FSI - Full Sun Imager - Click on the images to download the movies.
CREDIT: ESA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team: CSL, IAS, MPS, PMOD/WRC, ROB, UCL/MSSL.
Source of the solar wind
These movies show part of the back side of the Sun, a part which can’t be seen from the Earth. In its orbit around the Sun in 168 days, Solar Orbiter gets to see all sides of the Sun. The Full Sun Imager (FSI), part of the EUI instrument, plays a key role in the Solar Orbiter mission, as it shows the source structures of the solar wind over the full solar disc from all sides. Solar wind data measured near the spacecraft by other onboard instruments, i.e. in situ, can in this way be linked to structures on the Sun.
Technical Info
These movies have been produced by the "Full Sun Imager", which is part of the EUI instrument, shortly after the first perihelion, the closest approach of Solar Orbiter to the Sun during its orbit. The two different movies correspond to different wavelengths in the Extreme Ultraviolet. The colors have been artificially added to support easy visual identification of the images. The yellow/golden movie shows the solar corona at about 1 million degrees Kelvin. The red movie shows the solar transition region at a temperature of roughly hundred thousand degrees.