Sun ID: 4039

SDO: September 13, 2012 Earth Eclipse

Visualizations by Tom Bridgman Released on February 11, 2013

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.

Visualization Credits

Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Animator
Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Producer
Karen Fox (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Writer

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, the SDO Science Team, and the Virtual Solar Observatory.

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4039

Mission:
SDO

Data Used: