Sun: Helium Wavelength (AIA 304)
Details
Permalink to Details- Added to the Catalog
- Available for
- SOS
- Explorer
- Categories
- Space: Solar
- Keywords
- Astronomy
- Electromagnetic
- EUV
- Solar Flares
- Solar Storm
- Space
- Space Weather
- Stars
- Sunspots
Description
Permalink to DescriptionThe sun is often most interesting to observe at Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) wavelengths rather than visible wavelengths. In the EUV, the sunspots and active regions are bright instead of dark and the solar magnetic field can be observed as loops around the active region. Solar physicists and space weather forecasters watch the sun with special EUV cameras mounted on satellites. One such satellite, the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), carries the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly which images the solar atmosphere in multiple EUV wavelengths. By imaging the sun at a resolution of about 1 arcsecond and at a cadence of 10 seconds, this instrument is designed to provide an unprecedented view of the part of the solar atmosphere called the corona. At this resolution, each AIA image contains 2048 x 2048 pixels or 17 Megapixels. The primary goal of the AIA Science Investigation is to use these data to significantly improve our understanding of the physics behind the activity displayed by the Sun's atmosphere, which drives space weather.
This sequence shows the helium 30.4 nm channel which highlights the active network and filaments on the sun. Five days of data were collected from 5-9 September 2011 at a 2.5 minute cadence. These images were stretched and modified to create a more realistic display for the SOS format. It should be noted that the SDO imagers can only see one side of the sun so it is impossible to know what is going on around on the back side. In order to create a full 360 sequence of images, the central part of the sun, where the resolution is the best, was repeated three times to create the appearance of the full sun. You can see that the bright active region appears three times and there is a region where each image overlaps its neighbor creating a slight blurring of the image.
During this sequence, there are several things to look for. First, the active network of the sun is constantly boiling and churning. Then there are long dark thread-like features call filament channels. There are the bright active regions with complex magnetic loops that shift and change. And then throughout this sequence, there are a number of solar flares that erupt from the brightest active region. You have to watch carefully to see them. When the flare erupts, the magnetic loops around the flare rearrange and change. And a blast wave expands across the surface of the sun emanating from the flare.
Solar flares often initiate a sequence of events called Space Weather. The solar flare itself can impact radio communication at Earth. The flare can initiate a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) which travels at several million km per hour and, if it hits Earth, can create a lot of problems for satellites, airlines, electric power lines, and GPS. The CME can create a geomagnetic storm that produces aurora.
This sequence was created by undergraduate students in the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program in cooperation with NASA and the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center.
Next Generation Science Standards
Permalink to Next Generation Science StandardsCross-cutting Concepts
Permalink to Cross-cutting ConceptsGrades K–2
C1 Patterns. Children recognize that patterns in the natural and human designed world can be observed, used to describe phenomena, and used as evidence
C3 Scale Proportion and Quantity. Students use relative scales (e.g., bigger and smaller; hotter and colder; faster and slower) to describe objects. They use standard units to measure length.
C7 Stability and Change. Students observe some things stay the same while other things change, and things may change slowly or rapidly.
Grades 3–5
C1 Patterns. Students identify similarities and differences in order to sort and classify natural objects and designed products. They identify patterns related to time, including simple rates of change and cycles, and to use these patterns to make predictions.
C3 Scale Proportion and Quantity. Students recognize natural objects and observable phenomena exist from the very small to the immensely large. They use standard units to measure and describe physical quantities such as weight, time, temperature, and volume.
C4 Systems and System Models. Students understand that a system is a group of related parts that make up a whole and can carry out functions its individual parts cannot. They can also describe a system in terms of its components and their interactions.
C5 Energy and Matter. Students learn matter is made of particles and energy can be transferred in various ways and between objects. Students observe the conservation of matter by tracking matter flows and cycles before and after processes and recognizing the total weight of substances does not change.
Grades 6–8
C1 Patterns. Students recognize that macroscopic patterns are related to the nature of microscopic and atomic-level structure. They identify patterns in rates of change and other numerical relationships that provide information about natural and human designed systems. They use patterns to identify cause and effect relationships, and use graphs and charts to identify patterns in data.
