This transit of Venus is the first in 122 years. In SXI images, Venus appears as a dark disk about 1/30th the Sun’s apparent diameter. Since the Sun’s corona extends well above the disk, Venus was visible in silhouette for approximately 9 hours, versus the 6 hours seen from Earth. The path across the disk is from the southeast to the southwest.

These movies were created from a special image set generated by NOAA's Space Environment Center.
SXI_SPECIAL_20040608_VENUS_09H.MPG (1.9 MB MPEG-1, 0.7 sec.)
SXI_SPECIAL_20040608_VENUS_09H.MP2 (3.8 MB MPEG-2, 0.7 sec.)
SXI_SPECIAL_20040608_VENUS_09H_JPG.ZIP (53.4 MB zip archive of JPEG source images)

Note, if you save an MPEG-2 file, your browser may try to rename it with a .mp3 extension.

A series of solar active regions unleashed an extraordinary display of solar activity in October and November of 2003. You can view the affects in the near-space environment in plots of the GOES Space Environment Monitor data (October, November, PDF, ~.5 MB each). These plots show the series of significant flare events from October 19th through November 5th which included 17 flares of class M5 or above, 11 of these were X-class flares. The X28 flare on November 4th is the largest ever recorded.

Mo  Dy Begin Max  End  Reg# Lat CMD X-class
Oct 19 1629  1650 1704 0484 N08 E58 X 1.1
Oct 22 1947  2007 2028 0486         M 9.9
Oct 23 0819  0835 0849 0486 S21 E88 X 5.4
Oct 23 1950  2004 2014 0486 S17 E84 X 1.1
Oct 24 0227  0254 0314 0486 S19 E72 M 7.6
Oct 26 0557  0654 0733 0486 S15 E44 X 1.2
Oct 26 1721  1819 1921 0484 N02 W38 X 1.2 Ion Storm
Oct 26 2134  2140 2148 0484         M 7.6 
Oct 27 0921  0927 0932 0486 S16 E26 M 5.0
Oct 27 1227  1243 1252 0486 S17 E25 M 6.7
Oct 28 0951  1110 1124 0486 S16 E08 X17.2 Ion Storm, Ground Level Enhancement
Oct 29 2037  2049 2101 0486 S15 W02 X10.0 Ion Storm, Ground Level Enhancement
Nov 02 1703  1725 1739 0486 S14 W56 X 8.3 Ion Storm, Ground Level Enhancement
Nov 03 0109  0130 0145 0488 N10 W83 X 2.7 
Nov 03 0943  0955 1019 0488 N08 W77 X 3.9   
Nov 04 1929  1953 2006 0486 S19 W83 X28.0 Ion Storm
Nov 05 1046  1052 1056 0486 S16 W90 M 5.3

The GOES-12 SXI was not operational during the first of these large events, due to the ongoing diagnosis of a power system anomaly. However, on October 28th SXI was reactivated at 1633 UT. The noise in the images at the beginning of this movie are due to energetic particles from the October 28th and 29th solar ion storms.
SXI_SPECIAL_20031028_163326_BB_G12_CS1_09D.MPG (17.5 MB MPEG-1, 27 sec.)
SXI_SPECIAL_20031028_163326_BB_G12_CS1_09D.MP2 (13.2 MB MPEG-2, 27 sec.)
SXI_SPECIAL_20031028_163326_BB_G12_CS1_09D_JPG.ZIP (58.9 MB zip archive of JPEG source images)

Note, if you save a MPEG-2 file, your browser may try to rename it with a .mp3 extension.

This movie uses a high cadence of images over a two day interval, October 28-29, to highlight the exchange of solar material between region #0486 (southern hemisphere) and region #0488 (northern hemisphere).
SXI_SPECIAL_20031028_163326_BB_G12_CS1_02D.MPG (16.8MB MPEG-1, 15 sec.)
SXI_SPECIAL_20031028_163326_BB_G12_CS1_02D.MP2 (10.5MB MPEG-2, 15 sec.)
SXI_SPECIAL_20031028_163326_BB_G12_CS1_02D_JPG.ZIP (62.5 MB zip archive of JPEG source images)

This movie starts on October 31st, and highights the final six days of this active interval.
SXI_SPECIAL_20031031_000222_BB_G12_CS1_06D.MPG (11.4 MB MPEG-1, 21 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_20031031_000222_BB_G12_CS1_06D.MP2 (13.8 MB MPEG-1, 21 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_20031031_000222_BB_G12_CS1_06D_JPG.ZIP (50.5 MB zip archive of JPEG source images.)

