Bastille Day 2000#

This profile shows the Coronal mass ejection (CME) that occurred on Bastille Day, July 14, 2000. The profile is data heavy and will require a powerful graphics card (GPU). This CME event might be the most studied solar storm so far. The visualizations to highlight the CME include: a volume rendering of the density of the material ejected from the sun; field lines showing the Sun’s magnetic structure; magnetograms which are texture layers on the sun showing variation in strength of the magnetic field; an extreme ultra violet (EUV) image sequence layer shown on the sun; a light speed indicator to compare the speed of the CME; cut plane sequences showing the flux values of the CME, one equatorial cut plane and one meridional. Also there are flux nodes that show flux values, which are accompanied by a legend describing the color scheme. Showing all different visualization parts at once, may make the scene cluttered so hotkeys are provided to toggle different parts on and off.

Cutplanes are sequences of images extracted from a volume that has integrated particle flux values interpolated into the voxels of the volume. The profile also consists of magnetogram textures of the sun, a fieldline sequence of the sun, a volume rendering of the density of the CME and what we’ve called flux nodes. Flux nodes are points along the magnetic fields where the flux values are calculated. The data for this profile is provided by Predictive Science Inc. (PSI) and are the results of simulations. At PSI they call the flux nodes, “Stream nodes”

Keybinds#

The following keybinds are specific to this profile:

  • M and N: toggle a descriptive legend for the flux values

  • O: toggle the flux nodes on and off

  • U: toggle the fieldlines of the sun on and off

  • D: toggle the volumetric rendering of the density on and off

  • P: toggle the equatorial cutplane on and off

  • [: toggle the meridial cutplane on and off

  • E: toggle the EUV texture of the sun on and off

  • I: use the next magnetogram texture in a list of magnetograms of the Sun

To better show the CME event a few different time loops have been implemented with different start and end times and differences in how fast time is sped up:

  • CTRL+1 for a short loop. 10:03 - 10:16, at 2 min/ second. Recommended for close-up view of the Sun

  • CTRL+2 for the “standard” loop. 10:03 - 11:00, at 4 min/ second. A generally good loop showing most of the event at a good pace

  • CTRL+3 for a fast loop. 10:03 - 11.48, at 15 min/ second. In case something particular will be showcased over and over

  • CTRL+4 for a long loop. 09:30 - 13:00, at 4 min/ second. Starting earlier and ends even after some of the data sets no longer have data at those time steps

  • R to cancel looping and reset the time to 10.03