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SOHO: the new solar cycle starts with a ‘bang’

14 January 2008

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This video clip obtained by SOHO’s EIT instrument, was taken in extreme ultraviolet light and covers about 24 hours. It shows two ‘EIT waves’, a kind of solar storm that blasts out from an active region across a portion of the Sun’s surface.

The two waves originated in the sunspot whose appearing marked the start of the new solar cycle (‘Cycle 24’) on 4 January 2008. The first, smaller wave was observed on 6 January 2008, while a stronger wave was observed the next day.

Credits: SOHO/EIT (ESA & NASA)

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This image, obtained by the MDI imager on board SOHO, shows the sunspot that marked the beginning of the new solar cycle on 4 January 2008 (‘Cycle 24’).

Credits: SOHO/MDI (ESA & NASA)

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This clip is a so-called ‘running-difference’ movie version of the video obtained by SOHO’s EIT telescope on 6 and 7 January 2008: the differences between single frames were highlighted in order to see more easily the changes on the Sun’s surface observed by SOHO.

The movie shows the two ‘EIT waves’, a kind of solar storm that blasts out from an active region across a portion of the Sun’s surface, generated by the first sunspot of the new solar cycle.

Credits: SOHO/EIT (ESA & NASA)

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HI-RES JPEG (Size: 524 kb)

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This image obtained by SOHO’s EIT instrument, was taken in extreme ultraviolet light. It shows the area of the solar surface from which two ‘EIT waves’, a kind of solar storm that blasts out from an active region across a portion of the Sun’s surface, were originated on 6 and 7 January 2008. This area is the sunspot whose appearing marked the start of the new solar cycle (‘Cycle 24’) on 4 January 2008.

Credits: ESA/NASA - SOHO/EIT

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