| Full Sun Drawings Composites Observed from Space Weather Precidction Center (SWPC) |
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Full sun drawings are a form of synoptic analysis drawings, also known as Neutral
line (NL) drawings which provide a comprehensive daily view of the sun for relevant
solar feature of interest. To a somewhat limited extent depending on the provider
the discerned features include neutral lines, coronal hole boundaries, active regions,
plage, filaments and prominences. Also included are specific details about the coronal
hole polarity, active region numbers, flare probabilities for each region and the
proton event probabilities for each region. Brief descriptions of interesting solar
features interest include: Active Regions - Active regions of the sun are localized
areas on the Sun with intense magnetic fields. The strongest magnetic fields provide
energy for solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Coronal holes (X-Ray and
He 10830) - Coronal holes are unipolar magnetic regions that are the source of high
speed solar winds. Coronal holes appear dark when seen in UV or X-rays, because they
have a very low density. Traditionally, coronal holes have been identified from He
I 10830A observations which can be made from ground based observatories. Faculae -
Solar faculae are bright spots that form in the canyons between solar granules, short-lived
convection cells several thousand kilometers across that constantly form and dissipate
over timescales of several minutes. Faculae are produced by concentrations of magnetic
field lines. Strong concentrations of faculae appear in solar activity, with or without
sunspots. The faculae and the sunspots contribute noticeably to variations in the
"Solar constant". The chromospheric counterpart of a facular region is called a plage
Filaments/Prominences (H-alpha) - Filaments (on disk) and prominences (at the limb)
are meta-stable regions of high density suspended in the low density corona. These
are considered meta-stable because they can erupt becoming a coronal mass ejection
but sometimes they just fade away. When they erupt they then become a geomagnetic
storm threat. These eruptions are usually slow and don¿t often drive very large storms.
Neutral Lines (Magnetogram) - Any time the magnetism field on the Sun organizes itself
into large structures of one magnetic polarity or the other, there must be a neutral
line at the boundary of the magnetic polarity. In active regions, neutral lines are
associated with flaring and in the quiet sun filaments/prominences will lie along
the neutral lines. Plage - Most of an active region's area is usually occupied by
plage and whereas sunspots appear dark, plage shows up as bright areas surrounding
sunspots. It is due to plage that the sun is brighter at solar maximum than at solar
minimum. Areas of plage have strong magnetic fields, but the field is not as highly
organized as it is in sunspots. |
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