Solar Observatories Discovering a hidden source of solar surges

High-definition images of the Sun´s surface (left) and lower chromosphere (right) observed with the New Solar Telescope. 

This region of the Sun displays a some dark structures (solar pores) and the convective pattern (granulation) in which they are immersed. 

The region in the white circle is zoomed-out to show the action of the magnetic flux rope that interacts with the plasma and deforms the shape of the granules. 

At the lower part in the right image the scientists detected the ejection of a plasma surge extending thousands of miles.

Cutting-edge observations with the 1.6-meter telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in California have taken research into the structure and activity of the Sun to new levels of understanding.

Operated by New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), the telescope at Big Bear is the most powerful ground-based instrument dedicated to studying the Sun.

A group of astronomers led by Dr. Santiago Vargas Dominguez has analyzed the highest- resolution solar observations ever made.

A summary of their work at BBSO was presented on June 2 at the 224th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, held in Boston, Massachusetts.

The NJIT researchers reported on the emergence of buoyant "small-scale" magnetic-flux ropes on the solar surface and the initiation of powerful plasma eruptions in the solar atmosphere.

The observations were performed as part of a program conducted jointly with NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission, Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Hinode satellite.

These observations provided a unique view of a magnetic-flux rope in the Sun's surface-granulation pattern that was 6,000 miles long, and the interaction between newly emergent and overlying ambient magnetic fields.

Solar activity entails numerous processes occurring in the star nearest to Earth. These processes have far-reaching effects, generating "space weather" that brings bursts of charged particles and high-energy radiation in the direction of Earth at nearly the speed of light.

Cartoon illustrating the action of a six-thousand miles long magnetic flux rope rising up from the solar interior and stretching the granules.  
The interaction between the emerged and the ambient magnetic fields produces impulsive heating and an ejection of a plasma surge.

The magnetic field generated in the solar interior and brought to the surface creates a wide variety of structures, with sunspots being the most well-known.

Sunspots can cover large areas of the surface of the Sun, up to several times the size of Earth. They can persist for weeks or even months before vanishing.

Associated with the evolution of sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections are especially intense during the solar maximum, the period of greatest activity in the 11-year solar cycle.

Multiple phenomena can also occur on "smaller" spatial scales of several thousand miles, and in a matter of minutes.

Believed to be driven by the interaction of magnetic fields, these events occur with greater frequency and appear to be directly responsible for continuous heating of the solar atmosphere.

More information: "Multi-wavelength high-resolution observations of a small-scale emerging magnetic flux event and the chromospheric and coronal response." Santiago Vargas Dominguez, Alexander Kosovichev, Vasyl Yurchyshyn. arXiv:1405.3550 [astro-ph.SR]. arxiv.org/abs/1405.3550

Big Bear Observatory (BBSO): Remarkable details of the Sun now available

The most precise sunspot image ever taken is shown. 

With the unprecedented resolution of the Big Bear Solar Observatory's New Solar Telescope (NST), many, previously unknown, small-scale features are revealed.

They include the twisting flows along the penumbra's less dark filaments, as well as the complicated dynamical motion in the light bridge vertically spanning the darkest part of the umbra, as well as the dark cores of the small bright points (umbra dots) apparent in the umbra.

The telescope is currently being upgraded to include the only solar multi-conjugate adaptive optics system to fully correct atmospheric distortion over a wide field of view, as well as the only fully cryogenic solar spectrograph for probing the sun in the near infrared.

Other instruments have been brought on-line since 2009, to enable the NST to probe the sun with its full scientific capability for measuring magnetic fields and dynamic events using visible and infrared light. 

Credit: BBSO/NJIT

Researchers at NJIT's Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in Big Bear, CA have obtained new and remarkably detailed photos of the Sun with the New Solar Telescope (NST).

The photographs reveal never-before-seen details of solar magnetism revealed in photospheric and chromospheric features.

"With our new generation visible imaging spectrometer (VIS)," said Wenda Cao, NJIT Associate Professor of Physics and BBSO Associate Director, "the solar atmosphere from the photosphere to the chromosphere, can be monitored in a near real time."

"One image was taken with VIS on May 22, 2013 in H-alpha line center. The lawn-shaped pattern illustrates ultrafine magnetic loops rooted in the photosphere below."

Wenda Cao

The other photospheric photograph is the most precise sunspot image ever taken: A textbook sunspot that looks like a daisy with many petals.

The dark core of the spot is the umbra and the petals are the penumbra. "With the unprecedented resolution of BBSO's NST, many previously unknown small-scale sunspot features can now be perceived," said Cao.

In particular, there are the twisting flows along the penumbra's less dark filaments, the complicated dynamic motion in the light bridge vertically spanning the umbra's darkest part and the dark cores of the small bright points or umbra dots.

BBSO has been under NJIT's management since 1997 when NJIT took over the facility from California Institute of Technology.

Philip R. Goode

The founder and executive director has been NJIT Distinguished Professor Philip R. Goode, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union.

Goode led the project, which was completed in 2009, to build the world's most capable solar telescope at BBSO. The new1.6 meter clear aperture, off-axis instrument is the world's largest solar aperture telescope.

This image was taken with the visible imaging spectrometer on May 22, 2013, in H-alpha line center by the New Solar Telescope (NST) at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO), Calif.

The lawn-shaped pattern shows ultrafine magnetic loops rooted on the photosphere. 

The telescope is currently being upgraded to include the only solar multi-conjugate adaptive optics system to correct atmospheric distortion over a wide field of view, as well as the only fully cryogenic solar spectrograph for probing the sun in the near infrared.

Other instruments have been brought on-line since 2009, to enable the NST to probe the sun with its full scientific capabilities for measuring magnetic fields and dynamic events using visible and infrared light. 

Credit: BBSO/NJIT

The telescope is currently being upgraded to include the only solar multi-conjugate adaptive optics system with the goal being to fully correct atmospheric distortion over a wide field of view, as well as the only fully cryogenic solar spectrograph for probing the Sun in the near infrared.

Other instruments have been brought on-line since 2009, to enable the NST to probe the Sun with its full scientific capability for measuring magnetic fields and dynamic events using visible and infrared light.