C3 Scale Proportion and Quantity. Students observe time, space, and energy phenomena at various scales using models to study systems that are too large or too small. They understand phenomena observed at one scale may not be observable at another scale, and the function of natural and designed systems may change with scale. They use proportional relationships (e.g., speed as the ratio of distance traveled to time taken) to gather information about the magnitude of properties and processes. They represent scientific relationships through the use of algebraic expressions and equations
C5 Energy and Matter. Students learn matter is conserved because atoms are conserved in physical and chemical processes. They also learn within a natural or designed system, the transfer of energy drives the motion and/or cycling of matter. Energy may take different forms (e.g. energy in fields, thermal energy, energy of motion). The transfer of energy can be tracked as energy flows through a designed or natural system.
C7 Stability and Change. Students explain stability and change in natural or designed systems by examining changes over time, and considering forces at different scales, including the atomic scale. Students learn changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another part, systems in dynamic equilibrium are stable due to a balance of feedback mechanisms, and stability might be disturbed by either sudden events or gradual changes that accumulate over time
Grades 9–12
C1 Patterns. Students observe patterns in systems at different scales and cite patterns as empirical evidence for causality in supporting their explanations of phenomena. They recognize classifications or explanations used at one scale may not be useful or need revision using a different scale; thus requiring improved investigations and experiments. They use mathematical representations to identify certain patterns and analyze patterns of performance in order to re-engineer and improve a designed system.
C5 Energy and Matter. Students learn that the total amount of energy and matter in closed systems is conserved. They can describe changes of energy and matter in a system in terms of energy and matter flows into, out of, and within that system. They also learn that energy cannot be created or destroyed. It only moves between one place and another place, between objects and/or fields, or between systems. Energy drives the cycling of matter within and between systems. In nuclear processes, atoms are not conserved, but the total number of protons plus neutrons is conserved.
C7 Stability and Change. Students understand much of science deals with constructing explanations of how things change and how they remain stable. They quantify and model changes in systems over very short or very long periods of time. They see some changes are irreversible, and negative feedback can stabilize a system, while positive feedback can destabilize it. They recognize systems can be designed for greater or lesser stability
Disciplinary Core Ideas
Permalink to Disciplinary Core IdeasGrades K–2
ESS1.A The Universe and its Stars. Patterns of movement of the sun, moon, and stars as seen from Earth can be observed, described, and predicted
ESS1.B Earth and the Solar System. Patterns of movement of the sun, moon, and stars as seen from Earth can be observed, described, and predicted
PS1.A Structure of Matter. Matter exists as different substances that have observable different properties. Different properties are suited to different purposes. Objects can be built up from smaller parts.
PS3.D Energy in Chemical Process and Everyday Life. Sunlight warms Earth’s surface.
PS4.B Electromagnetic Radiation. Objects can be seen only when light is available to illuminate them.
Grades 3–5
ESS1.A The Universe and its Stars. Stars range greatly in size and distance from Earth and this can explain their relative brightness.
ESS1.B Earth and the Solar System. The Earth’s orbit and rotation, and the orbit of the moon around the Earth cause observable patterns.
ESS3.A Natural Resources. Energy and fuels humans use are derived from natural sources and their use affects the environment. Some resources are renewable over time, others are not.
ESS3.B Natural Hazards. A variety of hazards result from natural processes; humans cannot eliminate hazards but can reduce their impacts.
Grades 6–8
ESS1.A The Universe and its Stars. The universe began with a period of extreme and rapid expansion known as the Big Bang. Earth and its solar system are part of the Milky Way galaxy, which is one of many galaxies in the universe.
ESS1.B Earth and the Solar System. The solar system contains many varied objects held together by gravity. Solar system models explain and predict eclipses, tides, lunar phases, and seasons.
ESS2.A Earth Materials and Systems. Energy flows and matter cycles within and among Earth’s systems, including the sun and Earth’s interior as primary energy sources. Plate tectonics is one result of these processes.
ESS3.B Natural Hazards. Mapping the history of natural hazards in a region and understanding related geological forces can help forecast the locations and likelihoods of future events, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and severe weather.
PS1.A Structure of Matter. The fact that matter is composed of atoms and molecules can be used to explain the properties of substances, diversity of materials, states of matter, phase changes, and conservation of matter.
PS1.B Chemical Reactions. Reacting substances rearrange to form different molecules, but the number of atoms is conserved. Some reactions release energy and others absorb energy.
