Institut national de recherche scientifique français Univerité Pierre et Marie Curie Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7

The solar corona in a new light: initial results from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on the Solar Dynamics Observatory

Wednesday 5 May 2010, by Karel Schrijver (Stanford-Lockheed Institute for Space Research)

Tuesday 11 May 2010 à 11h00 , Lieu : Salle de confĂ©rence du bât. 17

The recently-launched Solar Dynamics Observatory is changing our view of solar activity, with its three state-of-the-art instruments for helioseismic and magnetic imaging (HMI), for observations of the solar corona (AIA), and the solar spectral irradiance (EVE). The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly observes the entire visible solar corona at the best resolution of its predecessors, but with seven EUV channels to provide full thermal coverage, and with a cadence of about 10 seconds. Its data rate exceeds those of SOHO’s EIT by a factor of 10,000 and of TRACE by 1,000. These enormous advances reveal details of the solar corona never seen before. In its first month of observations, AIA has already seen multiple filament eruptions, flares, active regions, and coronal holes. In this talk, I will review some of the first results from these early observations, which include post-eruption thermal evolution, global coronal waves and coronal-loop oscillations, coronal rain, and the intricate interconnections on scales from small ephemeral regions up to a solar radius.