GOES-19 satellite shares first imagery from solar-monitoring telescope

The Solar Ultraviolet Imager, or SUVI, onboard NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite, which launched on June 25, 2024, began observing the sun on Sept. 24, 2024. SUVI monitors the sun in the extreme ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to watch for hazardous space weather that could affect Earth.

The sun’s upper atmosphere, or solar corona, consists of extremely hot plasma, which is ionized gas. This plasma interacts with the sun’s powerful magnetic field, generating bright loops of material that can be heated to millions of degrees.

Outside hot coronal loops, there are cooler regions called filaments which can erupt and become a key source of space weather when the sun is active. Filaments and active regions sometimes produce coronal mass ejections (CMEs), hurtling huge tangled clouds of plasma and magnetic field out into the solar system.

The sun’s 11-year activity cycle has entered the solar maximum period, meaning phenomena such as CMEs and solar flares are occurring more frequently than during other parts of the solar cycle. GOES-19’s SUVI captured an X9 flare on Oct. 3, 2024, which can be seen in the lower half of the sun in the 131 Å channel animation above.

This was the most powerful flare so far in the current solar cycle. X-class flares are the strongest category of flares, and the number gives more information about a flare’s strength. Learn more about NOAA space weather scales from the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).

The solar corona is so hot that it is best observed with X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) cameras. Various elements emit light at specific EUV and X-ray wavelengths depending on their temperature, so by observing in several different wavelengths, a picture of the complete temperature structure of the corona can be made.

The GOES-19 SUVI observes the sun in six EUV channels, as seen in the top image. The clearest depiction of the solar flare captured on Oct. 3, 2024, is in the 131 Å channel (top center). SUVI also has a large field of view, which allows scientists to observe distinctive features of the corona.

Depending on the size and the trajectory of solar eruptions, the possible effects to near-Earth space and Earth’s magnetosphere can cause geomagnetic storms, which can disrupt power utilities and communication and navigation systems. These storms may also cause radiation damage to orbiting satellites and the International Space Station. The Oct. 3 X9 flare led SWPC to issue an alert to the public about potential disruptions to radio communications.

GOES-19 is currently undergoing post-launch testing and checkout of its instruments and systems. After GOES-19 is assigned the operational role as NOAA’s GOES East satellite in April 2025, SUVI observations will help SWPC provide early warning to electric power companies, telecommunication providers, and satellite operators.