APOD: A Year on the Sun (2013 Apr 26)

[APOD Robot]

A Year on the Sun

Explanation: Our solar system's miasma of incandescent plasma, the Sun may look a little scary here. The picture is a composite of 25 images recorded in extreme ultraviolet light by the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory between April 16, 2012 and April 15, 2013. The particular wavelength of light, 171 angstroms, shows emission from highly ionized iron atoms in the solar corona at a characteristic temperatures of about 600,000 kelvins (about 1 million degrees F). Girdling both sides of the equator during the approach to maximum in its 11-year solar cycle, the solar active regions are laced with bright loops and arcs along magnetic field lines. Of course, a more familiar visible light view would show the bright active regions as groups of dark sunspots. Three years of Solar Dynamics Observatory images are compressed into this short video.

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[coyote]

Why do solar flares seem mainly to arise along two east-west bands? I don't see any arising from either of the poles, and few from the equator. Rather they seem to arise mainly from what would correspond (on earth) to the tropics of cancer and capricorn. Is it a function of the sun's magnetic fields? If so, why just there? I hate to be dumb, but I don't think I've ever noticed that before.

[Ann]

The Sun is particularly active round its belly. It must have an upset stomach.

Ann

[bystander]

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=31233

[neufer]

Why do solar flares seem mainly to arise along two east-west bands? I don't see any arising from either of the poles, and few from the equator. Rather they seem to arise mainly from what would correspond (on earth) to the tropics of cancer and capricorn. Is it a function of the sun's magnetic fields? If so, why just there? I hate to be dumb, but I don't think I've ever noticed that before.

It has to do with the rapid rotation of the solar equator:

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[b][color=#FF0000]The sunspot butterfly diagram. This modern version is constructed (and regularly updated) by the solar group at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.[/color][/b]

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<<The solar cycle (or solar magnetic activity cycle) is the periodic change in the sun's activity (including changes in the levels of solar radiation and ejection of solar material) and appearance (visible in changes in the number of sunspots, flares, and other visible manifestations). Solar cycles have an average duration of about 10.66 years. They have been observed (by changes in the sun's appearance and by changes seen on Earth, such as auroras) for hundreds of years.

The solar cycle was discovered in 1843 by Samuel Heinrich Schwabe, who after 17 years of observations noticed a periodic variation in the average number of sunspots seen from year to year on the solar disk. Rudolf Wolf compiled and studied these and other observations, reconstructing the cycle back to 1745, eventually pushing these reconstructions to the earliest observations of sunspots by Galileo and contemporaries in the early seventeenth century.

In the second half of the nineteenth century it was also noted (independently) by Richard Carrington and by Spörer that as the cycle progresses, sunspots appear first at mid-latitudes, and then closer and closer to the equator until solar minimum is reached. This pattern is best visualized in the form of the so-called butterfly diagram, first constructed by the husband-wife team of E. Walter and Annie Maunder in the early twentieth century. Images of the Sun are divided into latitudinal strips, and the monthly-averaged fractional surface of sunspots calculated. This is plotted vertically as a color-coded bar, and the process is repeated month after month to produce this time-latitude diagram.>>

[orin stepanek]

Maybe this? http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... e-science/

[Guest]

Interesting the similiarity with the cloud bands of Jupiter.
Har! Smelly cheese pizza! You got that right!!

[coyote]

Thanks, Art. I wondered about that. Makes sense.

JH

[MargaritaMc]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Dr Lucie Green presented The Expansion of the Sun, at Ignite Sci Foo 2011

Coincidentally, I came across this yesterday.
Margarita

[Boomer12k]

WOW!!! Where are my sunglasses!!!!! WHEEEWWW!!! Ahhh, that is better...
My head is spinning from the SHORT VIDEO!

The Earth does a similar thing with the Trade Winds...

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/atmosphere/

Thank you, Margarita for the Sun Video...

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[BMAONE23]

Also, As the solar cycle progresses, the sunspot orientation erupt closer to the solar equator. As cycle 24 draws to a close sunspots will erupt more regularly closer to the equator. As cycle 24 leads to cycle 25, the remaining cycle 24 spots will be at a latitude nearest the equator while cycle 25 spots will begin forming at the higher latitudes.
What I find interesting is the apparent disparity of northern vs southern latitude spot activity. The Northern latitude band of spots seems to have only half the amount of activity as their southern counterparts.

[C0ppert0p]

My first impression was "Holy crap, what's going on!?" Then I read the article.
I should be a politician.

[Anthony Reynolds]

The correct temperature should be 600,000 K, or 600,000 kelvin. Conventionally, kelvin is not plural.

[neufer]

The correct temperature should be 600,000 K, or 600,000 kelvin. Conventionally, kelvin is not plural.

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_and_Thompson][size=150]Thomson and Thompson[/size][/url]

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<<The kelvin is a unit of measurement for temperature. It is one of the seven base units in the International System of Units (SI) and is assigned the unit symbol K. This SI unit is named after William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin. As with every International System of Units (SI) unit whose name is derived from the proper name of a person, the first letter of its symbol is upper case (K). However, when an SI unit is spelled out in English, it should always begin with a lower case letter (kelvin), except in a situation where any word in that position would be capitalized, such as at the beginning of a sentence or in capitalized material such as a title. Note that "degree Celsius" conforms to this rule because the "d" is lowercase. When spelled out or spoken, the unit is pluralised using the same grammatical rules as for other SI units such as the volt or ohm (e.g., "the triple point of water is exactly 273.16 kelvins"). When reference is made to the "Kelvin scale", the word "kelvin"—which is normally a noun—functions adjectivally to modify the noun "scale" and is capitalized. As with most other SI unit symbols (angle symbols, e.g. 45°3′4″, are the exception) there is a space between the numeric value and the kelvin symbol (e.g., "99.987 K").

Before the 13th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in 1967–1968, the unit kelvin was called a "degree", the same as with the other temperature scales at the time. It was distinguished from the other scales with either the adjective suffix "Kelvin" ("degree Kelvin") or with "absolute" ("degree absolute") and its symbol was °K. The latter (degree absolute), which was the unit's official name from 1948 until 1954, was rather ambiguous since it could also be interpreted as referring to the Rankine scale. Before the 13th CGPM, the plural form was "degrees absolute". The 13th CGPM changed the unit name to simply "kelvin" (symbol K). The omission of "degree" indicates that it is not relative to an arbitrary reference point like the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales (although the Rankine scale continued to use "degree Rankine"), but rather an absolute unit of measure which can be manipulated algebraically (e.g., multiplied by two to indicate twice the amount of "mean energy" available among elementary degrees of freedom of the system).>>

[DavidLeodis]

The 'Solar Dynamics Observatory' link in the credit currently brings up the APOD of April 27 2013.

[retrogalax]

Hello,

I read the explanation under the "visible light" linked in the text. Is the increase of energy in the high atmosphere of the Sun a result of accumulation of heat ?
Looking at the picture i understand better its power and how it is burning.

retrogalaxy

[neufer]

Hello,

I read the explanation under the "visible light" linked in the text. Is the increase of energy in the high atmosphere of the Sun a result of accumulation of heat ?

The increase of energy in the high atmosphere of the Sun is primarily a result of an increase in density (since the high atmosphere is alway hot).