In a paper published April 14, 2011 in the journal Nature, researchers from the Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL) of the Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] Advanced Technology Center (ATC), along with colleagues at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Kyoto University, and the High Altitude Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation) -- have discovered a turbulent convective flow system in solar "quiescent" prominences suspended in the corona--the Sun's outer atmosphere-- that point to a mechanism by which hot coronal plasma (and presumably magnetic flux) are injected upwards into the coronal cavity system. Coronal cavities are large magnetic flux ropes suspended in the corona, typically in the polar regions of the Sun. These flux ropes all eventually erupt in the form of CMEs that can impact the interplanetary and terrestrial space environments.

The images have been scaled and aligned to the Hinode/SOT Ca II H-line image scale and view field. Nearest-neighbor interpolation in time is used to temporally align the time series with the SOT Ca H images. Absorption in the prominence is clearly stronger than in the 171 channel. The bubble and plume are thus seen in higher contrast in this channel.

credit: Thomas Berger, Lockheed Martin

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