SHARP: Near-Real-Time Solar Magnetic Field Patches

SHARP (Space-weather HMI Active Region Patch) data provides near-real-time solar magnetic field measurements. The data is produced by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, with new calculations generated every 12 minutes. It contains 31 data segments per active region patch, including vector magnetic field components, line-of-sight magnetic field, continuum intensity, doppler velocity, error maps, and bitmaps.

Use Cases

• Forecasting solar flares based on vector magnetogram data
• Tracking active region evolution based on 12-minute update cadence
• Analyzing magnetic field topology based on vector magnetic field components
• Correlating solar activity indicators based on continuum intensity and doppler velocity data

Strengths

• Data is updated every 12 minutes, providing near-real-time observations
• Contains 31 distinct data segments per active region patch
• Produced by NASA, an authoritative source for space science data

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Calculated from photospheric vector magnetogram data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Time Range

Near-real-time, with 12-minute cadence.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:56:17.909989; freshness should be verified

Geography

Solar disk, focusing on automatically-identified active region patches.