Weird SOHO Noise?

[NEAurora]

What the heck is this noise?  It looks like something real, as in not just instrument noise.  Doesn't look like the usual static associated with elevated protons either.  Also there is some clear directionality going on.  Anyone have any idea what it is?  It was only visible on one frame, so short lived.

[Jay-B]

If not maybe starlink group recently deployed and not completely spread out from each other yet????

[Christopher Shriver]

The time correlates with the recent arrival of a CME shock, which we were on a glancing end of IIRC.

The Lyrid Meteor Shower also began on the 15th(or will begin on the 22nd, sorry, dueling information in my sources). I wonder if the CME provided the "light" of these streaks, and that they are just relatively small rocks/asteroids "cutting through" the medium/the CME.

I agree, it's not quite the same as the effect we see on SOHO shortly after a strong flare occurs. Close, but those streaks are quite long, straight-ish, and consistent. I think it's the Lyrid.

Although, these "anomalous" spikes don't seem so anomalous anymore. ACE, located at the L1 point, the stable orbit point located between the Sun and Earth, shares its relative space with SOHO. I've had a long feeling these did indicate something, although frequent actual glitching, misinformation, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories have made it difficult to find anything solid.

So, these streaks, which we do see regularly, in a less dense and more scattered form, if they're just rocks, I imagine they're capable of disrupting the "EM environment" of the spacecraft through synchrotronic radiation. If they're highly-charged particulate matter, they would certainly give off this radiation in a small-ish area, before the medium's background makes them difficult to detect. As seen in the data, they don't cause an elevation of the mean, but rather present themselves as "energetic moments" across the spectrum.

I wonder how much "stuff" gets caught or perturbed by the stability around the L1 point, and depending on that stuff's "charge" and change in gravity profile/vector you'd get various types of SR(synchrotronic radiation). Combine with solar wind and IMF dynamics, and it suddenly is beyond my pay grade, haha. Correct me wherever I'm mistaken, please and thank you

 

Edited April 17 by Christopher Shriver

[Tino Lehtonen]

They look very much like actual optical observation, notice how they are slightly out of focus? That's the clue.

[Jesterface23]

Thought I remembered this from somewhere.

https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2022_12_23/

Quote

• SOHO quite routinely sees what we call "debris" images. Here is a pretty dramatic example from 2020 in which we see multiple dust streaks across the image. This is caused by tiny micrometeorites hitting some part of the spacecraft and throwing up a puff of debris. Most likely they are hitting the very fragile thermal insulation blanket around SOHO. These events are quite harmless to SOHO, but the resulting debris can be quite sparkly. How does that relate to this object? Well if we look at the image that SOHO recorded immediately before the feature appeared, we see there was indeed a small debris shower. In fact there was a bright streak in the upper-left that aligns very closely with the first appearance of our mysterious object. So we know for a fact that there was debris in SOHO's vicinity when we recorded the "moving blob" images.

 

[Drax Spacex]

Occam's Razor often yields such boring yet correct explanations.  Micrometeoroid dust streaks.  Hmmmph!

[Philalethes]

17 hours ago, Christopher Shriver said:

The Lyrid Meteor Shower also began on the 15th(or will begin on the 22nd, sorry, dueling information in my sources).

3 hours ago, Jesterface23 said:

Thought I remembered this from somewhere.

https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2022_12_23/

2 hours ago, Drax Spacex said:

Occam's Razor often yields such boring yet correct explanations.  Micrometeoroid dust streaks.  Hmmmph!

That "dramatic example" listed there definitely looks the same, so I'd be inclined to agree, and it makes sense. I'm guessing the passing of the Lyrids could indeed be responsible for an increased chance of such occurrences, although I guess it could also be coincidence. Would be interesting to see if other such occurrences tend to coincide with meteor showers too; there are quite a few showers throughout the year though, but I suppose you could weight them by how prominent they are, as only a few are considered the most prolific meteor-producers.

Starting with that dramatic example (which Drax posted the image of), it could e.g. have been the Southern Taurids, which peak in early November (November 5, although I believe peak shower dates can vary by a day or two from year to year). For the Lyrids this one would definitely have had to have been on the earlier side, but it's certainly a possibility in my book. If one wanted to delve deeper into it one could check the orbit of the comet that produced them and see if it would make it more or less likely for meteors to show up at L1 too.

Will certainly keep this in mind for whenever I see more of these, whether from previous records or in the future, and see if they coincide with showers.

17 hours ago, Jay-B said:

If not maybe starlink group recently deployed and not completely spread out from each other yet????

Would probably be a bad day for business if Starlink satellites had somehow found their way out to L1 in front of SOHO, heh.

Edited April 17 by Philalethes
quote bug

[NEAurora]

What a neat discussion! 

21 hours ago, Christopher Shriver said:

I wonder how much "stuff" gets caught or perturbed by the stability around the L1 point

Heh, I never much considered it, but that's a good question.

6 hours ago, Drax Spacex said:

Occam's Razor often yields such boring yet correct explanations.  Micrometeoroid dust streaks.  Hmmmph!

I too was hoping for maybe aliens, but I suppose micrometeoroid dust streaks will have to suffice for now.

[Christopher Shriver]

Huh, I don't see Occam's Razor in proving elaboration beyond jargon. Rocks = micrometeoroids, right? Trying way too hard to sound intelligent and gain some high ground, in my opinion.

3 hours ago, NEAurora said:

What a neat discussion! 

Heh, I never much considered it, but that's a good question.

I too was hoping for maybe aliens, but I suppose micrometeoroid dust streaks will have to suffice for now.

Thanks for bringing positivity in here! I appreciate it when ideas aren't sandbagged due to unsolicited bouts of egotism and pseudointellectualism. Comedy is an excellent tension breaker, as well. 

[Drax Spacex]

I found another similar occurrence at after a random romp through the SOHO realtime movie generator at 2020-12-27 09:42:

https://ibb.co/PhwZvWT

They may be fairly common occurrences, but so fleeting as single frames, not often noticed.

Additional narrative about the likely culprits (interplanetary dust particles) can be found here:  https://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=content/debris