More pink videos of the sun
In May 2025, the National Solar Observatory (NSF NSO) of the US National Science Foundation and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) revealed the clearest pictures in a Nature Astronomy article that were ever taken by fine plasma structures in the sun corona. These groundbreaking observations that reveal A Coronal plasmoid CONA enabled the world's first coronal adaptive optics system, which was installed at the Big Bear Solar Solar Observatory (BBSO) of the NJIT at the Goode Solar Solar Solar Solar Solar Solar Solar.
Since then, Cona's commissioning for scientific business has completed the Cona team, which has been managed by the NSO and carried out its first special, two-week scientific observation campaign. The scientific data and data from the test campaigns collected as part of this campaign in 2023 and 2024 are now openly available. This includes the complete observation of the origin and breakdown of the mysterious Coronal plasmoid as well as all other observations that were presented in the above article.
Collage of observations with cona of various protuberances and rain in the sun corona. Photo credits: Schmidt et al./njit/nso/aura/nsf
Snapping video of a fine -structured plasma tatter with complex dynamics in front of a sun lead. The cona team wonders: “Is that another coronal plasmoid?” And invites the solar community to examine the phenomenon. You can find more pictures and videos in the full data archive.
With a resolution limited up to 63 kilometers, this unique data archive consists of 80 high -resolution observations of various phenomena of cool plasma in the sun corona and in the chromosphere – on the edge of the sun and beyond. The data encompasses around 30 hours of observation and include a total of up to 170 GB of Speckle reconstructed images, compressed from 8 TB raw data. The observed phenomena include different types of sun protuberances, coronal rain, plasmoids, spicules, plumes and blisters as well as fast, fascinating plasma dynamics on a small scale.
This data archive is not only an impressive demonstration of the fine plasmascals, which can be made visible with adaptive optics and cona, but is also a source of unprecedented observation data. Last but not least, the rapid view videos are an outstanding collection of different plasma phenomena above the sun edge.
The data was recorded with two GST instruments: VIS (Visible Imaging Spectrometer) and Niris (Near-Infrared Imaging Spectropolarimeter). Vis pictures were recorded in the hydrogen alpha light (656.3 nanometers) and Niris images in the helium-i light (1083 nanometers). Both instruments were used to scan the hydrogen and helium light on several spectral line positions and to capture the red and blue Doppler shifts in plasma dynamics in order to estimate the speed of the plasma along the line of vision.
We invite everyone who is interested in this data to look at the MP4 quick view videos and download the FITS files-be it for viewing or scientific analysis. The cona data archive is hosted at BBSO: Click here for the data archive
The cona team behind this work consists of Dirk Schmidt (NSO), Nicolas GorceIX (BBSO), Vasyl Yurchyshyn (BBSO), Thomas Rimmele (NSO) and Philip Good (BBSO).