Solar Flare 5th May 2007
GIF movie of the "tsunami"

Page 3

Gif Movie  Comment by Joseph P Gurman   next page

NOAA 10953 - S10W58, GOES C4.2

 

A tsunami generated by the solar flare shot south, into the magnetic "suburb" (which had being flickering before the main flare began. )

  • The ejected plasma is dark: indicating it is cooler than the rest of the plasma recorded on this 17.1 nanometer ultraviolet image sequence.
  • The ejection shoots out below the main magnetic loops of the sunspot.
  • As it plows into the plasma, a ragged set of smaller jets mounts up - rather like a breaking wave on earth's shore, and they splash higher into the corona.
  • In front of the dark ejection, there is a faint wave front as the structures lower in the corona flex back and forth slightly. Note how the wave front seems to avoid entering the coronal hole on the left of the sun-spot (SE).
  • Where the ejection began in the flare, post-flare loops build up.
  • The two big loops to the right (W) of the solar flare change during the duration of the flare, one darker, the other brighter as the post-flare loops build up. Are these loops the site of the magnetic reconnection which initiated the flare?
  • Stereoscopic visualisation makes it much easier to understand this 3 dimensional activity on the sun.

 

red/cyan anaglyph goggles(The GIF movie is 3D anaglyph, use red/cyan glasses )

 

GIF stereoscopic naglyph movie of the shock wave after the 5th May 2007 solar flare

 

flash movie (not in 3D) is also available

Solar flare and Morton Wave, 55 minute subtraction

Comment by Joseph B. Gurman of NASA:

"There's clearly an eruptive prominence, and some indication of a wave front. The name "Moreton wave" refers to phenomena observed in chromospheric spectral lines, and "EIT wave" or "coronal wave" to events like this, observed in lines formed in the corona. A small fraction of such coronal events also have Moreton waves. Whether they are intrinsically the same phenomenon, and what that phenomenon is, is still a matter of debate in the solar physics community. Sorry not to be able to give a more definitive answer."

Page 1 Solar Flare and Tsunami, event gev_20070505_1220 (3D)
Page 2 Subtraction Images (2D)
Page 3 GIF movie, 171 Å (2D)
Page 4 Flash movie, 195 Å (2D)
Page 5 H alpha GIF movie (2D)

Page 6 Comparison of H-alpha and 195Å movies.

Solar Index page - More solar 3D from the STEREO mission.
rel.link. 

return to kiwizone home page