This catalog is not a simple list of data. It is data that has already been partially compiled and correlated. Many of the H-alpha images are newly available in a digital format while their originals are in film form (not digital) in the film vault at Sunspot, NM. The images in this cataog were NOT digitized at the highest resolution, so if you find something interesting, please know that you can obtain higher resolution images from the National Solar Observatory at Sunspot, NM. The IDL files with extension .bin and .fts will soon be available to the user of this catalog. These IDL files are organized by date in the format "year/mm/dd_time"(in UT). A link will be added to the main search page when those files are ready for download. If you are anxious, just torch me from behind with an email: solar@abaetern.com
Many of the file results show "No Image Available." This usually means it isn't in this catalog yet, and rarely means that is doesn't exist in film format at Sunspot, NM (although that is the case for a few files.) If you don't see an image, look for the IDL image. The IDL images will not show up on normal computers--only those running IDL software will be able to view them. We intend to transfer all images to .jpg format for web browsing, but this is an on-going process. If you get anxious--you know what to do! (See first paragraph.)
The events in this catalog were chosen by correlating SXT sigmoids with CMEs. When we found sigmoids occuring in conjunction with CMEs, we digitized H-alpha images before and after the CME event so that the structure of the H-alpha prominences could be considered. If we found no correlation, we still made note of that to lessen the work done by the next researcher. Our basis for the presence of sigmoids was the Zach Blehm Sigmoid Catalog. Zach was a student at MSU-Bozeman in Montana (2003) who looked through SOHO solar images taken from 1993 to 1999 and documented sigmoids he found that were face-on. This means that if the sigmoids were near the sun's limb, they would not appear as sigmoids from his angle of view and were therefore not included in his sigmoid catalog. Our basis for the presence of CMEs was the Yashiro online catalog.
These correlations were taken over four years and you will see that the descriptive comments change depending on when the comments were written. Much in the comment section is simple observation done by the human eye. These comments come from the observer's viewing of archived solar images frame-by-frame to view each image that was original taken of the sun two minutes apart in time. Changes that occured in H-alpha filaments were correlated with SXT sigmoids and CMEs as the observoer scrutinized archived images taken days and weeks before a CME event and then days and weeks following the event.
We welcome any comments, suggestions, criticisms, donations, etc. that will improve this catalog. Contact us at solar@abaetern.com.