Abstract

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA; Lemen et al., 2012) instrument onboard the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO; Pesnell et al., 2012) spacecraft has observed the fulldisk of the Sun, nearly continuously, for the last ten years. It is one of three instruments on SDO, along with the Heliose... Show moreThe Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA; Lemen et al., 2012) instrument onboard the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO; Pesnell et al., 2012) spacecraft has observed the fulldisk of the Sun, nearly continuously, for the last ten years. It is one of three instruments on SDO, along with the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI; Schou et al., 2012) and the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE; Woods et al., 2012). With its high spatial (0.6′′ per pixel) and temporal (up to 12 seconds for most channels) resolution, AIA has greatly enhanced our understanding of our closest star in a number of different areas, including the initiation of flares and coronal mass ejections as well as the quiescent heating of the corona, the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere. AIA is a narrowband imaging instrument comprised of four separate telescopes that collectively observe the full-disk of the Sun at ten different wavelengths: seven extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths, two far UV wavelengths, and one visible wavelength. It produces nearly 60,000 images per day with a new 4K-by-4K image produced by each EUV channel every 12 seconds. The image data are provided to the community by the Joint Science Operations Center (JSOC) at Stanford University in the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS; Wells et al., 1981) format. Show less