XRT Picture of the Week (XPOW)

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2018 July 31

Hinode XRT observes the Sun
Click for movie. Also available on YouTube.


The X-Ray Bow at the End of the Storm

Coronal cavities are regions of depleted coronal emission that sit above filament channels. Because these magnetic structures are less dense than their surroundings, it is difficult to observe the complex magnetic structure that support these beautiful coronal formations. That is, until the filament channel is perturbed in some way.

Near the beginning of the movie, there is a flash, just off the west limb above the circular coronal cavity. The next frame, which is several minutes later, shows the beginning of a bright linear rim of X-Rays just below the circular cavity. This newly heated, million degree plasma seems stuck, it wants to expand outward, dissipate, but something is preventing it from escaping.

So instead we observe the rim get longer and brighter while puffs of X-rays form in the outer regions of the channel. Like dust billowing behind a car traveling on a dusty dirt road, these indicate that something is moving along the inner portions of the filament channel.

Finally, we see the disturbance has reached the end of the channel, and notice that while the darkest regions of the channel are filled with bright X-rays, an arche forms, highlighting the border between the filament channel and the rest of the Sun. The solar storm is over with a jet of X-rays shooting across the bow of the channel.


Keywords: Full Disk, Cavity, Jet
Filters: Thin_Be



(Prepared by Patricia Jibben)

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