About the Very Latest SOHO Images

Hi ya,

From time to time, I post images or links to images from SOHO.  The reason I do this is to try and understand the impact of solar activity on everyday life - you might notice patterns, who knows.... I've also had a few questions as to what these images mean and how to read them.  So here is an explanation

regards
Ed.
solar flare
 Sunspot

 About the Very Latest SOHO Images

 

 

NOTE:

• Times shown are UT (universal time) unless noted otherwise. Solar North is up in all the near real time images.

 

IMAGE BROWSER

Launch the interactive browser to learn more about EIT and MDI images.
Credit: This browser was developed by Kristian Pontoppidan Larsen. He is an Applied Physics Engineer from Denmark and a SOHO fan who likes to develop web applications and study the connection between the sun, weather and climate.

 

LASCO IMAGES

Images: LASCO C2 (left). LASCO C3 (right).

LASCO (Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph) is able to take images of the solar corona by blocking the light coming directly from the Sun with an occulter disk, creating an artificial eclipse within the instrument itself. The position of the solar disk is indicated in the images by the white circle. The most prominent feature of the corona are usually the coronal streamers, those nearly radial bands that can be seen both in C2 and C3. Occasionally, a coronal mass ejection can be seen being expelled away from the Sun and crossing the fields of view of both coronagraphs. The shadow crossing from the lower left corner to the center of the image is the support for the occulter disk.

C2 images show the inner solar corona up to 8.4 million kilometers (5.25 million miles) away from the Sun.

C3 images have a larger field of view: They encompass 32 diameters of the Sun. To put this in perspective, the diameter of the images is 45 million kilometers (about 30 million miles) at the distance of the Sun, or half of the diameter of the orbit of Mercury. Many bright stars can be seen behind the Sun.

Visit SOHO Explore! to learn more about the Sun.

 

EIT IMAGES

Images: From left to right: EIT 171, EIT 195, EIT 284, EIT 304

EIT (Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope) images the solar atmosphere at several wavelengths, and therefore, shows solar material at different temperatures. In the images taken at 304 Angstrom the bright material is at 60,000 to 80,000 degrees Kelvin. In those taken at 171 Angstrom, at 1 million degrees. 195 Angstrom images correspond to about 1.5 million Kelvin, 284 Angstrom to 2 million degrees. The hotter the temperature, the higher you look in the solar atmosphere.

Visit SOHO Explore! to learn more about the Sun.

 

MDI IMAGES

Images: MDI Continuum (left). MDI Magnetogram (right).

The MDI (Michelson Doppler Imager) images shown here are taken in the continuum near the Ni I 6768 Angstrom line. The most prominent features are the sunspots. This is very much how the Sun looks like in the visible range of the spectrum (for example, looking at it using special 'eclipse' glasses: Remember, do not ever look directly at the Sun!). The magnetogram image shows the magnetic field in the solar photosphere, with black and white indicating opposite polarities.

Visit SOHO Explore! to learn more about the Sun.