SOHO/MDI and other SOHO Press Releases
August 18, 2011
SOHO/MDI and SDO/HMI Data Used to Detect Subsurface Signature of Erupting Active Regions SOHO Featured in NASA's Mission Madness online voting competition SOHO was chosen, and is, one of the 64 candidates for greatest NASA mission .
****UPDATE****
The voting has ended, and SOHO got second place in the competition! Great job everyone! Thank you for voting for SOHO in the Championship round of NASA's Mission Madness!
Interview with our star, the Sun.
Interview with Dr. Joe Gurman (NASA Goddard)
Here you can read the MDI Interview.June 26, 2006
A New Sun Born in Computer Wears the Right Look for Eclipse New NASA and National Science Foundation-funded research has produced the most true-to-life computer simulation ever made of our sun's multimillion-degree atmosphere, as confirmed by actual observations during the March 29 solar eclipse. MDI Magnetograms provide starting data for these calculations.
March 9, 2006
Solar Storms: Nowhere to Hide from SOHO's Improved 'X-Ray Vision'
Announcement of availability of the "full_farside" analyses. See also:
August 16, 2005
Scientists One Step Closer to Forecasting 'Clear Skies' for Astronauts A discussion of the results published the TRACE and MDI team in "The Nonpotentiality of Active-Region Coronae and Dynamics of the Photospheric MAgnetic Field", to be published in the Astrophysicsl Journal on July 20, 2005.
January 3, 2003
Wave-like properties of solar supergranulation. Analysis of SOHO data has revealed that the large convective cells known as supergranules propagate around the Sun like a wave. This discovery explains why the pattern of supergranulation appears to rotate faster than anything else on the solar surface.
June 5, 2002
Giant loops in the solar atmosphere may trigger Sun's magnetic poles reversals. Analysis of SOHO and Yohkoh data has revealed that giant X-ray loops in the hot solar corona provide important magnetic links between sunspots and the Sun's magnetic poles. These giant loops are about 500,000 miles long and filed with 3,500,000 F hot electrified gas. The loops appear during the growing phase of the 11-year sunspot cycle, and are associated with bursts of the sunspot activity, which come every 1-1.5 years and cause reversal of the magnetic poles around the cycle maximum. It is suggested that these links play an important role in "solar dynamo", the process that generates strong magnetic fields on the Sun and is the source of sunspots, solar flares and mass ejections that affect the Earth space environment.
April 4, 2002
Torquing Up the Interior of the Sun (link to Imperial College) Solar magnetism remains one of the big unsolved problems of physics. New findings on variations of the rotation rate deep in the Sun's convective envelope provide new insights into the solar dynamo. Reporting in Science, an international team has detected variations in the rotation rate of the solar interior which appear to be intimately connected with the 11-year cycle of the Sun's magnetic activity.
Inside the Sun- What Goes on In a Giant Active Region Using an instrument on the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, helioseismologists studied the changing structure underlying the largest active region of the current solar cycle and found that the manner in which it formed and grew was contrary to expectations. And, investigators discovered that the area beneath a sunspot is spinning, and are trying to understand what that means.
SOHO's MDI shows why sunspots don't fly apart Why do sunspots last for weeks instead of flying apart? Like huge magnets, strong magnetic fields in sunspots naturally repel each other. What holds them together?
- Astrophysical Journal (vol. 557,no. 384-388) Investigation of Mass Flows beneath a Sunspot by Time-Distance Helioseismology, J. Zhao, A.G. Kosovichev, T.L. Duvall, Jr.
- The following are the press releases from sponsoring agencies and institutions.
- NASA Headlines: What Lies Beneath a Sunspot
- ESA News: SOHO reveals how sunspots take a stranglehold on the Sun
- Goddard Space Flight Center: The Sun's Dark Secret: How Sunspots Pull Themselves Together
- Stanford Report: Scientists solve centuries-old query: What's inside a sunspot?
- SOHO Hotshots : Maelstrom, Hurricane, Whirlpool?
- Media Coverage
Touching the Heart of the Solar Dynamo Periodic variations in the strength of the rotation shear at the base of the convection zone have been detected with a combination of GONG and MDI observations.
- Science Magazine paper in 31 March 2000 issue (vol. 287,no. 5462) (This is only accessible to subscribers.): Dynamic Variations at the Base of the Solar Convection Zone, R. Howe, J. Christensen-Dalsgaard, F. Hill, R.W. Komm, R.M. Larsen, J. Schou, M.J. Thompson, J. Toomre , and Perspective by D. Gough
- The following are the press releases from sponsoring agencies and institutions.
