Science & Technology - Posted by Mike Williams-Rice on Tuesday,
July 3, 2012 10:42 - 0 Comments Plasma loops may predict solar
storms RICE (US) — Loops of 1,800,000-degree Fahrenheit plasma
rising from the sun’s surface may be the first signs of solar
storms that threaten satellites orbiting Earth and power
transmission grids on the ground. A new study published in
Astrophysical Journal Letters shows how Doppler measurements
that help track storms on Earth may also be useful for
understanding storms on the sun. Astrophysicists combined
Doppler techniques with images and data from a space-based
telescope to observe, for the first time, the loops flowing up
from the sun’s surface at more than 12 miles per second. The
loops, rooted in active regions near sunspots and guided by the
sun’s magnetic field, arch over the sun and may be the first
signs of trouble spots, where plasma undergoes “impulsive
heating,” according to Stephen Bradshaw, assistant professor of
physics and astronomy at Rice University. Straight f