The European Space Agency (ESA) has published a video based on data from the Solar Orbiter mission. It shows the process of increasing solar activity over the last three years.
The activity of our Sun is not constant. It changes cyclically. The most famous is the 11-year cycle. It is characterized by a rather rapid (about 4 years on average) increase in the number of sunspots accompanied by powerful flares and coronal mass ejections and a subsequent, slower (about 7 years) decrease in their number.
A video published by ESA shows the Sun approaching its maximum activity in the current cycle. This process is shown from the perspective of the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. It moves in an elongated orbit around the Sun, approaching it once every six months at a distance of 42 million kilometers and then moving away at a distance of 136 million kilometers. Therefore, its apparent size in the frame changes. Sharp changes in the distance are associated with periods when the spacecraft did not make observations.
The video combines ultraviolet images of the solar corona (yellow) obtained by the EUI instrument and the size and location of solar flares (blue circles) recorded by the STIX instrument. Solar Orbiter data covers a period of three years.
The video is sonified. The audio is based on the strength of the flares as well as the distance of the spacecraft to the Sun. This is represented by a low background rumble that gets louder as Solar Orbiter approaches the Sun and quieter as it moves away from it.
Earlier we reported on how scientists discovered evidence of a superflare that occurred on the Sun 2,600 years ago while studying year rings.
