Pre-Fourth of July Fireworks (July 9, 2010)

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The Sun blasted out at least six coronal mass ejections (CMEs), some of them quite substantive, over a 3.5 day period leading up to July 4 (July 1-4, 2010). The STEREO Ahead spacecraft caught the action with its COR2 coronagraph. At one point portions of no less than three CMEs were billowing away from the Sun at the same time, a spate of activity rarely seen over the past few years. CMEs are billion ton clouds of particles ejected by the Sun at over a million miles per hour. None of these was known to impact Earth.

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.