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On September 21, 2025, the GOES-19 weather system's coronagraph CCOR-1 satellite observed an extraordinary occurrence. In its orbit, the Moon abruptly shifted in front of the Sun, and its relative path across the solar disk became strangely deformed. Contrary to the normal straight line-shaped lineages found in such pictures, such curved lines perplexed scientists; nevertheless, it turns out that the source is not lunar misbehavior, but rather an influence on the satellite.
How GOES-19 Captured A Natural Eclipse
According to NOAA, GOES-19 is equipped with an instrument known as CCOR-1, which is generally mounted with an occulting disk that blocks sunlight in order to examine the sun's thin corona. However, this time the Moon came into play, causing a natural eclipse within the instrument's field of view. Normally, the silhouette of the Moon moves in a straight line in the image, but this time it appeared to move in a zig-zag pattern. The fundamental cause: Around September 22, GOES-19 planned a yaw-flip attitude shift, which apparently resulted in the satellite altering its orientation to the point that the apparent route in processed images bent.
How is it significant?
This is a significant advancement in solar observation. Although coronagraphs such as SOHO, which are located near the L1 Lagrange point, are unable to witness such eclipses due to the Moon's relative location to them, GOES-19 can due to the closeness of its orbit. Such a rare natural eclipse provides a chance to test and enhance the coronagraph's image and processing capabilities, so improving future solar observations and our understanding of the Sun's behaviour.
