Research Article

Solar Demon – an approach to detecting flares, dimmings, and EUV waves on SDO/AIA images

Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence, Royal Observatory of Belgium, 1180 Brussels, Belgium

^* Corresponding author: emil.kraaikamp@oma.be

Received: 24 December 2014
Accepted: 8 June 2015

Abstract

Flares, dimmings, and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) waves are three types of eruptive phenomena on the Sun, which are main drivers of space weather. Fast and reliable detection of these phenomena helps augment space weather predictions. In the current paper, we introduce Solar Demon, the first software that detects all three phenomena, using a modular design to exploit synergies. While Solar Demon runs in near real-time on SDO/AIA synoptic quick-look images to provide fast detections of flares, dimmings, and EUV waves for space weather purposes, it also processes new Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) synoptic science images on a regular basis to build dedicated science quality catalogs. An overview of Solar Demon is given, with a focus on the algorithms for EUV wave detection and characterization. Several first results, such as flare and dimming butterfly diagrams for the rising part of Solar Cycle 24, are presented. The main advantages, challenges, and future prospects for Solar Demon are outlined in the Section 5.