SHARP Cylindrical-Equal-Area Data: Solar Active Region Patches

SHARP data series are produced every 12 minutes, capturing solar active region patches. The dataset, created by NASA, includes vector magnetic field components, line-of-sight magnetograms, Doppler velocity, continuum intensity, and error maps projected to a Cylindrical Equal Area coordinate system.

Use Cases

• Predicting solar flares based on vector magnetic field components (Bx, By, Bz)
• Analyzing active region evolution based on tracked patches that evolve in size over time
• Estimating magnetic field confidence based on provided disambiguation confidence maps
• Studying Doppler velocity patterns within solar active regions
• Mapping continuum intensity variations in automatically identified solar patches

Strengths

• Data is produced every 12 minutes, providing high temporal resolution
• Includes 31 data segments per patch, including vector components, error maps, and bitmaps
• Projected to a Cylindrical Equal Area (CEA) coordinate system centered on tracked regions

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Last updated 2026-03-13 04:55:10.757771; freshness should be verified

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Calculated from photospheric vector magnetogram data from the HMI instrument.