Clouds blocking the sun: a common sight. But that’s not all. To wit:

Averaging over the entire Earth, clouds block the Sun about 2/3rds of the time, although much less over many land locations. On the Sun’s upper right is a prominence of magnetically levitating hot gas. The prominence might seem small but it could easily envelop our Earth and persist for over a month. The featured image is a combination of two exposures, one optimising the cloud and prominence, and the other optimising the Sun‘s texture. Both were taken about an hour apart with the same camera and from the same location in Lynnwood, Washington, USA. The shaggy texture derives from the Sun’s chromosphere, an atmospheric layer that stands out in the specifically exposed colour. The uniformity of the texture shows the surface to be relatively calm, indicative of a Sun just past the solar minimum in its 11-year cycle. In the years ahead, the Sun will progress toward a more active epoch where sunspots, prominences, and ultimately auroras on Earth will be more common: solar maximum.

(Image: Rainee Colacurcio)

apod

Sponsored Link

One thought on “Sol Good

Comments are closed.

Sponsored Link
Broadsheet.ie