Encounter 7 Summary

Encounter 7 (01-11-2021 - 01-31-2021, with limited additional data 12-11-2020 - 02-19-2021

 

This animation shows all WISPR full-field observations from the seventh PSP Mission Encounter (01-11-2021 - 01-31-2021). We have superimposed a grid showing heliocentric longitude and latitude. The timespan of this composite movie covers primarily the nominal science window when the spacecraft was within 0.25 au.

Note that some saturation of the data occurred in the inner part of the field of view on both Inner and Outer cameras, seen as the oval shaped features near the left-hand edge of each field of view.

You can download this movie as a 16Mb mp4 file.

[Credit: NRL/NASA. Movie processed/compiled by Guillermo Stenborg and Brendan Gallagher (NRL).]

 

Solar Features

2021-01-13 03:30 CME
2021-01-14 07:00 Streamer blob
2021-01-14 17:00 Streamer blob
2021-01-15 17:00 Streamer blob
2021-01-17 07:00 Streamer blob
2021-01-17 19:00 Possible HCS crossing
2021-01-19 08:00 Streamer blob
2021-01-20 21:30 CME
2021-01-21 17:30 Streamer blob
2021-01-22 02:00 Streamer blob
2021-01-22 18:00 Streamer blob
2021-01-22 23:00 Streamer blob

Comets and planets

The following comets were observed during this encounter. Note that some of the data sets occur outside the nominal Encounter window and, in many cases, the spacecraft may have a non-standard roll orientation. Thus only limited observations would have been made for the comet in question. If you have trouble locating the comets in any of these data or questions regarding the proper treatment of the comet observation data, please contact the WISPR comet observation coordinator, Karl Battams - karl.battams[at]nrl.navy.mil.


  • Jan 5, 2021 (inner detector): Kreutz-group sungrazer "SOHO-4117".
    [Animation credit: Alan Watson]


  • Jan 9-11, 2021 (outer detector): C/2020 S3 (Erasmus), ~0.81 AU from spacecraft, ~0.79 AU from Sun.
    [Credit(s): PSP/WISPR/NASA/JHUAPL/NRL/Brendan Gallagher]

The following planets can be seen in the nominal encounter sequence movie (top of page), moving from left to right:

  • Earth: Jan 12-13, 2021 (Outer)
  • Venus: Jan 16-17, 2021 (Inner), Jan 17-18, 2021 (Outer)
  • Saturn: Jan 17-18, 2021 (Inner), Jan 18-20, 2021 (Outer)
  • Jupiter: Jan 17-18, 2021 (Inner), Jan 18-20, 2021 (Outer) - to the left of Saturn
  • Mercury: Jan 20 - end of encounter, 2021 (Inner)

Operations summary

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Miscellaneous notes

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Encounter 7 Data Products


Released data for all encounters can be obtained from our WISPR Data Page. Descriptions of other encounters can be found on the Encounter Summaries Page.

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