XRT chooses the right AR and is rewarded with a series of flares. Click the image to watch a movie of the captured flares or click here for the youtube link.
A Lucky Call: Choosing ARs during Operations
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Hinode is a research focused satellite and has a rotating team of operators who keep the individual instruments safe and research missions in mind. Together with the Chief Planner (CP), the Chief Observers (COs) of each instrument direct the timeline of observations. Hinode observes jointly with other missions but often, the COs and CP choose what to observe. There are common programs from each instrument that must be run. After those necessary times, we plan to watch active regions. During my final timeline for May 13 until May 20, 2025, we had to decide between two active regions: an unnamed AR and AR14085. Originally, the team chose AR14085. This spot was dim and not especially active. However, the Max Millenium CO had just issued a major flare watch on the unnamed AR (soon to be AR14087). There was some hesitation to switch since the AR was new, close to the East limb. We switched AR14085 for AR14087 once the spot was rotated further onto the disk and were rewarded with the flares seen in the accompanying video. This success is not always the case; an AR is picked and then remains quiet as a different AR becomes unexpectedly active. The video was taken using the Thin-Be filter on the X-Ray Telescope (XRT). All flares are from May 14 and May 15 when AR14087 was very active. Keywords: AR Tracking, Flare Filters: Thin_Be |
(Prepared by Rhiannon Fleming)
The XRT instrument team is comprised of SAO, NASA, JAXA, and NAOJ.
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