it gave a demonstration of how gorgeous solar activity can be. This movie shows the sun from late July 8 to early July 10 shortly before it unleashed an X-class flare beginning at 12:11 PM EDT on July 12 as captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). || ", "release_date": "2012-07-16T17:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:52:56.338438-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 474350, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011000/a011044/AR1520_Beauty_Still_1.jpg", "filename": "AR1520_Beauty_Still_1.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "VideoFor complete transcript, click here.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 3940, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3940/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Venus Transit 2012 from Solar Dynamics Observatory", "description": "Full disk and Tracking views of Venus Transit from Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). It includes images taken by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA).These are the basic images, collected from the telemetry. To see the insets composited, see Venus Transit 2012 Composited Visuals. || ", "release_date": "2012-06-12T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-01-02T13:27:41.189924-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 475538, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003940/AIA171A_Track.00100_print.jpg", "filename": "AIA171A_Track.00100_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Full disk and tracking view from AIA 171 Ångstroms.", "width": 854, "height": 480, "pixels": 409920 } }, { "id": 3941, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3941/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Venus Transit 2012 Composited Visuals", "description": "These visualizations were generated by compositing the small field-of-view, high-cadence closeups of Venus with the full-disk, low-cadence imagery from Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Two different instruments are used: the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) which sees light in the visible range, and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) which sees light in several wavelengths in the ultraviolet range. To find out more information about these instruments, check out The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly Tutorial.Some artifacts may be visible from the compositing, but you have to look pretty closely to see them.The color table threshold was raised for these images, reducing the amount of noise visible in the images. Note: There is an interesting artifact worthy of mention and clarification, and that is as Venus crosses the solar limb, the limb appears to be visible through the planet in some of the imagers (most notably the ultraviolet channels). Discussion with the scientists who built the imagers suggest this might be 'crosstalk' between the readouts of the four CCD panels that make up a complete image. It is an artifact of the imaging system. || ", "release_date": "2012-06-11T14:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:06:49.677445-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 475498, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003941/AIA171VenusTransit_stand.HD1080i.00500.jpg", "filename": "AIA171VenusTransit_stand.HD1080i.00500.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "A high-cadence view of Venus Transit in AIA 171 angstroms.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 10996, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10996/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "SDO's Ultra-high Definition View of 2012 Venus Transit", "description": "Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the sun. During its five-year mission, it will examine the sun's atmosphere, magnetic field and also provide a better understanding of the role the sun plays in Earth's atmospheric chemistry and climate. SDO provides images with resolution 8 times better than high-definition television and returns more than a terabyte of data each day.On June 5 2012, SDO collected images of the rarest predictable solar event—the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event lasted approximately 6 hours and happens in pairs eight years apart, which are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117.The videos and images displayed here are constructed from several wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light and a portion of the visible spectrum. The red colored sun is the 304 angstrom ultraviolet, the golden colored sun is 171 angstrom, the magenta sun is 1700 angstrom, and the orange sun is filtered visible light. 304 and 171 show the atmosphere of the sun, which does not appear in the visible part of the spectrum. || ", "release_date": "2012-06-05T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-01-12T00:19:38.737288-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 475645, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010900/a010996/AIA171A_Venus_Transit_20120605T211212new_web.jpg", "filename": "AIA171A_Venus_Transit_20120605T211212new_web.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "193 angstrom image from SDO", "width": 319, "height": 191, "pixels": 60929 } }, { "id": 3955, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3955/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Wispy 'Plasma Dancer' on the limb of the Sun", "description": "This movie actually exhibits a number of interesting solar phenomena.The primary feature of interest was the whirrling tower of plasma on the lower right limb. || ", "release_date": "2012-05-17T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:07:04.949704-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 475949, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003955/SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy.01000_web.png", "filename": "SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy.01000_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Half resolution (2Kx2K) movies from SDO.", "width": 320, "height": 320, "pixels": 102400 } }, { "id": 3945, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3945/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Plasma 'Dance' on the Sun!", "description": "Full resolution 4Kx4K SDO images || SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy.00900.jpg (4096x4096) [2.2 MB] || SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy.00900_web.png (320x320) [100.9 KB] || SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy.00900_thm.png (80x40) [6.1 KB] || SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy.00900_searchweb.png (320x180) [96.0 KB] || SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy_1Kx1K.mp4 (1024x1024) [27.4 MB] || SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy_1Kx1K.mov (1024x1024) [27.4 MB] || SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy_2Kx2K.webmhd.webm (960x540) [8.1 MB] || SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy_2Kx2K.mp4 (2048x2048) [207.3 MB] || 4096x4096_1x1_30p (4096x4096) [0 Item(s)] || SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy.mp4 (4096x4096) [651.1 KB] || SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy_iPod.m4v (480x480) [11.3 MB] || ", "release_date": "2012-04-20T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:06:53.878293-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 