Happy 9th Anniversary SDO!

Nine years ago today, at 10:23 am ET, SDO rose into the sky atop an Atlas V 401 launch vehicle. Since that day SDO has returned over 350 million images of the Sun, produced over 3000 scientific articles, and allowed millions to enjoy the Sun. Solar Cycle 24 was just starting in 2010. SDO watched it grow to maximum in 2014 and now the Sun is often spotless.

Here is a summary slide of what SDO saw. The AIA 193 Å shows the lower corona and the HMI magnetogram shows the surface magnetic field. We try to understand the Sun by watching what happens at the poles. The dark areas near the North and South poles in the October 2010 and February 2019 193 Å images are the polar coronal holes. They have disappeared by solar maximum (the February 2014 images). The magnetograms show how the Sun's magnetic field gets more complicated at maximum and quite simple at minimum. What happens in the poles at solar minimum seems to be one of our best predictors of future solar activity.

SDO data is the basis of accurate models of the solar corona. Machine Learning algorithms are being used to squeeze even more information out of our 12 PB of data. We are looking forward to another lengthy lunar transit next month and the Mercury transit in November.

You can make your own SDO Anniversary movie at our website sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov or the Helioviewer website.

Happy Anniversary SDO!

The First Signs of Solar Cycle 25

On 20-Dec-2016 a USET observer saw a small patch of magnetic field in the southern hemisphere of the Sun. The outward magnetic field (white in the magnetograms) was behind the inward field (black patches). This patch is circled in blue in the HMI magnetogram. This high-latitude region (23°S) did not follow the pattern of magnetic field seen in Solar Cycle 24. George Hale noticed that sunspots tended to have a definite pattern of their magnetic field. One hemisphere has the patch of inward field leading the outward. The other hemisphere has the opposite pattern. During the next sunspot cycle the hemispheres reverse patterns.

The arrows in the magnetogram point to magnetic fields that follow Hale’s law for Solar Cycle 24. The blue arrows point to areas that show the pattern for the northern hemisphere and the single red arrow the southern. Even the broad areas of magnetic field in the northern hemisphere follow this pattern.

The magnetic field in the patch of magnetic field in the blue circle has the black leading the white — a sign that it is related to Solar Cycle 25, especially because it is at higher latitudes than most of the sunspots seen around this time. This is another pattern in sunspots. They tend to appear at higher latitudes early in a cycle and appear at ever-lower latitudes as the cycle progresses.

So, this little patch of magnetic field has two reasons to be the “First Sunspot of Solar Cycle 25.” It only needs to be seen as a sunspot and assigned an Active Region number.

The first observer notified other members of USET and one of them went and looked at the Sun. There was a small sunspot where the patch of magnetic field was seen. It was assigned the number AR 12620. It is the small black dot above the label in the orange HMI continuum image. Only one of the four other patches of magnetic field in the magnetogram was also visible as a sunspot (AR 12619). Looks like we have a winner!

Why mention this now? Because Sam Freeland saw another high-latitude (31°S), reversed-polarity patch of magnetic field in the southern hemisphere on 8-Apr-2018 (top panel of picture, the brightest area is the corona above the magnetic patch in an AIA 193 Å collage). This time the patch appeared and faded without forming a sunspot and did not receive an active region number. But Freeland saw a small flare at 12:57 UTC on 9-Apr-2018. This A2.5 flare may also be visible as a small blip in the GOES 14 X-ray flux (bottom panel, arrow points at blip).

Each Solar Cycle overlaps with the ones before and after. We study this overlap in our quest to understand the solar magnetic field and the dynamo that creates it. Our modern data, especially the full-disk magnetograms, makes looking for these overlapping regions a little easier.

As solar minimum draws near, we will see fewer sunspots but more and more of them will have the properties that put them into Solar Cycle 25. Eventually, solar minimum will be reached and after that sunspots associated with Solar Cycle 25 will become the majority. That should happen in 2020.

