Solar flares and coronal mass ejections send out shock waves that reverberate through our solar system. But shock waves through plasma – the ionized, high-energy particles making up the solar wind – do Keep reading
Tag: solar dynamics
Simulating Solar Flares
Few topics in fluid dynamics are more mathematically complicated than magnetohydrodynamics – the marriage between electromagnetism and fluids. That mathematical complexity, along with the vast range of scales necessary to Keep reading
Solar Prominence
Near the surface of the sun, the interplay of magnetic fields and plasma flow creates solar prominences that appear to dance. The prominence shown here was recorded in 2012 by Keep reading
Solar Eclipses and Coronal Mass Ejections
Observations of many solar phenomena have only become accessible to humans relatively recently with the advent of satellites. Prior to that, it simply wasn’t feasible to observe dynamics in the Keep reading
Solar Wind
Fluid dynamics appear at all kinds of scales. The animation above shows two comets, Encke and ISON, on their recent approach toward the sun. The darker wisps emanating from the Keep reading
Convection on the Sun
New photographs showing ultra-fine structure in the sun’s chromosphere and photosphere have been released. They offer a fascinating view into the magnetohydrodynamics of the sun, where the fluid behaviors of Keep reading
How the Sun Drives the Earth
This video describes how the sun’s energy drives wind and ocean currents on earth. As solar winds stream forth from the sun, our magnetosphere deflects the brunt of the impact Keep reading
Convective Cells
Convective cells form as fluid is heated from below. As the fluid near the bottom warms, its density decreases and buoyancy causes it to rise while cooler fluid descends to Keep reading
Dancing Plasma
Two dark areas of plasma, cooler than the surrounding fluid, dance and intertwine above the sun’s surface. Plasma, a rarefied gas made up of ions, is an electrically conductive fluid, Keep reading
Solar Tornadoes
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this video of swirls of darker, cooler plasma caught between competing magnetic forces over the course of 30 hours. The plasma strands rotate like tornadoes Keep reading