Why is there a 16 hour gap in the “real-time” movie ?
SOHO is not in contact with the earth 24 hours a day. The Deep Space Network is a world wide network of antennas used to communicate with all deep space probes including SOHO, the Mars Rover, Voyager and Cassini. It is very busy supporting all of these missions. The Deep Space Network schedule varies from day to day and a spacecraft emergency for another spacecraft can affect the schedule. We are lucky to get a few hours a day of contact time. During the time when SOHO is out of contact the data are stored on a tape recorder (actually a solid state or RAM recorder). When the ground station establishes contact with SOHO, the solid state recorder containing the stored data is dumped and real time data starts. The hours of recorded data takes time to process so the 16 hour gap gets filled in over a few hours after contact and the tape recorder is dumped. When we are in contact the movie images get updated within minutes of the image being received. But remember that LASCO has a “1 hour” t
