Experience the Spectacle: Three Years of Solar Fireworks Unveiled!

As we commence this new year, we reflect on close-up images and solar flare data captured by the ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission over the preceding three years. Experience and listen for yourself how the frequency of flares and their potency rise, a definitive indication of the sun nearing the apex of its 11-year solar cycle.

This video merges ultraviolet visuals of the sun’s outer layers (the corona, yellow) obtained from Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) device, alongside the dimensions and positions of solar flares (blue circles) as noted by the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) equipment. The accompanying sound is a sonification generated from the identified flares and the spacecraft’s proximity to the sun.

The Solar Orbiter follows an elliptical trajectory around the sun, drawing close to our star every six months. This movement is observable in the video from the spacecraft’s viewpoint, with the sun shifting closer and farther throughout the years. In the sonification, this is illustrated by the low ambient rumbling that intensifies as the sun approaches and diminishes as it recedes. (There are noticeable abrupt transitions in distance evident in the video, as it omits dates when one or both devices were inactive or gathering varying types of data.)

The blue circles signify solar flares: emissions of high-energy radiation detected by STIX in the form of X-rays. Flares are released by the sun when energy accumulated in “twisted” magnetic fields (typically situated above sunspots) is suddenly unleashed. The diameter of each circle reveals the strength of the flare, with more powerful flares generating a higher volume of X-rays. We can perceive the flares through the metallic sounds in the sonification, where the clarity of the sound corresponds to the energy level of the solar flare.