Sun's hot plasma activity measured

Caroline Morley, online picture researcher

(Image: main: SDO/AIA (NASA); inset: Hinode/EIS (JAXA, NASA, ESA and STFC))

Like their earthly counterparts, violent solar storms could take out communications and electricity power supplies but at the moment they are worryingly unpredictable. To gain a better understanding of solar activity, researchers have visualised the movement of the gases in coronal loops extending from active regions of the sun.

The main image shows a coronal loop extending from a 1-million-?C active region of the sun and the inset shows the flow of solar plasma as "blue shifts" around the base of this loop. Using data from the Hinode satellite, the team from the UK, USA and India found evidence that plasma flows up through the arches at about 20?kilometres per second. They suggest that the upflow of the gases could be the result of "impulse heating" from fluctuations in the sun's magnetic energy.

Helen Mason of the University of Cambridge, a member of the team, said: "Sometimes magnetic flux can emerge or submerge and affect the overlying magnetic field. We believe that solar plasma surges upwards when impulsive heating results from magnetic reconnection which occurs either in the loops or close to the sun's surface."

Journal reference: The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/20ef091c/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C0A70Csun0Eplasma0Eloop0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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