Initially of this new 12 months, we glance again at close-up photos and photo voltaic flare knowledge recorded by the ESA-led Photo voltaic Orbiter mission during the last three years. See and listen to for your self how the variety of flares and their depth enhance, a transparent signal of the Solar approaching the height of the 11-year photo voltaic cycle.
This video combines ultraviolet pictures of the Solar’s outer ambiance (the corona, yellow) taken by Photo voltaic Orbiter’s Excessive Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument, with the dimensions and areas of photo voltaic flares (blue circles) as recorded by the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) instrument. The accompanying audio is a sonification based mostly on the detected flares and the spacecraft’s distance to the Solar.
Photo voltaic Orbiter strikes on an elliptical path across the Solar, making an in depth strategy to our star each six months. We will see this within the video from the spacecraft’s perspective, with the Solar shifting nearer and farther over the course of every 12 months. Within the sonification, that is represented by the low background buzzing that loudens because the Solar will get nearer and turns into quieter because it strikes additional away. (There are some abrupt shifts in distance seen within the video, because it skips over dates the place one or each devices had been inactive or gathering a distinct sort of information.)
The blue circles characterize photo voltaic flares: bursts of high-energy radiation of which STIX detects the X-rays. Flares are despatched out by the Solar when power saved in ‘twisted’ magnetic fields (often above sunspots) is all of the sudden launched. The scale of every circle signifies how robust the flare is, with stronger flares sending out extra X-rays. We will hear the flares within the metallic clinks within the sonification, the place the sharpness of the sound corresponds to how energetic the photo voltaic flare is.
Many due to Klaus Nielsen (DTU House / Maple Swimming pools) for making the sonification on this video. If you want to listen to extra sonifications and music by this artist, please go to: https://linktr.ee/maplepools
Photo voltaic Orbiter is an area mission of worldwide collaboration between ESA and NASA, operated by ESA.
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