Magnetic Field Lines


These movies show the view of selected magnetic field lines at a fixed moment in time in our simulation, at the same moment that we used for the final eclipse prediction. The field lines were selected to show open magnetic field lines (along which the solar wind streams out supersonically), closed magnetic field lines that define coronal streamers, which are denser because they trap the solar wind, and finally, field lines that lie in filament channels, where plasma typically condenses to form cool and dense filaments/prominences. The magnetic field lines are colored with arbitrary colors to tell them apart. The movies show the appearance of the field lines as the Sun rotates (assuming that the magnetic field is not changing in time). Each frame is marked by the Central Meridian Longitude (CML) in degrees. The Sun rotates about 13.2 degrees per day (the synodic rotation period at a latitude of 26 degrees, the so-called Carrington rotation rate). At the moment of the eclipse on August 21, 2017, the CML will be 290.68 degrees.


Page designed and created by Allie Riley.

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