The Flare-ometer is at X-level again

Solar flares are classified using the X-ray brightness (see an explanation here), and "X class" flares are the strongest.  The sunspot and magnetic active region complex that produced many M-class and X-class flares last month is back, and the EVE "flare-ometer" is hitting the red zone again.  

EVE measures irradiance in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV), which are wavelengths slightly less energetic than X-rays. EUV variations in flux have a direct impact on the Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere, so EVE's measurements are essential for space weather forecasts.  

EVE has a special flare observation mode that is triggered autonomously onboard SDO.  EVE had 7 flare campaigns triggered in April, 8 in May, and so far there have been 8 in June. When combined with HMI and AIA, SDO is able to capture the magnetic structure and dynamics of space weather processes. 

Four Lunar Transits April-July 2025

SDO will see 4 lunar transits between April and July 2025. Two look like the Moon is just brushing by the Sun and one is pretty nice looking.
There are lunar transits on April 27, 2025 and April 28, 2025. Here are the movies from the SDO Flight Operations Team.

April 27; Moon covers 23% of the solar disk.

April 28; Moon covers 2% of solar disk.

May 25; Moon covers 4% of solar disk.

July 25; Moon covers 62% of solar disk.

The fourth will be the longest and deepest transit in the first half of 2025.

JSOC Repairs are Complete, Normal Data Services have Resumed

At 12 noon PT, 4 Feb 2025, the HMI/AIA JSOC at Stanford has resumed normal data services. A small fraction of the data files were lost and are being restored from a tape backup.

Congratulations to the Stanford Team for their rapid repair of the JSOC!

JSOC Update and Schedule of Events

The JSOC repair continues. This week we have started serving 15 min cadence images from AIA and HMI for Space Weather operators and others at the SDO website https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov. Stanford continues to rebuild the full capability of the JSOC. Several pieces of electronics are delayed by the dreaded supply-chain issues we all thought were finally behind us. All of the science data will be available for available once the JSOC is restored.

The JSOC may be off-line, but SDO continues making observations and collecting data about our Sun during the maximum of Solar Cycle 25.

SDO continues doing all of the usual things of a satellite mission:

1. 12/18/24: Delta-H #51
2. 01/08/25: EVE Cruciform
3. 01/10/25: Eclipse Season #30 Starts
4. 01/15/25: EVE FOV (@1400 UTC) and HMI/AIA Flatfield (@1715 UTC) Calibration Manuvers
5. 01/16/25: HGA Handover Season #30 Starts
6. 01/22/25: Stationkeeping Maneuver #30 (@2320 UTC)
7. 01/29/25: AIA GT/PZT Calibration (images may shake a little)
8. 02/05/25: Eclipse Season #30 Ends
9. 02/16/25: HGA Handover Season #30 Ends

Outage at the Stanford, JSOC is Offline

A cooling water line burst in the Stanford building housing the SDO HMI JSOC yesterday. Several inches of water were in the JSOC room. As of this morning it appears the flooding has been drained but things are still wet and at least one leak onto electronic equipment continued. An initial assessment is that the water affected many systems but did not provide a time for return to service.

The JSOC is currently offline while the damage is assessed and repaired. The SDO data will be stored at the DDS in New Mexico until the repairs are complete and then will be automatically delivered to the JSOC.

This means that all HMI and AIA data from the JSOC will be unavailable until repairs are completed, the JSOC restarted, and the data delivery from the DDS re-established. Science data will be produced several days after that. Near-realtime data from before 26 Nov 2024 will continue to be available on the SDO wenbsite.

We appreciate your understanding, and are grateful for the dedication and responsiveness of the Stanford team. 

Updates from the Stanford team will be posted at https://solarweb1.stanford.edu/JSOC_Emergency_Resources.html

Looking for Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS)

SDO images look partial today as we are off-pointed to look for the tail of Comet C/2025 S1 (ATLAS) as it goes by perihelion. This is a Kreutz comet with a perihelion distance of 1.7 Rsun (0.7 Rsun above the surface of the Sun.) The perihelion time as seen at Earth is about 11:45 UTC (7:45 UTC). We will hold the offpoint until 12:05 UTC and then return to normal pointing. HMI magnetograms and Dopplergrams are not available during the offpoint.

Network Outage Causes Data Problems

A cable cut in New Mexico is causing some of the SDO telemetry to be delayed to the science teams. As a result, the teams do not know the roll angle of SDO and the images appear to be rotating as we execute the HMI Roll Calibration today between 1500 and 2140 UTC (11:00 am - 5:40 pm ET). The rotation angle will be provided in due course and the science data will have the information to be correctly oriented with solar North up. Once the maneuver is finished the images will again be correctly oriented.