Fast-moving CME (August 16, 2002)
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On August 16, 2002 SOHO's LASCO C2 instrument observed a halo coronal
mass ejection (CME) as it blasted away from the Sun. Its source was
near a large sunspot, several times the size of Earth, labeled AR
0069 and it was associated with an M5 flare. The speed of the CME
was estimated to be a fast 1404 km/s. A "halo" CME means that
material can be seen spreading out from the sun in all directions
almost like a halo around it. The CME impacted Earth in just two
days on Sunday, Aug. 18 and triggered a relatively minor G-1
geomagnetic storm (on a scale of 1-5). Aurora could be seen in much
of Northern Europe and Canada. The video shows the Sunspot, an EIT 304 image of the full disk at about the time of the flare and CME, then a series of images of the storm as it heads out into space. 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. |
