An eruption of plasma from just behind the solar limb observed by SDO with the 304 Angstrom camera.This shows material at temperatures around 60,000-80,000 Kelvin. This produced a CME that went out the left side (East) of the Sun starting around 2 UT. At ~1000 km/s the CME has a SCORE O (for ordinary). NASA produced a computer model predicting the CME will impact STEREO Behind on 4/17 at 7:40 UT (but not Earth).
On April 19, 2012 an active region on the East (Left side) limb of the Sun produced an eruption, M1.7 Flare and CME. The eruption began around 17 UT with an M1.7 X-ray flare peaking shortly after that. The CME was first observed by SOHO/LASCO C2 at 18:10 UT. The video first shows the eruption in the 304, 171, 193, 211, 335 and 131 Angstrom wavelength SDO/AIA channels. These wavelengths provide a view of solar plasma at temperatures from ~60,000 to 15 million Kelvin. The event is then shown from farther around the left limb of the Sun using the EUVI 195 Angstrom camera from the STEREO Behind spacecraft. The CME is shown with the SOHO/LASCO C2 coronagraph in a composite image with SDO 304. The CME speed was measured by the NASA Space Weather Center (SWC) at 1250 km/s giving it a SCORE rating of O for Occasional. The CME was not Earth directed. The NASA SWC CME computer model predicted impact with Spitzer, STEREO B and Mars Science Lab (MSL) at 2012-04-18 15:23 UT, 2012-04-19 05:00 UT, and 2012-04-19 13:12 UT respectively (+- 7 hours).
About C. Alex Young, Ph.D.
