For the past two days, the visible light images of the Sun, presented on the SpaceWeather webpage, have shown a couple of interesting anomalies.

On the right hand side there is a straight, broad stripe of lighter color than most of the Sun, crossing the Sun's disk diagonally. To the right of this stripe, the rest of the Sun's surface appears darker than the majority of the solar disk.

This may, of course, be some kind of image artifact, rather than a real solar phenomenon, but this is yet to be determined. I have looked at these daily solar images for quite a long time, but have never seen anything like this before.

Below, please find a link to the latest, August 19th, image:

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2018/19aug18/hmi1898.gif

For the third consecutive day, the visible light image of the Sun featured on the Spaceweather webpage shows the same anomalies as described in the previous post. This image is from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, a space telescope, which has been described as like a Hubble Space Telescope for the Sun. The anomalies appear in two images called intensitygrams, both the raw data and processed versions.

If this was a one-off glitch caused by a high energy particle intruding into the camera, why should it appear in separate images, over three days? If a technical fault, it seems odd that it's gone uncorrected, or even uncommented-upon, for three days.

The anomalies appear in the same position on the solar disk, on each of the three days. That is to say, they are not rotating with the surface of the Sun, as sunspots do.

The anomalies appear in the same position on the solar disk, on each of the three days. That is to say, they are not rotating with the surface of the Sun, as sunspots do.

Must be an earth based artifact. Possibly not in the science images but in the processing for the webpage?
<ed>Another observation http://obs.astro.ucla.edu/cur_drw.html

The solar image anomaly persists for a forth day. An image processing artifact seems less and less likely, the more daily images pile up with this same effect. I checked the Solar Dynamics Observatory own website. The anomalies are present in the images there, too.

I have examined the Daily SDO images for a long time, but found no instances of such anomalies, before four days ago. The current image, from its source, is linked, below:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_1024_HMIIF.jpg

I'm sorry but I see nothing out of the ordinary on the surface of the sun either in the linked image or in a new image from the space weather web site.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Day six of the persisting solar images anomaly. The linear feature in in the same apparent position as always, and appears about as distinctly as it has, all along.

It's rather dim and disuse, admittedly, but still noticeable, even in the small 'thumbnail' images, updated daily at the Space weather website. These can be enlarged by clicking on them.

I find that it helps to move one's head around slightly, with respect to the screen, while trying to view the stripe. This tends to make it more visible.

Imagine the disk of the Sun as a 12-hour clock. the stripe is along a line running diagonally from about 2:30 to 4:30, as indicated by the position of the hour hand alone. That is to say: from between 2 and 3 on the face of the clock, to between 4 and 5.

An issue with the lens? Does that anomaly appear on other images besides the Sun?

Not present here

Images in many different spectral colors and from different sources
https://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/images/

As far as I can ascertain, the Solar Dynamic Observatory only makes images of the Sun. There seem to be no images of other objects, made by the SDO, so there is no basis for the suggested comparison. I still doubt that a problem with the lens is responsible for the anomaly.

As I noted recently, the anomaly has been of similar brightness over several days. However, a careful comparison of the daily images reveals that the effect was brightest on August 18 and 19, and was considerably dimmer, thereafter. A problem with the lens would probably not change in this way, once it had occurred.

Someone, elsewhere, suggested that an unusually bright comet might be crossing the Sun, but I don't think it would be brighter than the Sun's surface, nor that it would be moving slowly enough to persist over the Sun for seven days, so far. The motion of the Earth, relative to the Sun should probably have shifted the apparent position of the comet, against the solar disk. All the images, including today's, show the anomaly in the very same position.

Again, a technical fault or image processing error seems unlikely to have gone uncorrected, or even uncommented-upon, for the space of an entire week.

Again, a technical fault or image processing error seems unlikely to have gone uncorrected, or even uncommented-upon, for the space of an entire week.

Since every other image of the sun taken by other optics does not show anything, the only possible conclusion is man made defect.

The anomalies were observed in certain solar images from the Heliospheric and Magnetic Imager (HMI) of the Solar Dynamics Observatory. This instrument performs specialized measurements of the Sun. It is not at all clear that these particular measurements are duplicated by any other instrument or observatory at comparable sensitivity.

The scientists seek to understand the activity of the interior of the Sun, by the way this activity is reflected by the Sun's surface. Polarized light is examined at multiple wavelengths, in order to reveal ripples on the Sun's surface. These ripples are signs of activity in the interior of the Sun.

It may be that the anomaly represents some unusual activity in the interior of the Sun. This may be connected with the fact that the Sun has shown other signs of entering a period of unusually low activity.

It may be that the anomaly represents some unusual activity in the interior of the Sun. This may be connected with the fact that the Sun has shown other signs of entering a period of unusually low activity.

That produces such straight lines?

It may be that the anomaly represents some unusual activity in the interior of the Sun. This may be connected with the fact that the Sun has shown other signs of entering a period of unusually low activity.

That produces such straight lines?

That stay straight with different latitudes on the sun rotate at different rates?

It's true that a line, simply made up of material on the surface of the Sun, would not maintain its straightness, as the Sun rotates at different rates at different latitudes-- fastest at the equator, slowest near the poles.

I was referring to ripples imposed upon the surface of the Sun, a wavelike phenomenon. The Sun oscillates in many modes. These can produce standing waves and nodes, that are characterized by straight lines.

The link, below, explains more about this kind of solar phenomenon:

http://soi.stanford.edu/results/heliowhat.html

Found a reference to the solar image anomaly on the webpage of the Joint Science Operations Center, at Stanford University. This is printed in red at the top of the page. They assume it's an 'artifact', meaning something caused by their own equipment, but at the same time admit that they can not correct the problem, and don't understand what's causing it.

Meanwhile, the anomaly seems to be fading further, to the point that it's becoming difficult to see it in the images. Hard to understand how or why a mere artifact would gradually fade away like this.

Also difficult to understand how an artifact could defy the efforts of the science team to correct it, or even explain its origin, over the space of 10 days. They have, after all, amassed years of experience with this space observatory, and its quirks, and workings.

Please find a link, below, to the Joint Science Operations Center website, which contains the advisory about the anomaly:

http://jsoc.stanford.edu

Today marks two full weeks since the appearance of the solar images anomaly. It is still visible on today's daily image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory intensitygram.

The webpage of the Joint Science Operations Center still carries the same advisory, in red, at the top of the page. We can apparently assume that the scientists at Stanford University have been unable, still, to explain the source or cause of the anomaly.

The anomaly does not move with the rotation of the Sun, nor is not displaced, via parallax, by the orbital motion of the Earth. This justified the hypothesis of an artifact, as no natural phenomenon was known that could explain these facts.

However, the longer the anomaly goes without an explanation, the less likely it seems that a technical fault will be found to explain this phenomenon. This situation grows more interesting, day by day.

They can't be the only solar observatory. So, what do the others see. That should put an end to this nonsense !!

Just checked at space weather.com and I still can't see anything like what is being described here.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

The solar images anomaly gradually faded away, a few days ago. The Joint Science Operations Center at Stanford University operates the Solar Dynamics Observatory. This is the orbiting observatory with which the anomaly was observed.

Their website still contains the same red advisory, at the top of the page.. It states that the cause or source of the anomaly is not known. It appears that the anomaly simply faded away on its own, without being explained.