The Fall 2014 Eclipse SDO Eclipse Season starts today.
Around 7:30 UT (2:30 EDT) each day for the next 3 weeks (until Sept. 21), Earth will pass between the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the sun. The first eclipse is only a few minutes long. Their length increases each day up to 72 minutes then decrease back to a few minutes. These eclipse seasons happen twice a year near the equinoxes. During the eclipses no data is received but this only amounts to a loss of about 2%. This image shows the middle of today’s short (4 minute) eclipse in the SDO 304, 171, 193, 211, 335 and 131 angstrom wavelengths of light. The edge of the shadow is fuzzy because Earth has an atmosphere.
credit: NASA/SDO/helioviewer
