Solar tornadoes
Error
Magnetic tornado vortex
Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope and SDO
Rotating plasma flows in the dynamic atmosphere of the Sun are referred to as solar magnetic tornadoes.
Illustration of an observed magnetic tornado vortex in the solar atmosphere. The background image was recorded with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The stacked images were obtained with the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope on La Palma. The bluish images reveal the swirl signature of a magnetic tornado. A map of Europe to scale is included for reference.
Image credit: Eamon Scullion, Sven Wedemeyer-Böhm (ITA, University of Oslo)
Observations: SST (ISP) and SDO (NASA)
Publication: Wedemeyer-Böhm, et al., 2012, Nature, 486, 505