Large and small scale solar eruptions might all be triggered by a single process, according to new research that leads to better understanding of the Sun’s activity.
Researchers at Durham University and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, USA, used 3D computer simulations to show a theoretical link between large and small scale eruptions that were previously thought to be driven by different processes.
They looked at the mechanism behind coronal jets - relatively small bursts of plasma (hot gas) from the Sun – and much larger-scale coronal mass ejections (CMEs), where giant clouds of plasma and magnetic field are blown into space at high speed.
Both types of eruptions were known to involve snake-like filaments of dense plasma low in the Sun’s atmosphere, but until now how they erupted at such vastly different scales was unclear.
The researchers discovered that the filaments in jets are triggered to erupt when the magnetic field lines above them break and rejoin -- a process known as magnetic reconnection. The same process was previously known to explain many CMEs.
The strength and structure of the magnetic field around the filament determines the type of eruption that occurs, the researchers said. ...
A Universal Model for Solar Eruptions - Peter F. Wyper, Spiro K. Antiochos, C. Richard DeVore
Large and small scale solar eruptions might all be triggered by a single process, according to new research that leads to better understanding of the Sun’s activity.
Researchers at Durham University and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, USA, used 3D computer simulations to show a theoretical link between large and small scale eruptions that were previously thought to be driven by different processes.
They looked at the mechanism behind coronal jets - relatively small bursts of plasma (hot gas) from the Sun – and much larger-scale coronal mass ejections (CMEs), where giant clouds of plasma and magnetic field are blown into space at high speed.
Both types of eruptions were known to involve snake-like filaments of dense plasma low in the Sun’s atmosphere, but until now how they erupted at such vastly different scales was unclear.
The researchers discovered that the filaments in jets are triggered to erupt when the magnetic field lines above them break and rejoin -- a process known as magnetic reconnection. The same process was previously known to explain many CMEs.
The strength and structure of the magnetic field around the filament determines the type of eruption that occurs, the researchers said. ...
A Universal Model for Solar Eruptions - Peter F. Wyper, Spiro K. Antiochos, C. Richard DeVore
Visualizations can lead to what are said to be imaginations, so, in my 'imagination,' the flare arching out from the upper end actually left side in the image which seems to be the originating end of the flare actually appears to end at a massive knobbly like mass which SEEMS to me to actually 'draw' the flare from where the right handed portion of the arc might be said to end. Is there any reality to what might be my imagination tells me?
Re: Durham: Sun's Eruptions Might All Have Same Trigger
Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 4:26 am
by bystander
warmingwarmingwarming wrote:
Visualizations can lead to what are said to be imaginations, so, in my 'imagination,' the flare arching out from the upper end actually left side in the image which seems to be the originating end of the flare actually appears to end at a massive knobbly like mass which SEEMS to me to actually 'draw' the flare from where the right handed portion of the arc might be said to end. Is there any reality to what might be my imagination tells me?
A Solar Eruption in 5 Steps
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/ARMS/Genna Duberstein
Re: Durham: Sun's Eruptions Might All Have Same Trigger
Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 8:43 pm
by warmingwarmingwarming
bystander wrote:
warmingwarmingwarming wrote:
Visualizations can lead to what are said to be imaginations, so, in my 'imagination,' the flare arching out from the upper end actually left side in the image which seems to be the originating end of the flare actually appears to end at a massive knobbly like mass which SEEMS to me to actually 'draw' the flare from where the right handed portion of the arc might be said to end. Is there any reality to what might be my imagination tells me?
A Solar Eruption in 5 Steps
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/ARMS/Genna Duberstein
Couldn't get a better answer than that .. thanks Bystander.
