STEREO Coronal Mass Ejection: From the EUVI to HI-2

  • Released Thursday, March 1, 2007
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This movie collects imagery from SOHO and STEREO-A of a coronal mass ejection (CME) during January of 2007. The instruments in this view, from left to right, are STEREO/HI-1, STEREO/HI-2, SOHO/LASCO/C3, SOHO/LASCO/C2, and STEREO/EUVI. The Heliospheric Imager, HI-2, shows some of the tail of comet McNaught. The dark trapezoidal shape on the left edge of the image in HI-2 is the Earth occulter which will block out the disk of the Earth when it moves into view (since the planet will appear so bright as to saturate the detectors). Due to ongoing work with the STEREO coronagraphs, COR1 and COR2, the SOHO/LASCO coronagraphs are used for this movie. The blue Sun in the center of the coronagraphs is STEREO/EUVI ultraviolet images.

There is a 22 hour gap in the data coverage for HI-2 which creates the appearance of a jump in the playback.

These are not standard images but are called 'running difference' images which highlight changes in the view. White pixels correspond to increases in brightness, while dark pixels reflect a decrease in brightness, with respect to the immediately previous image.

'Running differencing' generates some unusual effects. For example, the mottled background is created by the motion of the stars through the field-of-view as the spacecraft pointing direction slowly changes (the Andromeda galaxy is the oblong 'smudge' near the upper left corner). The planets Venus (right edge of HI-2) and Mercury are visible (near center of HI-1), their column of pixels saturated due to their brightness.

  • STEREO: Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory

  • SOHO: SOlar Heliospheric Observatory

  • LASCO: Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph

  • EUVI: Extreme UltraViolet Imager

    This movie shows a pair of CMEs moving out from the Sun and into the view of HI-1 and HI-2.

    This opening view has imagery from the instruments (from left to right): STEREO/HI-1, STEREO/HI-2, SOHO/LASCO/C3, SOHO/LASCO/C2, and STEREO/EUVI. Streams from the tail of comet McNaught radiate out across the lower right of HI-2, which is the leftmost image.

    This opening view has imagery from the instruments (from left to right): STEREO/HI-1, STEREO/HI-2, SOHO/LASCO/C3, SOHO/LASCO/C2, and STEREO/EUVI. Streams from the tail of comet McNaught radiate out across the lower right of HI-2, which is the leftmost image.

    The CME (bright region on right side of the middle square image) has moved from the LASCO imagers into the view of HI-1.

    The CME (bright region on right side of the middle square image) has moved from the LASCO imagers into the view of HI-1.

    The CME has moved from the view of HI-1 into view of HI-2.

    The CME has moved from the view of HI-1 into view of HI-2.

    As the CME moves out, the leading edge appears bright while the trailing edge appears dark in difference images.

    As the CME moves out, the leading edge appears bright while the trailing edge appears dark in difference images.

    The front of the CME shock expands and dissipates as it interacts with the existing heliospheric environment.

    The front of the CME shock expands and dissipates as it interacts with the existing heliospheric environment.

    The remains of the CMEs passge fades away.

    The remains of the CMEs passge fades away.

    Credits

    Please give credit for this item to:
    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

    This page was originally published on Thursday, March 1, 2007.
    This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:55 PM EDT.

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