Video Kidibot

Tag: Solar flares

  • See and hear three years of solar fireworks

    See and hear three years of solar fireworks

    At the start of this new year, close-up pictures and solar flare data that the ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission has been recording for more than three years. See and hear for yourself how the number of flares and their intensity increase, a clear sign of the Sun approaching the peak of the 11-year solar cycle.

    This video combines ultraviolet images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona, yellow) taken by Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument, with the size and locations of solar flares (blue circles) as recorded by the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) instrument. The accompanying audio is a sonification based on the detected flares and the spacecraft’s distance to the Sun.

    Solar Orbiter moves on an elliptical path around the Sun, making a close approach to our star every six months. We can see this in the video from the spacecraft’s perspective, with the Sun moving closer and farther over the course of each year. In the sonification, this is represented by the low background humming that loudens as the Sun gets closer and becomes quieter as it moves further away. (There are some abrupt shifts in distance visible in the video, as it skips over dates where one or both instruments were inactive or collecting a different type of data.)

    The blue circles represent solar flares: bursts of high-energy radiation of which STIX detects the X-rays. Flares are sent out by the Sun when energy stored in ‘twisted’ magnetic fields (usually above sunspots) is suddenly released. The size of each circle indicates how strong the flare is, with stronger flares sending out more X-rays. We can hear the flares in the metallic clinks in the sonification, where the sharpness of the sound corresponds to how energetic the solar flare is.

    Many thanks to Klaus Nielsen (DTU Space / Maple Pools) for making the sonification in this video. If you would like to hear more sonifications and music by this artist, please visit: https://linktr.ee/maplepools
    Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, operated by ESA.

    —————————————————
    Credits
    Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI & STIX, Klaus Nielsen (DTU Space/Maple Pools)
    Acknowledgements: Data processing for video by Laura Hayes
    License: CC BY-SA 3.0 or ESA Standard License

    Video credit slate
    Solar Orbiter animation: ESA
    Sun images: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI
    Solar flare data: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/STIX
    Data processing for video: Laura Hayes
    Data sonification & music: Klaus Nielsen (DTU Space/Maple Pools)
    —————————————————

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  • Firefoxes and whale spouts light up Earth’s shield 🌍💚 #shorts

    Firefoxes and whale spouts light up Earth’s shield 🌍💚 #shorts

    Did you know, the Northern lights or Aurora Borealis are created when the mythical Finnish ‘Firefox’ runs so quickly across the snow that its tail causes sparks to fly into the night sky? At least, that’s one of the stories that has been told in Finland about this beautiful phenomenon. Another that we love comes from the Sámi people of Finnish Lapland (among others), who describe them as plumes of water ejected by whales.

    Today’s scientific explanation for the origin of the Aurora wasn’t thought up until the 20th Century, by the Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland. Charged particles, electrons and protons, are constantly emitted by the Sun, making up the solar wind. This wind slams into Earth’s ionosphere – sometimes sped up to vast speeds by solar storms – and the charged particles are deflected towards the poles by the magnetosphere.

    Molecules in our atmosphere then absorb energy from these charged particles from the Sun, and re-release it in their own unique set of colours. Oxygen produces green, but at high altitudes can create red, nitrogen creates blues, and colours can overlap creating purple. Waves, twists and streams are caused by variations in Earth’s magnetic fields.
    This striking video shows the Aurora over Kiruna, the northernmost city in Sweden. It’s composed of images taken by the Kiruna all-sky camera every minute for about ten hours over 18-19 September 2023.

    The all-sky auroral camera is operated by the Kiruna Atmospheric and Geophysical Observatory (KAGO) within the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), and data from here is provided as part of ESA’s network of space weather services within the Agency’s Space Safety Programme.
    A sequence of multiple coronal mass ejections – large, sudden ejections of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun – recently struck Earth, and we are still recovering from the passage of the last of them. The fastest was travelling at around 700 km/s, which is considered a small event.

    Solar storms are causing an increase in geomagnetic activity; temporary disturbances in Earth’s magnetosphere, which has led to increased light shows at Earth’s poles.

    Find out more about space weather: https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_weather
    Sign up for free updates from ESA’s Space Weather Service Network: https://swe.ssa.esa.int/registration

    Credits: All-sky camera, Kiruna Atmospheric and Geophysical Observatory (KAGO) within the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF). Data provided as part of ESA’s Space Weather Service Network.

    #ESA
    #SpaceSafety
    #SpaceWeather

  • Giant solar eruption felt on Earth, Moon and Mars ☀️ #shorts

    Giant solar eruption felt on Earth, Moon and Mars ☀️ #shorts

    A solar eruption detected simultaneously at Earth, the Moon and Mars emphasises the need to prepare human exploration missions for the dangers of space radiation.

    📹 ESA – European Space Agency

    #ESA
    #Sun
    #Eruption

  • What causes the northern lights? 🤔 #shorts

    What causes the northern lights? 🤔 #shorts

    The aurora isn’t unique to Earth. Some other worlds in our Solar System, such as Saturn and Jupiter, have magnetic fields too. Solar wind particles can collide with them just as happens with Earth! Would you like to fly to another planet and see its aurora?

    📹 @EuropeanSpaceAgency

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    We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.

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    #Aurora
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  • What is space weather?

    What is space weather?

    Our star dominates the environment within our Solar System. Unpredictable and temperamental, the Sun has made life on the inner-most planets impossible, due to the intense radiation and colossal amounts of energetic material it blasts in every direction, creating the ever-changing conditions in space known as ‘space weather’.

    More about space weather:
    http://www.esa.int/spaceweather

  • SOHO’s view of September solar flares

    SOHO’s view of September solar flares

    The Sun unleashed powerful solar flares on 6 September, one of which was the strongest in over a decade. An X2.2-class flare was launched at 09:10 GMT and an X9.3 flare was observed at 12:02 GMT. An M-class flare was also observed two days earlier on 4 September.

    The images were captured by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO. The flares were launched from a group of sunspots classified as active region 2673.The shaded disc at the centre of the image is a mask in SOHO’s LASCO instrument that blocks out direct sunlight to allow study of the faint details in the Sun’s corona. The white circle added within the disc shows the size and position of the visible Sun.

    More about SOHO:
    http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/SOHO_overview2

    Credit: SOHO (ESA & NASA)