Search results for "Solar dynamics observatory"

SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY DISCOVERS THIN HIGH TEMPERATURE STRANDS IN CORONAL ACTIVE REGIONS

2011

One scenario proposed to explain the million degrees solar corona is a finely-stranded corona where each strand is heated by a rapid pulse. However, such fine structure has neither been resolved through direct imaging observations nor conclusively shown through indirect observations of extended superhot plasma. Recently it has been shown that the observed difference in appearance of cool and warm coronal loops (~1 MK, ~2-3 MK, respectively) -- warm loops appearing "fuzzier" than cool loops -- can be explained by models of loops composed of subarcsecond strands, which are impulsively heated up to ~10 MK. That work predicts that images of hot coronal loops (>~6 MK) should again show fine s…