Visible Imaging System (VIS)
Imager Movies

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Coronal Mass Ejection

[Movie] Coronal Mass Ejection Movies

Note: The animation files are very large and require high color resolution displays for good reproduction. 16- to 24-bit displays are best. 8-bit displays will produce poor results.

These QuickTime TM and MPEG movie files show a spectacular sequence of images of Earth as seen from the Polar spacecraft. The individual images were taken on January 10-11, 1997. The first pair of movie files were generated from the Near Real Time (NRT) data and the second set were from processed from Level Zero (LZ) data. The filter for this image passes ultraviolet emissions that are not directly visible to the human eye. The intensities of this light from atomic oxygen in Earth's atmosphere at altitudes in the range of about 100 to 500 km are color-coded in the image with dark red as lowest intensities and whitish yellow as the brightest intensities. The images were taken with the Earth Camera that is one of three cameras in the Visible Imaging System which was designed and constructed at The University of Iowa.

The Principal Investigator is Dr. L. A. Frank and the Instrument Scientist and Manager is Dr. John. B. Sigwarth.

Active Auroral Arcs

[Movie] Active Auroral Arcs Movie

Note: The animation files are very large and require high color resolution displays for good reproduction. 16- to 24-bit displays are best. 8-bit displays will produce poor results.

These QuickTime TM and MPEG movie files show a spectacular sequence of images of Earth as seen from the Polar spacecraft. The images display an active auroral arc during a geophysical sub-storm event which is common to the polar auroral zone regions. The images cover a time period of 2337 UT on 4 December 1996 (96/338) to 0305 UT on 5 December 1996 (96/339).

The images were taken with the Earth Camera that is one of three cameras in the Visible Imaging System which was designed and constructed at The University of Iowa.

The Principal Investigator is Dr. L. A. Frank and the Instrument Scientist and Manager is Dr. John. B. Sigwarth.

Comet Hale-Bopp

[Movie] Comet Hale-Bopp Movie

Note: The animation files are very large and require high color resolution displays for good reproduction. 16- to 24-bit displays are best. 8-bit displays will produce poor results.

Comet Hale-Bopp was imaged by the VIS cameras in late March and early April 1997 as it neared perihelion on 1 April 1997. It is extremely fortuitous that Comet Hale-Bopp crosses the orbital plane of the Polar spacecraft on April 1, 1997. This is on the day of its perihelion (April 1, 1997) and within a 10 days of its closest approach to the Earth (March 22, 1997).

The images were taken with the Earth Camera that is one of three cameras in the Visible Imaging System which was designed and constructed at The University of Iowa.

The Principal Investigator is Dr. L. A. Frank and the Instrument Scientist and Manager is Dr. John. B. Sigwarth.

26 Feb 98 Solar Eclipse Shadow

[Movie] 26 Feb Solar Eclipse Shadow

A solar eclipse occurred on 26 February, 1998 beginning at 1547 UT and continuing until 1909 UT. The path of eclipse's shadow began near the equator in the southern Pacific Ocean west of South America, progressed across the northern most tip of South America, crossed through the southern Caribbean Islands near Montserrat and ended over the Atlantic Ocean. The southeastern United States experienced a partial eclipse. From southern Florida nearly 50% of the sun's disk was blocked by the Moon.

The Visible Imaging System (VIS) on the Earth orbiting Polar spacecraft of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center observed the shadow of the solar eclipse from an altitude of 50,000 km above Earth's northern hemisphere. The VIS employed both the Earth Camera that is sensitive predominately to the ultraviolet atmospheric emissions at 130.4 nm and the Low Resolution Camera with filters that are sensitive to the wavelengths 360.1 nm and 317.3 nm. The Earth Camera has a field-of-view of 20° x 20°, while the Low Resolution Camera has a field-of-view of 6° x 6°. The Earth Camera obtained global views of the Earth throughout the eclipse while the Low Resolution Camera acquired magnified views of the Moon's shadow on Earth. At the beginning of the eclipse, the shadow was over the horizon from the view point of the Polar spacecraft. At approximately 1715 UT, the shadow crossed the horizon and begin its 2 hour march to the sunset terminator. Real time Polar data coverage was from 1620 UT to 2010 UT. Real time images were available at this web site within minutes of their exposure.

11 Aug 99 Solar Eclipse Shadow

[Movie] 11 August 1999 Solar Eclipse Shadow

An eclipse of the sun occurred on 11 August 1999 beginning at sunrise over the North Atlantic Ocean at 09:35 GMT and will proceed across the southwestern tip of England and cross the English Channel into France. From there the moon's shadow will proceed through central and eastern Europe and Asia--including the countries of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and finally India. The eclipse will end at sunset over the Bay of Bengal. Detailed information on the eclipse and on the path of the eclipse shadow of the moon can be obtained from the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Eclipse Home Page provided by Fred Espenak.

The Visible Imaging System (VIS) on the earth-orbiting Polar spacecraft of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is fortuitously positioned to observe the progress of the moon's shadow across Earth's sunlit face during the eclipse. This simulation shows the expected motion of the moon's shadow across the Earth as observed from the position of the Polar spacecraft.

Eclipse Simulation

Eclipse simulation 11 August 1999 (352x352, 388 kBytes)

Earth Camera Eclipse Movies (GIFTM format)

Sample Eclipse Images

[VIS current image] [VIS current image]

[VIS current image] [VIS current image]

The VIS Earth Camera which is sensitive to ultraviolet light will be observing the eclipse in real time. The images of the eclipse will be similar to the two Earth Camera images at the bottom of this web page. Because of operational constraints of the season, the VIS "Low" Resolution Camera will not be operating during the eclipse. The VIS Earth Camera images will provided here automatically and will be continuously updated. Press the reload button on your browser to update the VIS image. Partial movies will be made as time permits and a final overall movie will be made as soon as possible after the sequence is finished. Movies from the last eclipse observed by the VIS are included at the bottom of this page. That eclipse occurred on 26 February 1998 and the movies from this sequence of images continue to be among the most requested items on the VIS web site.

6-7 Jan 1998 Multi-Spectral Displays

[Movie] Four Panel Multi-Spectral Display

QuickTimeTM Movies

A Four Panel view of Earth's Aurora through different spectral filters from the VIS Low-Resolution and Earth Cameras.

The upper-left panel is from the ultra-violet Earth Camera at 130.4 nm. The upper-right panel is 557.7 nm, the lower-left panel is 391.4 nm, and the lower-right is 630.0 nm.

[Go]Return to the primary VIS home page
[UI]The University of Iowa

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Last Revised: January 16, 2005