Magnetic flux emergence
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Large-scale magnetic flux emergence (2/2)
Hinode/Solar Optical Telescope
Extreme magnetic flux emergence, rotating sunspots, flares, reconnection all over the place, all in one movie. This area of the Sun was quite busy producing amazing activity during February 12 to 16, 2011. The movies shown here span four days in the life of an active region on the Sun. They cover an area of 200"x150", around 150000x100000 km (just for reference, the perimeter of the Earth at the equator is 40000 km).
The observations were taken with the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) on board the Japanese Hinode spacecraft. One movie presents the intensity in the Ca II H filter, sampling the low chromosphere, and the other shows the same field of view but mapping the magnetic field in the surface. Positive polarities are white and negative polarities are black.
The main event going on is the extreme flux emergence that was bringing new field to the surface during February 12-16. Note that at the beginning of the movie there are four concentrations of magnetic field, two positive and two negative. As time goes by and the region evolves, enormous amounts of new magnetic flux break through the surface and form new concentrations that interact with each other. At some points it looks like all magnetic field patches interact with each other! In the process many new sunspots form and gather together creating even bigger sunspots. Notice how some sunspots rotate counter clockwise. Many of the sunspots that are being formed "rub" each other during their formation, creating shear layers between themselves. In these shear layers different polarities clash with each other, and reconnection of field lines along with extreme heating occur. As a result, several flares of different magnitudes that shake the atmosphere occur during those four days.
Magnetic flux emergence is the process in which the magnetic fields generated inside the Sun (below the surface) pierce the photosphere (the layer of the Sun from which most light comes from) and then rise and fill the Sun's outer atmosphere. Those magnetic fields are responsible for all the activity we see in the Sun. Magnetic flux emergence is a complex process that knits together the interior of the Sun with the layers composing its outer atmosphere.
To download the movie, click HERE
Movie credit: Joten Okamoto (NAOJ/JAXA)
Text credit: Ada Ortiz (ITA, University of Oslo)
Observations: Hinode (ISAS/JAXA, NAOJ, NASA, STFC, ESA)
Source: Joten Okamoto's Solar Gallery
Original filename: SOT_110212_AR11158_mag.mp4