Experience Three Years of Spectacular Solar Fireworks in Motion and Sound!

As we commence this new year, we reflect on detailed images and solar flare data captured by the ESA-managed Solar Orbiter mission over the past three years. Experience for yourself how the quantity of flares and their strength escalate, a distinct indication of the Sun nearing the peak of the 11-year solar cycle.

This video merges ultraviolet visuals of the Sun’s outer layer (the corona, represented in yellow) obtained from Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument, with the scale and positioning of solar flares (shown as blue circles) recorded by the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) instrument. The background audio is a sonification derived from the identified flares and the spacecraft’s distance from the Sun.

Solar Orbiter follows an elliptical trajectory around the Sun, making close encounters with our star every six months. This aspect is evident in the video from the spacecraft’s viewpoint, with the Sun appearing to move closer and farther over the span of each year. In the sonification, this is depicted by the low ambient humming that intensifies as the Sun approaches and diminishes as it recedes. (Some abrupt changes in distance can be observed in the video, as it omits dates when one or both instruments were inactive or gathering different data.)

The blue circles symbolize solar flares: emissions of high-energy radiation of which STIX captures the X-rays. Flares are emitted by the Sun when energy that has accumulated in ‘twisted’ magnetic fields (typically above sunspots) is abruptly freed. The dimension of each circle reflects the strength of the flare, with more potent flares generating a higher output of X-rays. The flares can be recognized through the metallic sounds in the sonification, where the clarity of the sound correlates with the energy of the solar flare.

Our sincere gratitude to Klaus Nielsen (DTU Space / Maple Pools) for producing the sonification in this video. If you are interested in listening to additional sonifications and music by this artist, please check out: https://linktr.ee/maplepools

Solar Orbiter is an international collaborative space mission between ESA and NASA, operated by ESA.