“It’s a Loopy Sun” by NASA/SDO
NASA/SDO released a short video which covers January 5 through 7 and shows the 171 angstroms channel, which is especially good at showing coronal loops – the arcs extending off of the Sun where plasma moves along the magnetic field lines.
The brightest spots seen here are locations where the magnetic field near the surface is exceptionally strong. The characteristic temperature here is 1 million K (or 1.8 million F). Many of these loops could fit several Earths inside of them.
Solar activity has been at low levels for the past 24 hours. The largest solar event of the period was a C3 event observed on January 7, originated from Region 1640. There are currently 12 numbered
sunspot regions on the disk. NOAA forecasters estimate a 35% chance of M-class flares and a 5% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours.
Credit: NASA SDO/LittleSDOHMI
Featured image: AIA 171 image from January 8, 2013 (Credit: NASA/SDO)
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