What is the difference between flares and prominences

Near sunspot maximum, small flares occur several times per day, and major ones may occur every few weeks. Flares, like the one shown in [link] , are often observed in the red light of hydrogen, but the visible emission is only a tiny fraction of the energy released when a solar flare explodes.

At the moment of the explosion, the matter associated with the flare is heated to temperatures as high as 10 million K. At such high temperatures, a flood of X-ray and ultraviolet radiation is emitted. Flares seem to occur when magnetic fields pointing in opposite directions release energy by interacting with and destroying each other—much as a stretched rubber band releases energy when it breaks.

What is different about flares is that their magnetic interactions cover a large volume in the solar corona and release a tremendous amount of electromagnetic radiation. In some cases, immense quantities of coronal material—mainly protons and electrons—may also be ejected at high speeds — kilometers per second into interplanetary space.

Such a coronal mass ejection CME can affect Earth in a number of ways which we will discuss in the section on space weather. Figure 4. Flare and Coronal Mass Ejection: This sequence of four images shows the evolution over time of a giant eruption on the Sun. The white circle in c and d shows the diameter of the solar photosphere. The larger dark area shows where light from the Sun has been blocked out by a specially designed instrument to make it possible to see the faint emission from the corona.

Figure 5. Solar Cycle: This dramatic sequence of images taken from the SOHO satellite over a period of 11 years shows how active regions change during the solar cycle. The images were taken in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum and show that active regions on the Sun increase and decrease during the cycle.

Sunspots are located in the cooler photosphere, beneath the hot gases shown in this image, and vary in phase with the emission from these hot gases—more sunspots and more emission from hot gases occur together.

To bring the discussion of the last two sections together, astronomers now realize that sunspots, flares, and bright regions in the chromosphere and corona tend to occur together on the Sun in time and space. That is, they all tend to have similar longitudes and latitudes, but they are located at different heights in the atmosphere.

Because they all occur together, they vary with the sunspot cycle. Figure 6. Note how these different types of activity all occur above a sunspot region with a strong magnetic field. For example, flares are more likely to occur near sunspot maximum, and the corona is much more conspicuous at that time see Figure 5.

A place on the Sun where a number of these phenomena are seen is called an active region Figure 6. As you might deduce from our earlier discussion, active regions are always associated with strong magnetic fields. Signs of more intense solar activity, an increase in the number of sunspots, as well as prominences, plages, solar flares, and c oronal mass ejections, all tend to occur in active regions—that is, in places on the Sun with the same latitude and longitude but at different heights in the atmosphere.

Active regions vary with the solar cycle, just like sunspots do. Skip to main content. Search for:. Solar Activity above the Photosphere Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: Describe the various ways in which the solar activity cycle manifests itself, including flares, coronal mass ejections, prominences, and plages. See a coronal mass ejection recorded by the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

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