Local network problems causing data lag and possible accessibility issues
We are currently experiencing some issues with our local network. Users of helioviewer.org may experience some difficulties in reaching the site, and users of JHelioviewer may experience difficulties in streaming data. The network problems are also making it difficult for us to acquire the most recent images; hence, SDO AIA and HMI images are currently lagging well behind near real-time.
Our network engineers are aware of these problems, and are working on them. We apologize for the interruptions to our services. We will be back to normal operations as soon as possible.
Helioviewer Team.
JHelioviewer 2.2.1 Released
Posted by Daniel Müller in AIA, Development, General, HMI, JHelioviewer, LASCO, Movies, Releases, Science, SDO, SOHO on April 10, 2012
A new version of JHelioviewer is available for download. What’s new? This update release contains improved movie export functionality, an updated LASCO C2 coronagraph mask, the new SDO Cutout Service plug-in plus various bug fixes.
The new movie export menu makes it easier to set the exact scaling of the area you are interested in, and the processing itself is now performed on the graphics card using OpenGL:
The SDO Cutout Service plug-in allows you to request science-quality image data from the SDO/AIA and HMI instruments for the region of interest and time range selected in JHelioviewer:
Helioviewer.org 2.3.0 Released
A new version of Helioviewer.org has been released including better movie customization, support for embedding Helioviewer.org in remote sites, and a number of performance and bug fixes.
Support has been added for embedding Helioviewer.org into third-party websites, and JSONP support makes it easier for new versions of the front-end to be created which interact with the main Helioviewer.org back-end. Similarly, the front-end has been rewritten to allow for easier creation of custom front-end clients without having to re-implement a tiling system, etc.
The back-end movie queuing system has been ported from Ruby to PHP to allow for better integration with the rest of the back-end, and the movies table structure has been modified for improved time estimation and similarity searching. Additional options (frame-rate and movie length) are offered to allow users further control over the movies they create and the duration option has been moved to a more obvious location.
Let us know what you think, or if you have any suggestions. Feedback is always welcome.
RELEASE NOTES:
Helioviewer.2.3.0 includes several new features to give users more control over how the site behaves. Let us know what you think, or if you have any suggestions. Feedback is always welcome.
New features:
* JSONP support
* Added option display date from last visit when returning to Helioviewer.org
* Added setting to automatically update images every 5 minutes
* Added support for embedding Helioviewer.org in other websites
* Added support for specifying frame-rate or duration during movie creation
* Added support for PROBA-2 SWAP data
* Created an installer diagnostic script
* Added support for tracking custom events in Google Analytics
* Movie and screenshot selection rectangle preserved during visit
* Data availability information included in getDateSources response
Bug fixes:
* Fixed bug #691356 JPX Summary file does not exist
* Fixed bug #783497 Port Helioqueuer to PHP
* Fixed bug #903360 Error occurs for certain layer orders when attempting to create AIA/LASCO
* Fixed bug #925542 The minimum width of the display window is too big
* Fixed bug #624857 After clicking “clear history” unfinished requests are still processed, and download links displayed
* Fixed bug #885795 Add image attribution to about dialog
* Fixed bug #888269 Attempt to normalize movie frame-rate instead of duration when possible
* Fixed bug #909795 Normalize date strings for API requests
* Fixed bug #909897 Mark movies that have not finished in less than x hours as Error
* Fixed bug #930628 Improve movie creation time estimation
* Fixed bug #942547 Validate value for dsun before attempting to process in front-side
* Fixed bug #609219 API should return an error message when an invalid parameter is specified in a request
* Fixed bug #783481 Report mouse coordinates immediately upon activation
* Fixed bug #787744 Add a checkSettings method to the UserSettings class to verify user settings integrity
* Fixed bug #876707 Included creation_time in FFmpeg metadata for mp4/webm movies
* Fixed bug #789515 Reduce filesize of WebM movies
Library updates:
* Flowplayer (3.2.7 => 3.2.8)
* jQuery (1.7.0 => 1.7.2)
* jQuery UI (1.8.16 => 1.8.18)
* jQuery.JSON (2.2 => 2.3)
* jQuery imgAreaSelect (0.9.5 => 0.9.8)
SDO data lag
As you may have noticed, we are currently experiencing a lag in the availability of SDO images. The lag is happening upstream of Helioviewer. The Helioviewer Project provides images of scientific data. The science data is beamed down from the spacecraft , to a dedicated ground station (as outlined here) in New Mexico. The packets of data are first re-assembled to form the raw science data, and then have some corrections applied to yield data suitable for science applications. Data is constantly streaming off the spacecraft and being processed through this pipeline, which involves many different locations and institutions.
One of those science applications is visualization of the data. The Helioviewer Project takes that science data and converts those data to JPEG2000 images, which we then make available via www.helioviewer.org and www.jhelioviewer.org. We have to have the science data available to make the JPEG2000 images.
As soon as new SDO-AIA and HMI images become available, we will make them available to you. We regret the interruption to the stream of SDO data. Other data-sets are unaffected, and are available as usual.
Where is the Solar Dynamics Observatory right now?
It’s here.
Why does the orbit have this shape? It’s because SDO takes so many large images that it has to have its own ground station to receive all that data (around 1.5 TB/day). In order to keep the flow of data running off the spacecraft, its geosynchronous orbit was designed to maintain contact with the ground station. For more detail, please go to http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/mission/project/specs.php.
User highlight: back-sided eruption appears to cause a front-sided eruption
Posted by jack in AIA, Helioviewer.org, Science, User Highlights on March 27, 2012
Helioviewer.org and YouTube user danielchangck found this event:
What happened? Well, there was an eruption on the back side of the Sun, that caused a propagating disturbance in the solar atmosphere. that appears to have triggered a prominence lift-off on the front-side of the Sun. This is a great example of how the high cadence, continuous observations from Solar Dynamics Observatory give us a much better view of how distant parts of the Sun can physically influence each other. We liked this event so much we made and uploaded some movies of our own. The lower cadence of these movies allows you to see the swaying of coronal material in response to the disturbance from the initial eruption.
Thanks to danielchangck for sharing this movie with other users of Helioviewer.org.
Spiralling eruption close to the south pole
A colleague who works with LASCO data yesterday found this lovely spiralling eruption close to the south pole.
It’s a great example of how the magnetic field can influence the dynamics of erupting plasma. The eruption starts around 00:13 in the above video.
Spotted: another coronal cavity
Posted by jack in AIA, Helioviewer.org, Science, User Highlights on March 16, 2012
YouTube and Helioviewer.org user sedge2002 found another coronal cavity. This one was on the Sun late 2011 to early 2012. It appears towards the end of this movie, at around 30-45 degrees clockwise from the north pole of Sun, above the limb:
Thanks to sedge2002 for making this movie and sharing it with other users of Helioviewer.org. As the movie demonstrates, coronal cavities do occur, and so the one you may have earlier in the week, whilst a great example of a coronal cavity, is definitely not unique. What is a coronal cavity? Let Dr. Alex Young of the The Sun Today tell you:
Server Maintenance: Thursday, March 15 (14:00-16:00 UT)
Helioviewer.org and JHelioviewer will be unavailable on Thursday, March 15 from approximately 14:00UT – 16:00UT for planned server maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
The Sun Today: Double Blast – Exciting Space Weather from AR11429
Dr. Alex Young over at The Sun Today posted a really nice video describing the multiple flares and CMEs from this morning. Definitely worth a watch if you want to know what is going on during the eruptions and the impact it is having on Earth.
Update 2012/03/07
Here are a couple more related videos from LittleSDO: