SDO 4k Slow-rotation Sun Resource Page

SDO, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, images the entire sun at 4096x4096 resolution in multiple wavelengths every 12 seconds. The selection below represents some of the best options for full-disk slow rotation. The 4k content is available for download as frame sequences, and, in some cases, as ProRes video. These files are large and will take a long time to download.

Big Sunspot of 2014
The largest sunspot seen so far in this solar cycle produced a number of flares, even a few X-class flares, but only one rather small coronal mass ejection (CME). Here is a view of the sunspot group during the two weeks it took to pass across the solar disk.

Filament Eruption Creates 'Canyon of Fire' on the Sun
A magnetic filament of solar material erupted on the sun in late September, breaking the quiet conditions in a spectacular fashion. The 200,000 mile long filament ripped through the sun's atmosphere, the corona, leaving behind what looks like a canyon of fire. The glowing canyon traces the channel where magnetic fields held the filament aloft before the explosion. These images were captured on Sept. 29-30, 2013.

More Solar Excitement-October 2013
Solar activity in October 2013 continues with several active regions, particularly on the limb, launching solar material into space.

The Active Region Trio: October 2011


July 2012: Coronal Rain
A moderate solar flare was emitted by the sun on July 19, 2012. At 5:58 UTC it peaked at M7.7 on the flare scale. What made this particular event so noteworthy was the associated activity in the sun's corona. For the next day, hot plasma in corona cooled and condensed along the strong magnetic fields of the region that produced the flare. The footage in this video was collected by the Solar Dynamics Observatory's AIA instrument. SDO collected one frame every 12 seconds so each second in this video corresponds to 6 minutes of real time. The video covers 4:30 UTC on July 19th to 2:00 UTC on July 20th, a period of 21 hours and 30 minutes. This is the longest slow sequence in the collection and runs for 3.5 minutes at 30fps.

Active Region 1520 from SDO
The sun emitted a large flare on July 12, 2012, but earlier in the week it gave a demonstration of how gorgeous solar activity can be. This movie shows the sun from late July 8 to early July 10 shortly before it unleashed an X-class flare beginning at 12:11 PM EDT on July 12

June 2013's 'Busy Sun'
June of 2013, near the maximum of solar cycle 24, while not extremely active from a solar flare perspective, presented a range of diverse phenomena. We have a couple of solar 'tornadoes' (the twisted protrusions off the limb of the Sun in upper and lower left quadrants), which we eventually see erupt material into space. There are also a number of coronal loops in active regions which are incredibly stable but still exhibit much fine detail.

Solar Prominence Dance-December 31, 2012
On the final day of 2012, the sun presented a beautiful twisting prominence that rose high into the corona for about 3 hours. It was most visible in extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 304 angstroms. This wavelength highlights plasma with temperatures of around 50,000 Kelvin. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the event at 4k resolution and a high imaging cadence of one image every 12 seconds.