Spanning 11 years (November 2, 2007)

Hi-res TIF image (1.4M)

This week SOHO offers a comparison of solar observations from the same instrument a solar cycle: two EIT 304 Angstrom images (in extreme ultraviolet light) across exactly eleven years. This is about the average length of a solar cycle. The left-hand image is an early EIT image from SOHO, taken October 1996 when the Sun was near its minimum level of activity. It is quite similar in the general level of solar activity observed (usually seen as whiter areas in these kinds of images) to the right-hand image taken just this week. Both lack any intense regions of magnetic activity. At solar minimum, they also give a much clearer view of the polar coronal holes, the darker regions at the bottom and, to a lesser extent, the top of the Sun. This is the Sun near its minimum period of activity in its 11-year cycle. And that workhorse, SOHO, is still going strong!

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.