Scientists' 1st-ever view of sun's middle corona could sharpen space weather forecasts
By Samantha Mathewson about 7 hours ago
Researchers from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) captured the first-ever images of the sun's middle corona — also known as the sun's outer atmosphere. (Image credit: Dan Seaton/NCEI/CIRES)
Recent telescope views shed new light on the sun's elusive middle corona that could prove beneficial to space weather forecasts.
Using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) GOES-17 satellite, researchers from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) captured the first-ever images of the sun's middle corona — also known as the sun's outer atmosphere — and the dynamics that trigger solar wind and the big eruptions dubbed coronal mass ejections, according to a statement from the NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
"Our instruments focus on the sun, but not at the heights needed to see these events," Dan Seaton, lead author of the study and a scientist with NCEI and CIRES, said in the statement. "We were able to create a larger field of view and construct mosaic images of the sun showing the solar corona in extreme ultraviolet light, to answer questions about how the sun's outer atmosphere connects to the surface of the star."
The images were taken by the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) on the GOES-17 satellite in August and September of 2018. The solar photos capture views of the middle corona from each side of the sun and head on. Researchers pieced these different views together to create a larger composite image, revealing the structure, temperature and nature of extreme ultraviolet emissions from this region of the sun's outer atmosphere, which is generally more difficult to see, according to the statement.
More:
https://www.space.com/sun-middle-corona-first-view-space-weather