First ever STEREO images of the entire Sun

6 February 2011: It's official: the Sun is a ball.

On 6 February, NASA's twin STEREO probes positioned on opposite sides of the Sun moved, and they are again continuously now bright blue sky images of the entire Star - front and rear.

"For the first time, we solar activity can see in its full three-dimensional glory," says Angelos Vourlidas, a member of the team of STEREO science at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, DC.

NASA released a "first light" of 3D movie on course Super Bowl, Sun day:

"This is a great moment in solar physics," says Vourlidas. "STEREO has the Sun revealed, as it really is - a sphere of hot plasma and artfully woven magnetic fields."

Each STEREO spacecraft photographed half of Star and radiates the images on the Earth. Researchers combine the two views create a ball. These however are regular images. STEREO telescopes are selected by extreme UV radiation at four wavelengths, tuned to trace key aspects of solar activity such as flares, tsunamis and magnetic filaments. Nothing escapes their attention.

"With data like this, we can fly to see the Sun, what happens behind the horizon - without ever from our desks," says STEREO program Lika Guhathakurta scientist at NASA headquarters. "This could lead weather to significant advances in solar physics and space."

Note: in the past, an active sunspot could emerge on the back of the Sun completely hidden by the Earth. The Sun could turn rotation this region on our planet, spitting flares and clouds of plasma, with little warning.

"No more", says a senior Bill Murtagh, meteorologist at NOAA's space weather prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado. "Farside active regions can no longer take us surprised." "Thanks to STEREO we know that she can get."

NOAA uses already STEREO 3D models of CMEs (billion-ton plasma clouds ejected from the Sun), to improve space weather forecasts for airlines, energy companies, satellite operators and other customers. The full sun view should improve these forecasts even more.

The forecasting benefits are not limited to the Earth.

"With this beautiful global model we now solar storms position compared to other planets also can track", stresses Guhathakurta. "This is important for NASA missions to mercury, Mars, call asteroid..." "You."

NASA builds on this moment since October 2006 when the STEREO left Earth, probes split, and run for positions on opposite sides of the Sun (film). 6 February 2011, the date was "were opposition" - i.e., when STEREO-A and b 180 degrees from each other each view in a different hemisphere removed,. NASA's orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory monitors the Sun 24 / 7. Working together, should be the STEREO SDO fleet able, throughout the world for the next 8 years image.

The new view showed previously overlooked connections. For example, researchers have long suspected that solar activity "globally, can go" with eruptions on opposite sides of the Sun triggering and feeding from each other. Now, you can actually study the phenomenon. The great eruption of August 2010 gobbled up about 2 / 3 of the stellar surface with dozens of mutually interacting flares, shock waves and echoey filaments. Much of the action, Earth was hidden, but clearly visible for the fleet of STEREO and SDO.

"There are many fundamental rights mystery underlying solar activity," says Vourlidas. "By monitoring the entire Sun, we can find the missing parts."

Researchers say this first look pictures are just a hint of what will come. Movies with higher resolution and more action appears in the weeks before while more data are processed. Stand by!

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

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