From March 20-23, 2018, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured three sequences of our Sun in three different extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. The resulting images illustrate how different features that appear in one sequence are difficult, if not impossible, to see in the others.
In the red sequence (304 Angstroms), we can see very small spicules – jets of solar material – and some small prominences at the Sun’s edge, which are not easy to see in the other two sequences. In the second sequence (193 Angstroms), we can readily observe the large and dark coronal hole, though it is difficult to make out in the others. In the third (171 wavelengths), we can see strands of plasma waving above the surface, especially above the one small, but bright, active region near the right edge. These are just three of the ten extreme ultraviolet wavelengths in which SDO images the Sun every 12 seconds, every day.
Watch the transformation below.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory ran together three sequences of the sun taken in three different extreme ultraviolet wavelengths to better illustrate how different features that appear in one sequence are difficult if not impossible to see in the others (March 20-21, 2018). In the red sequence (304 Angstroms), we can see very small spicules and some small prominences at the sun’s edge, which are not easy to see in the other two sequences. In the second clip (193 Angstroms), we can readily observe the large and dark coronal hole, though it is difficult to make out in the others. In the third clip (171 wavelengths), we can see strands of plasma waving above the surface, especially above the one small, but bright, active region near the right edge. And these are just three of the 10 extreme ultraviolet wavelengths in which SDO images the sun every 12 seconds every day. That’s a lot of data and a lot of science. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory
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