PICK OF THE WEEK
Pick of The Week
CMEs - Two for One (October 2, 2002)
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Two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were observed by SOHO's LASCO C2
instrument on 27 September 2002. In close sequence, two CMEs blasted
out from the Sun within hours of each other (at the ten o'clock and
seven o'clock positions). Though not particularly strong or large,
these are not often seen so close together in time. CMEs eject a
billion tons of particles traveling one to two millions of miles an
hour. The dark disk blocks the Sun so that the LASCO instrument can
observe the structures of the corona in visible light - structures a
billion times fainter than the disk of the Sun. The CMEs did not
appear to be Earth-directed. 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. If your institution would also like to receive the same Weekly Pick from us for display (usually in Photoshop or QuickTime format), please send your inquiry to steele.hill@gsfc.nasa.gov. |
