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Goddard Space Flight Center

Space Weather Action Center

Space Weather Action Center

Sunspot Regions

Global High-Resolution Network Tutorial

Space Weather Viewer

Screenshot of the Global High-Resolution Network. THE ABOVE IMAGE IS NOT LIVE DATA

Getting to the Data:

The Big Bear Solar Observatory is part of the Global High-Resolution Hydrogen-alpha Network. This network provides access to solar images from around the world. The network utilizes facilities at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in California, the Kanzelhohe Solar Observatory (KSO) in Austria, the Catania Astrophysical Observatory (CAO) in Italy, the Huairou Solar Observing Station (HSOS) and the Yunnan Astronomical Observatory (YNAO) in China. This network can almost assure good viewing at any time of the day.

About the Data:

These images are taken with a Hydrogen-alpha filter. This filters out all light except a specific wavelength of red light. The Hydrogen-alpha images allow you to see prominences, filaments and plage. The size and position of sunspots and the presence of prominences and plage tell you about solar activity that might produce flares and coronal mass ejections.