It is good to see that solar activity will continue to fascinate us in Solar Cycle 25.

Happy 8th Birthday, SDO!

It was a cold day at Cape Kennedy as SDO rose slowly into the sky. Eight years later, SDO has sent over 260 million images of the Sun to the ground. Over 3000 scientific papers have described how the Sun's magnetic field is created and destroyed. We have a large number of citizen scientists who study our images, especially using HelioViewer.

SDO still produces high quality data of the Sun every day. Even Solar Cycle 24 fades from view, we are watching the polar region magnetic fields grow. Large coronal holes can often be seen in the AIA coronal images. Solar Cycle 25 will soon be visible. SDO is ready!

Why Look at the Sun from Space?

SDO is one of fleet of satellites watching the Sun and recording the data that we use to study the solar magnetic field. The Sun was one of the first objects observed from above the Earth's atmosphere. One reason is the Sun's brightness — it was easy to see in the cameras. A more important reason was the ability to see wavelengths of light that are absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere. Although these wavelengths of light produce the ozone layer, which absorbs another wavelength, and the ionosphere, they are very useful to solar scientists. For example, the total solar irradiance measurements described in a previous post can only be made from a satellite.

What other satellites can you use to study the Sun?

Here are two sources (from many I could list) that can tell you about solar satellites from the dawn of space flight to today.

The first is Solar Satellites by Drs. Brian Dennis and Ryan Milligan. It is a web article on Scholarpedia with a list of 86 solar research satellites starting with the SOLRAD series that had its first launch in 1960. Dennis and Milligan also describe the instruments and observations on more modern satellites.

Another source is Watching the Sun from Space, which is available as a free download from the linked AJP website. This article starts with Skylab and traces the ways we observe the Sun from space. Links are provided for 27 solar missions, with data available for about 21. It also describes some orbits we haven't yet used to observe the Sun but could in the future.

Since the dawn of the Space Age during the decline of Solar Cycle 19, data from solar missions have been crucial in helping us understand the solar magnetic field and solar activity. Solar observatories in space continue to provide useful solar data and will as long as they keep flying and observing the Sun.

SDO should be around to watch Solar Cycle 25.

Measuring the International Sunspot Number

I was in Brussels visiting the Royal Observatory Belgium to talk about improving the accuracy of the International Sunspot Number. The ISN is the most important way we have to judge the Sun’s activity. Measurements from over 200 years ago have recently been found in several observatories and we would like to include them in the sunspot number. We are also looking at new ways to combine the data from the many observers who looked at the Sun since 1610. This would make the sunspot number record more accurate and help us understand the solar cycle.

While at ROB I saw how the ISN is measured. The Solar Influences Data Analysis Center (SIDC) at ROB is the World Data Center for the sunspot number and also measures the ISN as often as possible. Under a white dome sits several telescopes designed to look at the Sun. Every clear day an observer walks up the circular staircase to the floor of the observatory.

The long grey telescope projects a large image of the Sun onto a little table behind the telescope with four little spikes. The other telescopes are also used to study the Sun.

The observer secures a piece of paper on the spikes and draw what they see. There isn’t a lot of space and the back of your head can get very warm when it blocks the light of the Sun.

Here is a picture of what the paper looks like on the table. You can see the only sunspot group near the edge of the Sun by the upper right spike. It is quite small but has three spots in the group. (I was in the dome after the drawing for that day was finished and the telescopes are not centered on the Sun.)

Here is a picture of the actual drawing from that day. There is one small spot group with three visible spots. That makes the ISN, which is 10*number of groups + number of spots, 13 for 14-Jun-2017. This may change a little as other stations report, but the decline of Solar Cycle 24 is continuing.

My thanks to the people at the SIDC for both hosting our meeting and giving me at backstage look at the solar observatory. You can get more information, including more drawings and pictures of the Sun, are the SIDC website.