# NASA SDO observation media

## Attribution

Source: **Solar Prominence Dance — December 31, 2012**, NASA Scientific Visualization Studio, item 4038.

Credit: **NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, the SDO Science Team, and the Virtual Solar Observatory.**

- [NASA source page and complete credits](https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4038/)
- [Original HD1080 MP4](https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004000/a004038/Dec2012SolarBallet_HD1080.mp4)
- [NASA images and media usage guidelines](https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/)

NASA generally permits educational, informational, and personal website use under its published media guidelines, with acknowledgment and without implying endorsement. These files are not presented as CC-licensed material. This record preserves the source credit for the particular NASA media used; it does not claim rights to NASA identifiers or unrelated third-party content.

## What the images represent

These are actual Solar Dynamics Observatory AIA observations on 2012-12-31, observed in the **304 Å extreme-ultraviolet band**, displayed using the source's orange color palette. They are archival, colorized, accelerated observations, not visible-light true color, a live feed, or a freely orbitable 3D reconstruction. The published observation interval is 16:00–20:00 UTC. The supplied video is 40 seconds at 30 frames per second, approximately six observation minutes per playback second. No audio track is present in the source or derived videos.

## ULSOL derivatives and transformations

Prepared 2026-10-04 from the original downloaded MP4; its bytes remain preserved in the preparation machine's temporary source directory.

| File | Dimensions | Duration / type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `/media/solar-observation.mp4` | 1080 × 1080 | 40.000 s, 30 fps, H.264 High, yuv420p |
| `/media/solar-observation-mobile.mp4` | 720 × 720 | Same observation and timing, smaller H.264 encode |
| `/media/solar-observation-poster.jpg` | 1080 × 1080 | Frame at 14.000 s from the primary encode |

The 1920×1080 source was cropped to its central 1080×1080 square at x=420, y=0. This retains the source's solar image and the observed prominence; no solar surface was replaced or generated. The original timestamp is in the left black margin. After cropping, its remaining narrow corner sliver was covered with a 22×48 black rectangle at output x=0, y=988, outside the solar disk and prominence. This is an explicit removal of annotation, not an astronomical alteration.

The primary and mobile videos were encoded with fast-start MP4 metadata and closed keyframes every 15 frames (0.5 seconds) for responsive seeking. The source's 40-second sequence, frame rate, and color treatment are retained. Mobile encoding additionally downsamples to 720×720. No AI imagery, frame interpolation, synthesized plasma, added music, or seamless-loop crossfade was used. Repeating playback returns to the first observed frame; it is not a claim that the physical event repeats seamlessly.

The website applies a soft radial opacity mask to the outer image margin to blend the square frame into its black background. This display treatment can attenuate the outermost prominence and glow; it does not change the stored video or generate solar detail.

## Reproduction and verification

Preparation script: `scripts/prepare-solar-media.py`. It accepts a downloaded source path and an available ffmpeg binary, and writes only the three media derivatives above. FFmpeg was used temporarily for preparation, not bundled into the site.

Source SHA-256: `ae6159944aa99f4b5754dc8fcec17f5194a7b33da1d2af315696760bf7f9414c`.

Primary video SHA-256: `a8befaca40b8bd517ccf9d42b7b1f1945529dc794e720c1dde263cda21f3975a`.

Poster SHA-256: `e1c8bea666b0d8c77b870028af3875d99f0379cf03849c15b5473e44c5edd47c`.

Mobile video SHA-256: `6272c1b0a01f0e7bc892eaa9869de25f8a91364c1edc6d9fb0ef1e4d2c9399e7`. Its size is 6,121,930 bytes; the full 1,200-frame sequence also decoded successfully.

Verification: the complete primary video decoded successfully as 1,200 frames with no audio; MP4 metadata precedes media data; 80 keyframes span 0.0–39.5 seconds at exactly 0.5-second intervals. Twenty sampled frames covering the sequence and the full-resolution poster were inspected: no timestamp remains, the disk is retained, and the observed prominence visibly evolves. Primary file size is 17,873,651 bytes, below the 25 MiB asset limit.