Sun  ID: 5055

A Cluster of M-class solar flares from Active Region 13165

Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) operates in a geosynchronous orbit around Earth to obtain a continuous view of the Sun. The particular instrument in this visualization records imagery in the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum at wavelengths normally absorbed by Earth's atmosphere - so we need to observe them from space.

Here, Active Region 13165 (lower right of solar disk) fires of a cluster of M-class flares over a couple of days in mid-December 2022 (Solar Flares: What does it take to be X-class?). The point-spread function correction (PSF) has been applied to all the imagery on this page. An M6.3 flare erupts followed shortly by a smaller M3.2 flare.

The next day, December 15, 2022, an M5.7 flare erupts from the same active region.

In these examples of smaller flares, the flare is much more visible in the AIA 131 angstrom filter. However, in the 171 angstrom filter, the complex loop structure in the magnetic fields is more obvious
. The 304 angstrom filter shows the flows of gas filaments


What is the PSF (Point Spread-Function)?

Many telescopes, especially reflecting telescopes such as the ones used on SDO (Wikipedia), have internal structures that support various optical components. These components can result in incoming light being scattered to other parts of the image. This can appear in the image as a faint haze, brightening dark areas and dimming bright areas. The point-spread function (Wikipedia) is a measure of how light that would normally be received by a single camera pixel, gets scattered onto other pixels. This is often seen as the "spikes" seen in images of bright stars. For SDO, it manifests as a double-X shape centered over a bright flare (see Sun Emits Third Solar Flare in Two Days). The effect of this scattered light can be computed, and removed, by a process called deconvolution (Wikipedia). This is often a very compute-intensive process which can be sped up by using a computers graphics-processing unit (GPU) for the computation.

Visualization Credits

Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer
Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC): Lead Producer
Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support
Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5055

Mission:
SDO

Data Used:
SDO/AIA/304 Filter also referred to as: AIA 304
JOINT SCIENCE OPERATIONS CENTER - 2022-12-14T14:00:00 to 2022-12-14T18:00:00 and 2022-12-15T21:30:00 to 2022-12-16T01:30:00
SDO/AIA/171 Filter also referred to as: AIA 171
JOINT SCIENCE OPERATIONS CENTER - 2022-12-14T14:00:00 to 2022-12-14T18:00:00 and 2022-12-15T21:30:00 to 2022-12-16T01:30:00
SDO/AIA/131 Filter also referred to as: AIA 131
JOINT SCIENCE OPERATIONS CENTER - 2022-12-14T14:00:00 to 2022-12-14T18:00:00 and 2022-12-15T21:30:00 to 2022-12-16T01:30:00
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.

Keywords:
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Sun-earth Interactions >> Solar Activity >> Solar Active Regions
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Sun-earth Interactions >> Solar Activity >> Solar Flares
SVS >> Space Weather
SVS >> SDO
SVS >> Solar Dynamics Observatory
SVS >> Heliophysics
SVS >> Corona
NASA Science >> Sun
SVS >> Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging
SVS >> EUV Imaging
SVS >> Solar Cycle 25
SVS >> Point-Spread-Function (PSF)

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0