Transcription
Good evening folks. In the spirit of watching solar activity, it's important to know what you're seeing. We show various wavelength views, from the photospheric surface where the sunspots are easy to see, to the upper coronal plasma and magnetic fields.
It is important not only to know what you are looking at in terms of light emission and elemental composition, but what certain things look like in each view. In this side-by-side, you can see how, as soon as you come up into the solar Corona, you can't really see the sunspots anymore. So, it's critical you know what you're seeing and how it relates to space weather activity and the surface features below.
No matter how small the solar activity, there are some key features to see, like the small filament eruption from this morning that isn't aimed at Earth and is about as tiny of an eruption as we're likely to see. Even in this small event, the aftermath is readily visible in this view as the arcade of magnetic arches in the wake of the eruption area. They will always show up after a coronal mass ejection, but if, for example, there are flares from a sunspot group without a CME, they won't look like that.
As is the case here, where sporadic and random arcing can be seen after the small C-class flares, but not the persistent arcade feature with CMEs. This yellow view, 171 angstroms, ionized iron emission, is the best for looking at umbral magnetic fields and arcades in the wake of plasma ejection CMEs.
If you are looking to identify solar flares, you want either the blue 131 or the green 94 angstrom view, still ionized iron, and the brightest flashes are X-ray emission of those solar flares. Back down at the surface, ionized carbon is seen in 1600 angstroms, and this is obviously showing the sunspots themselves very well, as well as their peripheral magnetic activity around them.
The pink 2011 view is back at ionized iron, and this is one of the best ways to view those dark coronal holes. While not the only view that shows them, it does reveal them better than all of the others. Many people like the red 304 angstrom view the best. This is ionized helium. Sure, it's beautiful, and you can see plasma filaments as the dark snake-like ropes of plasma, and especially their eruptive action as they leave the sun. Probably the best way to view plasma ejection density of those CMEs.
But my favorite, the one we see here every day on this channel, is the bronze-colored 193 angstrom view. It is also ionized iron, and it is the best all-around wavelength to use. It shows umbral magnetic fields, flares, CMEs, filaments, and coronal holes. While all of these technically show ultraviolet or X-ray emission, as you could see, they're all very different.
If you would like to learn more, please see the resources listed in the description box below the video, and I will see you in the morning for The Daily Show. Be safe, everyone.