Picking up the Pace (April 20, 2012)

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This combination of a SDO Sun and two coronagraphs from SOHO capture the expanding clouds of five, that's right, five good-sized solar storms over one and a half days (Apr. 16-17, 2012), a considerably quickened pace. The storms went out from the Sun into space in various directions, suggesting that they came from different areas on the Sun. To give a sense of perspective, the width of the field of view seen here is about 25 solar radii (somewhat cropped from the SOHO LASCO C3 coronagraph's maximum field of view). These clouds of charged particles are speeding into space at over a million miles per hour.

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.