Persistent Active Region (February 4, 2011)

Hi-res TIF image (1.4M)

Quicktime Movie: Large ( 16M), Small (2.4M)
MPEG Large ( 15M), Small (8.8M)

An active region continued to blast a couple more solar storm events over three days (Jan. 29-31, 2011) and two of these events, as they did for the three earlier days as well, sent waves across much of the Sun. The region was out of sight of other spacecraft, but due to its position ahead of Earth the STEREO (Ahead) spacecraft could see it and capture it in extreme UV light. The largest event (shown in the still) sent a compression wave that raced down and to the left, leaving a dark area behind it. It will be interesting to see if that spot is still as active when it rotates back around to face Earth in about eight days.

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.