- NASA Press Release: Sun's Heartbeat May Help Unravel Mystery of Solar Cycle
OSS Recent Space Science News
- NSF Press Release: Solar "Heartbeat" Discovered
- ESA Science Press Release: The Pulse of the Sun,s Dynamo
- Stanford Press Release in Stanford Report: Strange 'spin cycle' inside the sun may explain sunspots, solar flares and other mysteries
- NOAO Press Release: The Beat Goes On - Inside the Sun
- Univ of Colorado News: New Observations of Sun's Interior Shed Light on Magnetic Field Activity
MDI Peers Through to the Otherside of the Sun Images of an active region on the far side of the Sun were derived by applying seismic holography to recent helioseismic observations from space.
- References to this story:
- Science Magazine paper: Seismic Images of the Far Side of the Sun, C. Lindsey and D. C. Braun
- NASA Space Science Update: "SOHO Sees Right Through the Sun"
- ESA Press Release: "SOHO sees right through the Sun, and finds sunspots on the far side"
Solar Flare Leaves Sun Quaking [press release 27 May 1998] - Members of the SOI Science Team analyzing MDI data have shown for the first time that solar flares produce seismic waves in the Sun's interior that closely resemble those created by earthquakes on our planet. The researchers observed a flare-generated solar quake that contained about 40,000 times the energy released in the great earthquake that devastated San Francisco in 1906.
November 5, 1997
- NASA Space Science Update: "Solar Mystery Nears Solution with Data from SOHO Spacecraft"
The following are news stories associated with the November 5, 1997 press conference.
- Astronomy Picture of the Day: "The Magnetic Carpet Of The Sun" (6 November 1997)
August 28, 1997
- NASA Space Science Update: "Plasma Rivers Discovered inside Sun"
The following are news stories associated with the August 28, 1997 press conference.
- CNN Sci-Tech: " Giant Rivers of Plasma Seen on the Sun" (28 August 1997
- Time Magazine: " Sun Shines for NASA Probe"(28 August 1997)
- Associated Press: Florida Today, Space Online: " Superhot Plasma Flows Found on the Sun" ( 29 August 1997)
- San Francisco Chronicle: " New Data Illuminate How Sun Works"( 29 August 1997)
- NPR: Rundown for Sounds Like Science: "Sun Sounds"
- Washington Post: "Solar Probe Offers New and Closer Look at Everything Under the Sun" (1 September 1997)
- Science News Online: " Spacecraft Probes Beneath Sun's Surface" (September 6, 1997, Volume 152, Number 10.)
February 14, 1997
December 17, 1996: Press Conference held at AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco
The following are news stories associated with the December 17 press conference:
- Stanford press release: "Pinning Down the Position of the Solar Dynamo"
- J. Kuhn press release: "Solar Corrugation"
- Associated Press: "New Images Find Mountains on Sun's Surface"
18 December 1996- Christian Science Monitor: "Satellite Images Show Our 'Round' Sun to be a Bit Knobby"
18 December 1996- San Francisco Examiner: "Satellite Discovers the Sun is Covered with Bumps"
18 December 1996- San Jose (CA) Mercury: "Hills, Valleys Found on Surface of Sun"
18 December 1996- Los Angeles Times: "New Images Show Sun is Covered by Wide Mountains of Hot Gases"
20 December 1996
December 2, 1996: First Anniversary of SOHO Launch
May 2, 1996
The first press conferences announcing SOHO scientific results were held in Paris and Washington, D.C. on 2 May 1996. Following are press releases associated with these news conferences:
- NetNews: ``SOHO Unmasks the Sun: Presentation of First Results''
A press release issued in advance of the ESA Paris press conference
23 April 1996
- European Space Agency: ``New Observatory Shows Sun Spewing Huge Flames''
2 May 1996
- NASA: ``Unexpectedly Active Sun and New Insights Into Solar Plumes Found''
2 May 1996
- CNN: `` Solar Plumes Spellbind Scientists'' (Link to CNN page with graphics)
2 May 1996- New York Times: ``Even `Quiet,' Sun Is Found Very Turbulent''
3 May 1996
- Royal Astronomical Society, UK: ``Space Experiment Logs `Weather' on the Sun''
3 May 1996