476615, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003945/SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy.00900_web.png", "filename": "SDO_2011-09-25_171_Wispy.00900_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Full resolution 4Kx4K SDO images", "width": 320, "height": 320, "pixels": 102400 } }, { "id": 10925, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10925/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "HD Close up of March 6th X5.4 Flare", "description": "The sun erupted with one of the largest solar flares of this solar cycle on March 6, 2012 at 7PM ET. ?This flare was categorized as an X5.4, making it the second largest flare — after an X6.9 on August 9, 2011 — since the sun's activity segued into a period of relatively low activity called solar minimum in early 2007. The current increase in the number of X-class flares is part of the sun's normal 11-year solar cycle, during which activity on the sun ramps up to solar maximum, which is expected to peak in late 2013. About an hour later, at 8:14 PM ET, March 6, the same region let loose an X1.3 class flare. ?An X1 is 5 times smaller than an X5 flare. These X-class flares erupted from an active region named AR 1429 that rotated into view on March 2. ?Prior to this, the region had already produced numerous M-class and one X-class flare. ?The region continues to rotate across the front of the sun, so the March 6 flare was more Earthward facing than the previous ones. ?It triggered a temporary radio blackout on the sunlit side of Earth that interfered with radio navigation and short wave radio.In association with these flares, the sun also expelled two significant coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are traveling faster than 600 miles a second and may arrive at Earth in the next few days. ?In the meantime, the CME associated with the X-class flare from March 4 has dumped solar particles and magnetic fields into Earth's atmosphere and distorted Earth's magnetic fields, causing a moderate geomagnetic storm, rated a G2 on a scale from G1 to G5. ?Such storms happen when the magnetic fields around Earth rapidly change strength and shape. ?A moderate storm usually causes aurora and may interfere with high frequency radio transmission near the poles. ?This storm is already dwindling, but the Earth may experience another enhancement if the most recent CMEs are directed toward and impact Earth. In addition, last night's flares have sent solar particles into Earth's atmosphere, producing a moderate solar energetic particle event, also called a solar radiation storm. These particles have been detected by NASA's SOHO and STEREO spacecraft, and NOAA's GOES spacecraft. ?At the time of writing, this storm is rated an S3 on a scale that goes up to S5. ?Such storms can interfere with high frequency radio communication. Besides the August 2011 X-class flare, the last time the sun sent out flares of this magnitude was in 2006. ?There was an X6.5 on December 6, 2006 and an X9.0 on December 5, 2006. Like the most recent events, those two flares erupted from the same region on the sun, which is a common occurrence. || ", "release_date": "2012-03-07T15:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:53:13.456307-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 478390, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010900/a010925/Massive_Flare_HD_Still.png", "filename": "Massive_Flare_HD_Still.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Massive Flare Gets HD Closeup.Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDOFor complete transcript, click here.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 3920, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3920/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "The Rising Solar Cycle: X5.4 Flare ('W' sunspot group) seen by SDO", "description": "Sunspot group 1429 of solar cycle 24 has launched an X5.4 flare can coronal mass ejection (CME) that is forecast to impact the EarthThis visualization has the full 4Kx4K frames from the 17.1 nm and 13.1 nm filters on the Solar Dynamics Observatory. 2Kx2K MPEG-4 movies are also available. || ", "release_date": "2012-03-07T14:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T22:05:54.010075-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 478377, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003920/SDO_2012-03-07_171_X5Flare.00400_web.png", "filename": "SDO_2012-03-07_171_X5Flare.00400_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The solar flare in the 171A (17.1nm) filter", "width": 320, "height": 320, "pixels": 102400 } }, { "id": 10724, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10724/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "SDO Launch Footage", "description": "Footage of launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory from February 11, 2010 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. || SDO_Launch_Footage_640x360.00002_print.jpg (1024x576) [78.6 KB] || SDO_Launch_Footage_640x360_web.png (320x180) [158.0 KB] || SDO_Launch_Footage_640x360_thm.png (80x40) [15.5 KB] || SDO_Launch_Footage.mp4 (1280x720) [37.6 MB] || SDO_Launch_Footage_1280x720_prores.webmhd.webm (960x540) [36.2 MB] || SDO_Launch_Footage_640x360.mov (640x360) [17.5 MB] || SDO_Launch_Footage_1280x720_prores.mov (1280x720) [2.8 GB] || ", "release_date": "2011-02-15T00:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-01-06T01:15:32.256179-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 487835, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010700/a010724/SDO_Launch_Footage_640x360.00002_print.jpg", "filename": "SDO_Launch_Footage_640x360.00002_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Footage of launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory from February 11, 2010 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [ { "id": 13859, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13859/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Why Does NASA Observe The Sun in Different Colors?", "description": "The Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, was launched on Feb. 11, 2010, and began collecting science data a few months later. With two imaging instruments – the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, which were designed in concert to provide complementary views of the Sun – SDO sees the Sun in more than 10 distinct wavelengths of light, showing solar material at different temperatures. SDO also measures the Sun’s magnetic field and the motion of solar material at its surface, and, using a technique called helioseismology, allows scientists to probe deep into the Sun's interior, where the Sun’s complex magnetic fields sprout from. And with more than a decade of observation under its belt, SDO has provided scientists with hundreds of millions of images of our star. || ", "release_date": "2021-06-18T12:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:44:05.593708-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 378484, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a013800/a013859/13859_SDOColors.00700_print.jpg", "filename": "13859_SDOColors.00700_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Music credits: “Swirling Blizzard” and “Endless Swirl” by Laurent Dury [SACEM] from Universal Production Music Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } ], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }