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.