NASA SDO - Popping Active Region (April 29 - May 1, 2012)

The active region (AR) 1471 has been popping several B and C-class solar flares between April 29 at 20:56 and May 1 at 10:35 UT. These two views of this region show us two different layers and temperatures. It starts of with the 304 angstrom wavelength where we can see the upper chromosphere and lower transition region at around 90,000 degrees F. The bright areas show places were the plasma has a high density. The second segment is over the same time period but seen in 171 angstrom. Here we see the corona and upper transition region at about 1.8 million degrees F. This wavelength shows us the coronal loops, those arcs extending off of the Sun, very well. Plasma moves along those arcs, called magnetic field lines. The brightest spots seen here are locations where the magnetic field near the “surface“ is exceptionally strong. Вспышки прямо напротив Земли....