A New View Of The Sun

March 9, 2018 – When the Solar flared dramatically final September, inflicting geomagnetic storms and radio blackouts on Earth, a brand new NOAA photo voltaic telescope captured the drama from a unique perspective. Now, NOAA has launched these new pictures to the scientific group—pictures that scientists from CIRES and NCEI have performed a key function in capturing.

“The Photo voltaic Ultraviolet Imager, or SUVI for brief, is seeing large prolonged buildings that we by no means knew had been there, so we are able to deal with science questions that haven’t been explored earlier than,” mentioned Dan Seaton, a CIRES scientist working in NOAA’s Nationwide Facilities for Environmental Data (NCEI) in Boulder, Colorado. “SUVI enhances what different photo voltaic imagers can do, including the extra component of what’s taking place excessive above the Solar.”

Launched November 19, 2016, on the GOES-16 satellite tv for pc, SUVI is the primary in a line of 4 an identical devices that plan to picture the Solar’s ambiance within the excessive ultraviolet for the subsequent 20 years. The second SUVI instrument is on the GOES-S satellite tv for pc, which launched on March 1. SUVI’s main mission is to help area climate forecasting operations at NOAA’s Area Climate Prediction Heart in Boulder, however its distinctive properties supply a number of alternatives for brand spanking new analysis.

SUVI has a bigger subject of view than current photo voltaic imagers, so it will probably picture photo voltaic phenomena at better heights above the floor of the solar. SUVI additionally has six wavelength channels, or passbands, that seize simultaneous pictures of the photo voltaic chromosphere and corona—the Solar’s outer ambiance—at completely different temperature ranges.

Final September, whereas it was nonetheless present process calibration and testing, SUVI noticed two of the most important occasions within the present photo voltaic cycle—an 11-year cycle which started in December, 2008, reached its most in 2014, and is now declining. Each the September 6 occasion and the September 10 occasion produced giant photo voltaic flares that triggered radio blackouts on Earth. The September 6 occasion additionally produced a robust geomagnetic storm on Earth, whereas the September 10 occasion produced a robust photo voltaic radiation occasion — and was the place SUVI actually confirmed its stuff. “SUVI observations of this occasion are actually novel,” mentioned Seaton. “The sooner occasion occurred in place on the Solar that different imagers can seize, so SUVI provides some worth, however nothing just like the September 10 occasion.”

That day, the photo voltaic flare launched as a lot power in a couple of minutes as all of humanity has ever produced, typical of the most important flares in any given photo voltaic cycle, in accordance with Seaton. SUVI’s observations of that occasion revealed a variety of distinctive options: The telescope captured the onset of the photo voltaic eruption, adopted by a robust extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) wave that disrupted a lot of the corona and was seen to heights approaching twice the Solar’s radius. “This is among the first clear detections of an EUV wave at giant heights,” mentioned Seaton.

SUVI additionally captured pictures of the September 10 photo voltaic flare at completely different temperatures. Scientists must see what’s taking place at a spread of temperatures to actually perceive photo voltaic exercise. “The method by which we see mild from the corona is decided by temperature—for instance, plasma within the Solar’s corona emits mild at particular ultraviolet wavelengths,” mentioned Seaton.

So the telescope is supplied with six filters that view the Solar’s corona at numerous temperature bands, from 50,000 to 20 million levels Kelvin. “By taking a look at a bunch of various wavelengths and placing them collectively, we are able to get an image of the whole corona and see phenomena at completely different temperatures,” mentioned Seaton.

Observations like these SUVI could make will assist scientists mannequin photo voltaic eruptions and associated phenomena. “There’s a lot we don’t perceive about photo voltaic physics,” mentioned Seaton. “We now have fashions, however not sufficient observations to assist us validate a few of them. With SUVI, we are able to actually see processes which have lengthy been predicted, and take that again to the fashions and begin to refine them.” And the discoveries made with SUVI might in flip enhance predictions and drive the event of latest devices. “SUVI is displaying us rather a lot about what we’re lacking, similar to how physics taking place in a single a part of the Solar’s ambiance issues to complete Solar,” Seaton mentioned.

Observations from SUVI, together with different solar-pointing and area climate devices on the GOES-16 satellite tv for pc, will assist NOAA’s Area Climate Prediction Heart considerably enhance area climate forecasts and supply early warning of attainable impacts to Earth’s area setting and doubtlessly disruptive occasions on the bottom.

“SUVI’s new knowledge merchandise will mix all of the wavelength info, up to date each few seconds, to point out how photo voltaic options evolve,” mentioned Steve Goodman, chief program scientist for the NOAA satellite tv for pc program from 2008-2017. “With probably the most up-to-date situational consciousness—on coronal holes, photo voltaic flares, and coronal mass ejections—forecasters will be capable to watch these traits in actual time and difficulty extra well timed and correct warnings.”

Preliminary SUVI images can be found from NCEI for the September 6 and 10 photo voltaic flares. Seaton, alongside together with his CIRES and NCEI colleague Jonathan Darnel, revealed a paper about these occasions in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Extra instrument knowledge will comply with throughout the first half of 2018, as soon as scientists have achieved extra mannequin calibration and testing. CIRES and NCEI scientists are main these efforts, in addition to the processing and archiving of SUVI knowledge.