Frequent users of SWAP data or watchers of SWAP movies may have noticed some unusual behavior in these images and movies in the last few days. We've been improving the spatial calibration of the data and our tests resulted in a few unusual images, but now that everything is finished you'll notice SWAP images look better and are easier to use than ever before.
At around 14:00 on March 5th 2014, SWAP, the EUV imager on PROBA2, observed a wave travelling over the solar North pole. The wave was probably generated during a strong eruption on the Northern backside of the Sun.
On February 25th, early in the morning, the 'returning' active regions AR11967 (now called AR11990), generated an X4.9 flare, the strongest flare in 2014. Both LYRA and SWAP on-board PROBA2 witnessed the event.
MYSTERIES DEEPEN AS COMET ISON FAILS TO MAKE LONG ANTICIPATED APPEARANCE
The long-awaited and much-hyped comet ISON surprised astronomers and solar physicists when it mysteriously failed to appear in images from extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) solar telescopes on Thursday. The SWAP solar telescope, on board the Belgium-based ESA mission PROBA2, conducted an extraordinary campaign to image ISON, but failed to detect any sign of the unusual comet.
Comet ISON raced past the Sun on November 28, but left no clues about its structure — or the structure of the solar corona — for extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) telescopes like SWAP that had been turned towards the unique comet in the hope of capturing images of its passage through perihelion.