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the Computer Lab Start Page
Hits
since
4/4/01
Sunspot Activity, Solar Flares,
Aurora, Magnetic Storms,
and other
Extremely High Solar Activity
of the
Current Sunspot Cycle
this page originally created 4/4/01 and
last modified 06/29/03 04:37 PM
(but the 3 images below are always current,
and SpaceWeather.com stays
pretty up-to-date.)
 AN EXAMPLE IMAGE Link to "the
latest" |
Psst!
Hey Buddy! "Helioseismic holography": computer analysis of
waves bouncing back and forth inside the Sun. Because the intense
magnetic fields of sunspots bend the waves, analysis creates a map
of sunspots, including a patch on the far side. Large sunspot groups
can now be detected more than a week before they rotate into
view. |
|
|
|
Magnetogram |
Soft X-ray image |
Resources:
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SpaceWeather.com -- This up-to-date site has good details of current activity, and background information to help understand what they are reporting.
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The very latest SOHO images [SOHO images may be unavailable]-- from a satellite that ALWAYS looks at the Sun, in many different wavelengths. Also movies, archives of earlier images, etc.
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Solar images at SDAC -- current, from several sources, including SOHO but also Earth-based images (X-ray wavelengths, magnetograms, spectroheliograms, etc.)
beginning 6/22/03, SOHO images may be unavailable at times for intervals of 2 1/2 or 3 weeks, recurring about every 3 months until the problem is solved, due to inability to aim the high-gain antenna toward earth. The complete explanation is at http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/whatsnew/HGA/
Here is a version I shortened from their web page as of 6/29/03:
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
spacecraft expects to experience a blackout in the transmission of its
scientific data during the week of 22 June 2003. This is estimated to
last for about two and a half to three weeks.
Engineers are predicting this problem after detecting a
malfunction in the pointing mechanism of the satellite's high-gain antenna
(HGA), which is used to transmit the large amounts of data from SOHO's
scientific observations to Earth.
...
... The problem is probably due to a malfunction in the motor
or gear assembly that steers the antenna.
SOHO is located 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, slowly
orbiting around the First Lagrangian point, where the combined gravity of
the Earth and the Sun keep SOHO in an orbit locked to the Sun-Earth line.
To transmit data, the SOHO high-gain antenna must rotate to have the Earth
constantly in its field of view as the spacecraft and the Earth progress
in their respective orbits.
If the problem is not solved, the Earth will be left
outside the HGA beam on a periodic basis, with similar blackouts occurring
every three months.
ESA and NASA engineers are currently assessing several
options to recover the situation, or minimise the scientific data loss.