We apologize for the interruption to Helioviewer services, and we thank you for your patience.

Here, users can share interesting features and events they find and get help identifying solar phenomena. In addition to forums on topics such as “transits and eclipses” to “coronal mass ejections,” we also have other sections including “solar physics” and “heliophysics” for anyone interested in learning more about the science that goes on behind the pretty pictures and movies.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

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)

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.

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:

This means that Helioviewer.org, JHelioviewer, and other applications that use Helioviewer Project services are now available and should be working as before. If you encounter any problems with any of our services please let us know. We are currently filling in missing data from 2011/08/05 through to 2011/09/16, and we ask for your patience during the next couple of weeks as we fill in the gaps. If you notice any gaps, please let us know, as we are eager to have as complete a record of solar activity as possible.

We do apologize for the interruption in service. This was caused by two distinct and unfortunately simultaneous hardware malfunctions on our server that took a long time to repair. We are looking exploring options that will ensure such a long break in service does not happen again. We are back now, and we hope you continue to explore your heliosphere!

It’s a great example of the complex evolution that an active can undergo in a relatively short amount of time. Studying the evolution of active region loops on the limb cuts right through the loops themselves so you don’t see any of the disk emission along your line of sight, and so removes a potential source of confusion.