PS1.C Nuclear Processes. Nuclear fusion can result in the merging of two nuclei to form a larger one, along with the release of significantly more energy per atom than any chemical process. Nuclear fusion taking place in the cores of stars provides the energy released (as light) from those stars and produced all of the more massive atoms from primordial hydrogen.
PS3.C Relationship between energy and forces. When two objects interact, each one exerts a force on the other, and these forces can transfer energy between them.
PS4.A Wave Properties. A simple wave model has a repeating pattern with a specific wavelength, frequency, and amplitude, and mechanical waves need a medium through which they are transmitted. This model can explain many phenomena including sound and light. Waves can transmit energy
Grades 9–12
ESS1.A The Universe and its Stars. The sun is just one of more than 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and the Milky Way is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. The study of stars’ light spectra and brightness is used to identify compositional elements of stars, their movements, and their distances from Earth.
ESS1.B Earth and the Solar System. Kepler’s laws describe common features of the motions of orbiting objects. Observations from astronomy and space probes provide evidence for explanations of solar system formation. Changes in Earth’s tilt and orbit cause climate changes such as Ice Ages
ESS2.A Earth Materials and Systems. Feedback effects exist within and among Earth’s systems.The geological record shows that changes to global and regional climate can be caused by interactions among changes in the sun’s energy output or Earth’s orbit, tectonic events, ocean circulation, volcanic activity, glaciers, vegetation, and human activities.
ESS3.B Natural Hazards. Natural hazards and other geological events have shaped the course of human history at local, regional, and global scales. Human activities can contribute to the frequency and intensity of some natural hazards.
PS1.A Structure of Matter. The sub-atomic structural model and interactions between electric charges at the atomic scale can be used to explain the structure and interactions of matter, including chemical reactions and nuclear processes. Repeating patterns of the periodic table reflect patterns of outer electrons. A stable molecule has less energy than the same set of atoms separated; one must provide at least this energy to take the molecule apart
PS1.B Chemical Reactions. Chemical processes are understood in terms of collisions of molecules, rearrangement of atoms, and changes in energy as determined by properties of elements involved.
PS1.C Nuclear Processes. Nuclear processes, including fusion, fission, and radio-active decays of unstable nuclei, involve changes in nuclear binding energies. The total number of neutrons plus protons does not change in any nuclear process. Strong and weak nuclear interactions determine nuclear stability and processes. Normal stars cease producing light after having converted all of the material in their cores to carbon or, for more massive stars, to iron. Elements more massive than iron are formed by fusion processes but only in the extreme conditions of supernova explosions, which explains why they are relatively rare.
PS2.A Forces and Motion. Newton’s 2nd law (F=ma) and the conservation of momentum can be used to predict changes in the motion of macroscopic objects.
PS2.C Stability & Instability in Physical Systems. Systems often change in predictable ways; understanding the forces that drive the transformations and cycles within a system, as well as the forces imposed on the system from the outside, helps predict its behavior under a variety of conditions. When a system has a great number of component pieces, one may not be able to predict much about its precise future. For such systems (e.g., with very many colliding molecules), one can often predict average but not detailed properties and behaviors (e.g., average temperature, motion, and rates of chemical change but not the trajectories or other changes of particular molecules). Systems may evolve in unpredictable ways when the outcome depends sensitively on the starting condition and the starting condition cannot be specified precisely enough to distinguish between different possible outcomes.
PS4.A Wave Properties. The wavelength and frequency of a wave are related to one another by the speed of the wave, which depends on the type of wave and the medium through which it is passing. Waves can be used to transmit information and energy.
PS4.B Electromagnetic Radiation. Both an electromagnetic wave model and a photon model explain features of electromagnetic radiation broadly and describe common applications of electromagnetic radiation.
Notable Features
Permalink to Notable Features- The quiet part of the sun is constantly boiling and churning.
- There are long dark thread-like features in quiet sun called filament channels.
- There are bright active regions with complex magnetic loops that constantly shift and change.
- Throughout this sequence, there are a number of solar flares that erupt from the brightest active region. They happen quickly in this time lapse sequence so you have to watch carefully to see them.
Data Source
Permalink to Data SourceGoddary Space Flight Center Solar Dynamics Observatory