Active Region 652 Shows Off (July 29, 2004)
Hi-res TIFF format).
Those who have been following the active region AR 652 as it has rotated around the Sun have not been disappointed. The impossible-to-miss sunspot group has generated a number of CMEs and flares and created interesting visual effects as well. Some of the best visuals appeared around 18:00 UT on July 25, 2004. By then, in visible light the area had split into two distinct sunspots with numerous smaller ones surrounding them. In extreme ultraviolet light (center image), numerous bright loops, telltales of the invisible magnetic field, can be seen linking this area to a smaller active region below it. And in the LASCO C3 coronagraph the largest CME from AR 652 can be seen blasting particles into space. The CME impacted the earth's magnetosphere and upper atmosphere 36 hours later. Those impacts resulted in a severe geomagnetic storm and the strongest aurora in nine months. Likewise, the CME drove the most severe energetic particle storm since the extraordinary solar activity of October - November of last year.
The movie shows the powerful CME in LASCO C3. The white circle represents the size of the Sun. The blue occulting disk blocks the light of the Sun so that we can see activity in the corona.
SOHO began its Weekly Pick some time after sending a weekly image or video clip to the American Museum of Natural History (Rose Center) in New York City. There, the SOHO Weekly Pick is displayed with some annotations on a large plasma display.
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