A large-scale solar image dataset with labeled event regions

This paper introduces a new public benchmark dataset of solar image data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission. This is the first release, which contains over 15,000 images and nearly 24,000 solar events, spanning the first six months of 2012. It combines region-based event labels from six automated detection modules, ten pre-computed image parameters for each cell over a grid-based segmentation of the full resolution images, and a lower resolution version of the images for further analysis and visualization. Together, these components serve as a standardized, ready-to-use, solar image dataset for general image processing research, without requiring the necessary background knowledge to properly prepare it. We present here the fundamental dataset creation details and outline future improvements and opportunities as data collection continues for the coming years.