AR1520's Parting Shot: July 19, 2012 M7.7 Flare

A NASA spacecraft records a plasma downpour in ultra HD. Watch 21.5 hours of coronal rain compressed into three-and-a-half minutes. Compare how Earth stacks up to the arcs of raining plasma. The raining plasma is best seen using SDO's 304 Å wavelength filter, which resolves material at temperatures of 50,000 Kelvin. The arcs of raining plasma are clearly visible in this full disk image of the sun. For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/coronal-rain.html) Related pages

On July 19, 2012, an eruption occurred on the sun that produced a moderately powerful solar flare and a dazzling magnetic display known as coronal rain. Hot plasma in the corona cooled and condensed along strong magnetic fields in the region. Magnetic fields, are invisible, but the charged plasma is forced to move along the lines, showing up brightly in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 304 angstroms, and outlining the fields as it slowly falls back to the solar surface.Music: "Thunderbolt" by Lars Leonhard, courtesy of artist.For complete transcript, click here. Eruptive events on the sun can be wildly different. Some come just with a solar flare, some with an additional ejection of solar material called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and some with complex moving structures in association with changes in magnetic field lines that loop up into the sun's atmosphere, the corona. On July 19, 2012, an eruption occurred on the sun that produced all three. A moderately powerful solar flare exploded on the sun's lower right hand limb, sending out light and radiation. Next came a CME, which shot off to the right out into space. And then, the sun treated viewers to one of its dazzling magnetic displays — a phenomenon known as coronal rain. Over the course of the next day, hot plasma in the corona cooled and condensed along strong magnetic fields in the region. Magnetic fields, themselves, are invisible, but the charged plasma is forced to move along the lines, showing up brightly in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 304 angstroms, which highlights material at a temperature of about 50,000 Kelvin. This plasma acts as a tracer, helping scientists watch the dance of magnetic fields on the sun, outlining the fields as it slowly falls back to the solar surface. The footage in this video was collected by the Solar Dynamics Observatory's AIA instrument. SDO collected one frame every 12 seconds, and the movie plays at 30 frames per second, so each second in this video corresponds to 6 minutes of real time. The video covers 12:30 a.m. EDT to 10:00 p.m. EDT on July 19, 2012.Watch this video on YouTube. For More InformationSee [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/coronal-rain.html](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/coronal-rain.html) Related pages

Solar scientists have long known that at the heart of the great explosions of solar material that shoot off the sun — known as coronal mass ejections or CMEs — lies a twisted kink of magnetic fields known as a flux rope. But no one has known when or where they form. Now, for the first time, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory as captured a flux rope in the very act of formation.For complete transcript, click here. SDO AIA 131 angstrom standard coloration view of early flux ropes. SDO AIA 131 angstrom standard coloration view of flux ropes during CME. SDO AIA 131 and 171 subtraction blended image of early flux ropes. SDO AIA 131 hue-shifted image of flux ropes during CME. SDO AIA 131 and 171 difference blended image of flux ropes during CME. SDO AIA 131 and 171 difference blended image of early flux ropes. The image on the left shows a series of magnetic loops on the sun, as captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on July 18, 2012. The image on the right has been processed to highlight the edges of each loop and make the structure more clear. A series of loops such as this is known as a flux rope, and these lie at the heart of eruptions on the sun known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs.) This is the first time scientists were able to discern the timing of a flux rope's formation. Blended 131 and 171 angstrom light view of flux rope formation and eruption. 131 only view of flux rope formation and eruption. High frequency 131 view of flux rope formation. On July 18, 2012, a fairly small explosion of light burst off the lower right limb of the sun. Such flares often come with an associated eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME — but this one did not. Something interesting did happen, however. Magnetic field lines in this area of the sun's atmosphere, the corona, began to twist and kink, generating the hottest solar material — a charged gas called plasma — to trace out the newly-formed slinky shape. The plasma glowed brightly in extreme ultraviolet images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and scientists were able to watch for the first time the very formation of something they had long theorized was at the heart of many eruptive events on the sun: a flux rope. Eight hours later, on July 19, the same region flared again. This time the flux rope's connection to the sun was severed, and the magnetic fields escaped into space, dragging billions of tons of solar material along for the ride — a classic CME. More than just gorgeous to see, such direct observation offers one case study on how this crucial kernel at the heart of a CME forms. Such flux ropes have been seen in images of CMEs as they fly away from the sun, but it's never been known — indeed, has been strongly debated — whether the flux rope formed before or in conjunction with a CME's launch. This case shows a clear-cut example of the flux rope forming ahead of time.Watch this video on YouTube. For More InformationSee [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/flux-ropes.html](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/flux-ropes.html) Related pages