You’ve never seen space weather like this before!
This is a PUNCH Science Nugget
PUNCH tracked a recent geoeffective CME from the Sun to the Earth, against the backdrop of the Milky Way and familiar constellations, in this frame from a preliminary full-field-of-view movie (download the original file for best effect) taken during PUNCH commissioning. The field of view spans 90° of angle, and includes familiar constellations and planets. The tiny yellow dot at center represents the Sun; the dashed white circle represents the SOHO/LASCO C3 field of view, for comparison.
PUNCH tracks space weather and the solar wind itself across the entire inner solar system. This preliminary movie marks the first time a complete halo CME has been tracked all the way across the inner solar system, to impact with Earth.
This CME caused a severe geomagnetic storm at Earth, with strong aurora and other effects lasting for over two full days. Understanding and forecasting events like this one is a major part of the PUNCH mission. Although the ground pipeline and instruments are not yet fully commissioned, the imagers are already sensitive enough to reveal the CME against the far brighter backdrop of the galaxy and stars. The stars are suppressed by about a factor of 20 in this movie.
Once in-flight calibration is complete later this summer, PUNCH will be able to track events like this in three dimensions, using the polarization of light.
This nugget was the subject of a blog update from NASA, a press release from SwRI, and a press conference at AAS. They’re linked here; you can visit them for more info:
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NASA official releases about PUNCH are at the NASA PUNCH blog.
