ThisIsJohnnyT Posted June 22, 2023 Share Posted June 22, 2023 Hello everyone. I am curious about learning more on how everyone reads/interprets the magenetograms and HMIBC images to learn more about the sunspot regions. I understand a very basic concept of "white equals pointing towards us, and black equals pointing away from us". But I've noticed that people use the HMIBC images more than the black and white magneto so I'm looking for information on how to read those images and what it means for activity from these regions. Anyone have a good go-to reference? Thank you in advance for helping a noob out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solution Jesterface23 Posted June 22, 2023 Solution Share Posted June 22, 2023 The HMIB and HMIBC images are the same. HMIBC just uses a different color table with a higher range of colors where blue/green is a positive polarity and red/yellow is a negative polarity. Then white is positive polarity and black is negative polarity in HMIB imagery. https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/docs/HMI_M.ColorTable.pdf A few others on here will know a lot more about sunspots than I do. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsJohnnyT Posted June 22, 2023 Author Share Posted June 22, 2023 45 minutes ago, Jesterface23 said: The HMIB and HMIBC images are the same. HMIBC just uses a different color table with a higher range of colors where blue/green is a positive polarity and red/yellow is a negative polarity. Then white is positive polarity and black is negative polarity in HMIB imagery. https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/docs/HMI_M.ColorTable.pdf A few others on here will know a lot more about sunspots than I do. This helps a lot actually! I was thinking of it kind of like a weather radar where the stronger the field, the color changes, and I was kind of, sort of close lol. I haven't seen this breakdown of it before so will definitely bookmark to come back to! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesterface23 Posted June 22, 2023 Share Posted June 22, 2023 10 minutes ago, ThisIsJohnnyT said: I was thinking of it kind of like a weather radar where the stronger the field, the color changes, and I was kind of, sort of close lol. Pretty close. Similar to a strong velocity couplet on a weather radar, the closer and stronger positive and negative polarity spots are together the better chance for some good solar activity. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vancanneyt Sander Posted June 22, 2023 Share Posted June 22, 2023 the colorized magneto gram makes it easier to interpret field strengths and variations which you can't clearly see in the black and white version. The PDF of Jester is the best cheat sheet for the magnetogram. Combing the magnetogram with intensitygram lets you see the spots individual polarities to determine the magnetic classification of sunspot regions, it makes you recognize the delta structures within regions and know which region is capable of producing strong solar flares. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsJohnnyT Posted June 22, 2023 Author Share Posted June 22, 2023 32 minutes ago, Vancanneyt Sander said: the colorized magneto gram makes it easier to interpret field strengths and variations which you can't clearly see in the black and white version. The PDF of Jester is the best cheat sheet for the magnetogram. Combing the magnetogram with intensitygram lets you see the spots individual polarities to determine the magnetic classification of sunspot regions, it makes you recognize the delta structures within regions and know which region is capable of producing strong solar flares. And this is exactly what I'm wanting to learn. I know enough basics, but I'm really interested in getting deeper into the science behind the images, how to interpret, what it means for activity, etc. Solar astronomy has just kind of become my thing so the more I learn, the happier I am lol. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vancanneyt Sander Posted June 22, 2023 Share Posted June 22, 2023 It’s still on my todo list to make a YT video about sunspot classifications as it’s a bit better to show it then explaining it in text. It’s pretty simple though, get 4K intensitygram and magnetogram in photoshop and lay them on top of each other. Now zoom in on your region, and change opacity of the top layer so you can get the polarity of each spot (doing that you’ll also be able to see if there are delta spots). Now apply the rules of the magnetic classification of sunspot regions (see our help article) and you’ll now what the regions magnetic classification is. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgrant26 Posted June 22, 2023 Share Posted June 22, 2023 (edited) Something I like to do is look at each region and try to make an assessment on what type of magnetic classification each one is using this guide: https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/help/the-magnetic-classification-of-sunspots.html Then I compare it to what the actual ratings are here: https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/sunspot-regions.html I might also make a post on this forum to solicit other opinions from more experienced folks. You can also look up other examples of each type using google web and image searches or looking up historic solar events and then pulling up imagery from those dates/times using this: http://hmi.stanford.edu/data/hmiimage.html or https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/dailymov.php?date= Edited June 22, 2023 by cgrant26 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsJohnnyT Posted June 22, 2023 Author Share Posted June 22, 2023 Y'all are all awesome! Plenty to look at and learn which will be my focus this weekend with some downtime from work finally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Warfel Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 Have fun! Space weather and solar activity is fascinating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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