A snapshot of a prominence erupting from AR11105 captured by the SDO spacecraft in the 304 Angstrom wavelenght.
This great show was captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) as well as the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory’s (STEREO) Ahead spacecraft.
A snapshot of a prominence erupting from AR11105 captured by the SDO spacecraft in the 304 Angstrom wavelenght.
There is a brightening from the flare and hot loops after the flare but the darker, cooler prominence can also be seen. In the background the curved structure that is the beginning of the CME (coronal mass ejection) is visible.
The second part of the video in the cooler 304 Angstrom emission line produced by superheated helium. The cooler chromospheric material making up the prominence is bright in this line around 60,000 to 80,000 Kelvin. The cross-like patterns are caused when the light produced by the flare and post-flare loops saturates the camera’s CCD. Just like when a bright light causes a streak in a digital camera.
The following video shows a close up of the events with images that are composites of 3 different wavelengths (3 colors) that correspond to 3 different temperatures. The 3 wavelengths are 211, 193 and 171 Angstrom. They show mostly the hotter corona but the cooler prominence can be seen as a dark structure jetting outward from the solar surface.
This event was also observed by SDO and SOHO. The eruption included a flare, prominence eruption and CME. The data show here is the highly compressed spaceweather data from STEREO. This data helps give a first look at solar activity observed by STEREO. These images are from the EUVI instrument and show the 195 Angstrom emission of the ~1.5 Million Kelvin corona.
It appears as a curved puff of smoke escaping the sun.
A CME Observed with the C2
These initial observations from a fleet of solar instruments indicate that this spaceweather event will not hit the earth. So, for now, we will not experience any of the beautiful and possibly disruptive effects of a solar storm.
(credit for movies and images: spaceweather.com, SDO, SOHO/NASA, STEREO/NASA, LMSAL)