Eruption watch campaign

Twice in every orbit Solar Orbiter makes around the Sun, so roughly four times a year, the spacecraft makes this 90-degree angle with Earth as it looks at the Sun. During these moments, the Solar Orbiter team may run an ‘eruption watch’ campaign, where they monitor the Sun for bursts of material sent in the direction of Earth.

The next eruption watch campaign will fall precisely around the total solar eclipse, running from 7–9 April. It is led by Clementina Sasso from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics.

“It’s exciting to think that whilst people on Earth observe the Sun’s corona from one direction, Solar Orbiter will be observing it side-on, ready to capture any fiery outburst that might be heading towards our planet,” says Daniel Müller, ESA Solar Orbiter Project Scientist.

“With observations from the ground and from space, we will for sure be able to combine different points of view of the Sun’s corona,” adds Federico Landini from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, member of the Solar Orbiter Metis instrument team. “If there is an eruption event and it occurs in the direction of Earth, even better!”

During the October 2023 eruption watch campaign, Solar Orbiter witnessed at least three big eruptions. Fortunately for us on Earth (or unfortunately, if you were aurora-spotting at the time), none of them headed in our direction.