The importance of coordinating the observations, as well as their analyses, can hardly be overemphasized. We have never before had an opportunity to observe from two well-separated viewing points. The stereoscopic techniques and their results will be entirely new; we can expect to be learning while observing. Furthermore, the opportunity will not be a static one, as the viewing characteristics will change continuously with the growing separation angle between the two spacecraft. It is for this reason, as well as for the economies of scale, commonality, and management, that members of the SECCHI Consortium have teamed to present a coordinated approach for all of the remote sensing instruments on STEREO. As a further step toward integrating our observations with the in situ investigation teams we have exchanged Co-Investigators and coordinated the development of SECCHI instrumentation and analysis programs with SWAVES.
2024 Geomagnetic Storms
In May 2024, Earth experienced some of the most intense geomagnetic storms seen in recent years. Solar eruptions that led to these storms were imaged by the SECCHI HI-2 camera on NASA STEREO-A. This image sequence shows the large CME front passing over Earth (far left, not to scale) along with concurrent Kp observations, which shows the Earth's geomagnetic response to the event.
Observations from the SECCHI HI-2 camera on May 12, 2024 (top), along with the concurrent "kp" geomagnetic activity index (lower). The location of Earth is as indicated on the left of the animation. [Credits: NASA/NRL/STEREO]