Encounter 4, 2020-01-23 - 2020-02-04 (with limited additional data 2019-12-17 - 2020-02-17)
This animation shows all WISPR full-field observations from the fourth PSP Mission Encounter (2020-01-23 - 2020-02-04), using L3 observations. We have superimposed a grid showing helioprojective longitude and latitude, and a scale representation of the size and location of the Sun in the observations using the SDO/HMI Carrington map for this time period. The velocity and distance metrics displayed on the movies correspond respectively to the spacecraft's heliocentric velocity in kilometers per second, and its distance from the Sun's center in units of solar radii (where 1 solar radius = 695,700km). The "FOV Range" label provides the plane-of-sky distance limits of the inner and outermost edges of the fields of view, in units of solar radii. The horizontal blue line indicates the orbital plane of PSP. The timespan of this composite movie covers only the nominal science window when the spacecraft was within 0.25 au; a limited amount of data outside of this range may be available at the below links.
You can also download this movie directly as a 16MB mp4 file. It is also available in the same format processed via the LW Algorithm developed by Dr. Guillermo Stenborg (JHUAPL) and detailed in Appendix A of Howard et al. 2022 (ApJ, 936, id.43. DOI 10.3847/1538-4357/ac7ff5), and can be downloaded here as a 108MB mp4 file.
[Credit: NASA/NRL/JHUAPL. Movie processed/compiled by Guillermo Stenborg (JHUAPL) and Brendan Gallagher (NRL). SDO inset courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.]
Solar Features
2020/01/24 22:30 - Streamer blob
2020/01/26 05:00 - CME
2020/01/30 06:00 - CME
Comets and planets
No comets were known to be observed during this encounter. The following planets can be seen in this sequence, moving from left to right:
- Earth, WISPR-Outer camera, from beginning of encounter through approx. 2020-01-24 00:00UT
- Mars, WISPR-Inner camera, beginning approx. 2020-01-24 02:00UT
- Jupiter, WISPR-Inner camera, beginning approx. 2020-01-27 18:00UT
- Saturn, WISPR-Inner camera, beginning approx. 2020-01-28 10:00UT
- Mercury, WISPR-Inner camera, beginning approx. 2020-01-31 16:00UT
Operations summary
- The inner portion of the field of view in both cameras experienced limited saturation during much of this encounter.
Miscellaneous notes
2023/01/04: An error was detected in L2 high cadence images originally taken on January 28, 2020. These files have been corrected and re-released as Version 3, and are available in the High Cadence zip file listed below. The calibration version is not changed, so the VERS_CAL keyword remains ‘20200915’ and the related L1 files are unimpacted.
Encounter 4 Data Products
- Encounter 4 Level-2 FITS (6.0 Gb zip file)
- Encounter 4 Level-2 FITS (High Cadence) (1.5 Gb zip file)
- Encounter 4 Level-2 FITS, Background Models (4.3 Gb zip file)
- Encounter 4 Level-3 FITS (4.4 Gb zip file)
- Encounter 4 L2 Summary Files (<1 MB zip file)
- Encounter 4 Level-3 PNGs, Inner camera (157 MB zip file)
- Encounter 4 Level-3 PNGs, Outer camera (82 MB zip file)
- Encounter 4, Inner mpg, 480x512px (55 MB)
- Encounter 4, Outer mpg, 480x512px (49 MB)
- Encounter 4, Inner, 480x512px IDL .mvi file (224 MB)
- Encounter 4, Inner, 960x1024px IDL .mvi file (896 MB)
- Encounter 4, Outer, 480x512px IDL .mvi file (99 MB)
- Encounter 4, Outer, 960x1024px IDL .mvi file (397 MB)
Released data for all encounters can be obtained from our WISPR Data Page. Descriptions of other encounters can be found on the Encounter Summaries Page.