Sunspots
The sun is peppered with so many spots, observers are beginning to notice them at sunrise--no filters required. Jett Aguilar "spotted" the dark cores this morning when the sun came up over Quezon City, the Philippines:
"At sunrise on April 19th I took an image of the sunspot-spotted sun rising over the Sierra Madre mountains of Luzon," he says. "I used an unfiltered Canon 300 mm f/4 lens with a 2x Canon extender on a Canon 7D DSLR. Exposure was 1/2000 sec at f/45, ISO 100."
Coronal Hole
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is monitoring a hole in the sun's atmosphere--a "coronal hole." It is colored deep-blue in this extreme UV image of the sun taken by SDO on April 17th:
Coronal holes are places where the sun's magnetic field opens up and
allows solar wind to escape. In the image, above, the sun's magnetic
field is traced by white loops. Arrows show the flow of material out of
the hole.
Holes in the sun's atmosphere are not unusual; they appear several times each month. A stream of solar wind flowing from this particular coronal hole will probably reach Earth on April 22.
Holes in the sun's atmosphere are not unusual; they appear several times each month. A stream of solar wind flowing from this particular coronal hole will probably reach Earth on April 22.
Earth-facing large CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) approach
Large CME approaching, increase in earthquakes expected:
From BPEarthWatch