This is a 27 day movie that begins August 3, 2003 and shows one complete rotation of the sun -- Carrington Rotation #2006.
SXI_SPECIAL_20030803_181324_BB_G12_CS1_27D.MPG (16.3 MB MPEG-1, 31 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_20030803_181324_BB_G12_CS1_27D.MP2 (23.2 MB MPEG-1, 31 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_20030803_181324_BB_G12_CS1_27D_JPG.ZIP (56.5 MB zip archive of JPEG source images.)

This is a 27 day movie that shows two complete rotations of the sun side-by-side -- Carrington Rotation #2003-2004.
SXI_SPECIAL_CR2003_CR2004_BB_G12_CS1_27D.MPG (15.4 MB MPEG-1, 21 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_CR2003_CR2004_BB_G12_CS1_27D.MP2 (18.4 MB MPEG-1, 21 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_CR2003_CR2004_BB_G12_CS1_27D_JPG.ZIP (83.3 MB zip archive of JPEG source images.)

This is a 24 day movie that begins May 25, 2003.
SXI_SPECIAL_20030525_000000_BB_G12_CS1_24D.MPG (10.7 MB MPEG-1, 38 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_20030525_000000_BB_G12_CS1_24D.MP2 (13.8 MB MPEG-1, 38 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_20030525_000000_BB_G12_CS1_24D_JPG.ZIP (70.3 MB zip archive of JPEG source images.)

This is a 10 day movie that begins May 25, 2003.
SXI_SPECIAL_20030523_000000_BB_G12_CS1_10D.MPG (7.6 MB MPEG-1, 12 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_20030523_000000_BB_G12_CS1_10D.MP2 (10.7 MB MPEG-2, 12 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_20030523_000000_BB_G12_CS1_10D_JPG.ZIP (23.9 MB zip archive of JPEG source images.)

This is a 6 day movie that begins December 11, 2001.
SXI_SPECIAL_20011211_000000_BB_G12_CS1_06D.MPG (11.4 MB MPEG-1, 15 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_20011211_000000_BB_G12_CS1_06D.MP2 (13.8 MB MPEG-2, 15 seconds)
SXI_SPECIAL_20011211_000000_BB_G12_CS1_06D_JPG.ZIP (60.4 MB zip archive of JPEG source images.)

This movie was created from images taken with SXI in the OPEN (unfiltered) coniguration. The images were deconvoluted, as described in the example above. The sequence spans approximately two solar rotations -- 2001-10-19 00:03:44 to 2001-12-05 22:13:09. Coronal holes appear dark.

This movie was produced by Dr. Steven Hill, the SXI project manager at NOAA's Space Environment Center.

View the movie. (3.6 MB MPEG, 15 seconds)

This sequence spans one day (2001-10-22). The SXI images are displayed in tandem with the coronagraph images from the LASCO C2 instrument onboard SOHO. The movie shows the relationship between X-ray flares viewed by SXI and the resultant effect on the extended corona.

This movie was produced by Dr. Steven Hill, the SXI project manager at NOAA's Space Environment Center.

View the movie. (3.5 MB MPEG, 6 seconds)

Begin  Max  End Region Lat CMD X-class
 0022 0040 0048  9658  N17 W57 M1.0
 0344 0359 0423  9669  N14 W12 C6.8 
 1136 1141 1145  9672  S18 E19 C5.6
 1205 1217 1230  9669  N11 W19 C7.5
 1427 1508 1531  9672  S21 E18 M6.7
 1744 1759 1814  9672  S18 E16 X1.2
 2057 2106 2114                C7.9

This sequence spans approximately four hours (2001-11-21 13:18 to 2001-11-21 16:53). The SXI images are displayed in tandem with images from the SXT instrument onboard Yohkoh. The movie shows a zoomed view of region 9704 as it produces a small (C4.7) flare.

This movie was produced by Dr. Steven Hill, the SXI project manager at NOAA's Space Environment Center.

View the movie. (.2 MB MPEG, 2 seconds)

Begin  Max  End Region Lat CMD X-class
 1207 1458 1650   9704 S14 W19 C4.7

To address the wide dynamic range of features on the sun, it is sometimes necessary to combine two images, one short exposure and one long exposure, into what is known as a composite image. The overexposed regions from the long exposure are replaced with those properly exposed from the shorter exposure. In addition, all optical instruments have a natural 'blurring' or point-spread function. A composite image is particularly amenable to removal of the point-spread function of the instrument. This is done by a mathematical process called deconvolution.

This prototype was produced by NOAA's Space Environment Center, and may become a standard SXI data product.

View a "before and after" pair of images. (2001-19-19 23:11:46)

This X-ray image of the Sun was taken by the SXI instrument onboard GOES-12 on September 7, 2001 at 21:04:25 Universal Time.

• View the full scale version of the first image.