Friday, December 26, 2014
The Sun As You've Never Seen it: "Fire from an Ice Cube" - ImaGeo
SUBSCRIBE DIGITAL EDITIONS RENEW | GIVE A GIFT BACK ISSUES DIGITAL PRODUCTS CUSTOMER SERVICE D-brief | The Crux | Body Horrors | Citizen Science Salon | Collide-a-Scape | ImaGeo | Inkfish | Lovesick Cyborg | Neuroskeptic | Out There | Science Sushi | Seriously, Science? | Field Notes | $('div.blogsSwatch ul li span.lineDivider').last().hide(); By Tom Yulsman | December 23, 2014 12:50 pm ImaGeo is a visual blog focusing on the intersection of imagery, imagination and Earth. It focuses on spectacular visuals related to the science of our planet, with an emphasis (although not an exclusive one) on the unfolding Anthropocene Epoch. Select Category Select Category Air Pollution Antarctica Anthropocene Arctic Astronaut Photography Astronomy Atmosphere biotechnology Boulder Climate Climate Change Colorado Comets Drought Earth Science EarthArt ecology Environment Every Day Wonders Extreme Weather Fossil Fuels Geology Global Warming image of the day Meteors and Asteroids Miscellaneous Natural Disasters Nature Ocean Oceanography Ozone Depletion Photography Physics Planetary Science Pollution Population Remote Sensing Sea Ice Sea Level Rise select Solar System Space Exploration Stars Sun Top Posts Tropical Cyclones Uncategorized unusual organisms Water Weather Wildfire Select Tag Select Tag #Boulderflood #CAdrought #Coloradoflood #KingFire #Longmontflood 100-year flood 2003 blackout 350.org 400 ppm AAAS abstraction Academy Awards Accumulated Cyclone Energy Accumulated Cyclone Energy Index ACE active region active regions aerial photography aerosol optical depth aerosols Africa agriculture air pollution air quality air quality index airpocalypse Alan Townsend Alaska albedo Albuquerque Aleutian Islands Aleutians algae bloom algae blooms Alum Fire American Association for the Advancement of Science American Falls Amundsen Sea Embayment Andrew Freedman Andrew Revkin Andy Stahl Angkor Wat animation Anna Michalak annular eclipse Ansel Adams Antarctic glaciers Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Anthropocene Apollo 11 Apollo 7 Appalachians AQI Aqua Aqua satellite Aral Sea Arctic Arctic air Arctic amplification Arctic blanket Arctic blast Arctic cyclone Arctic Frontiers Arctic Oscillation Arctic Report Card 2014 Arctic sea ice Arizona Arkansas Armageddon Arun Kumar Asian heat wave ASTER Asteroid Asteroid 2012 DA14 Asteroid 2014 AA astronomy Astronomy Magazine astrophotography Atchafalaya River Atlanta Atlantic hurricane season atmosphere atmospheric rivers atomic bomb Aura satellite aurora aurora borealis Australia Australian bushfires Axel Timmermann Baffin Island Bahamas Bakken formation Bald Fire Baltic Sea barchan dunes Barents Sea Barringer Crater Beasts of the Southern Wild Beaver Complex Fire Beaver Creek Fire Beijing Bell's twinpod Bend Bering Sea Bering Sea Superstorm Bering Strait Big Island Big Meadows Fire Big Thompson River Bill Patzert biodiversity biology bioprospecting biotechnology birds Birth of El Ni�o Black Forest Fire Black Sea Fleet blackout Blue Marble Blue Mountains blue-green algae blue-green algae bloom Bob Marshall Bombus huntii Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock Boreas Boulder Boulder Creek Boulder flooding Brad Panovich breadbasket Bridal Veil Falls British Columbia Bruce Willis Bryan Johnson Buffalo bumblebees Bureau of Reclamation busfire bushfire Buzz Aldrin CAFO calcium deposition California California Air National Guard California Department of Water Resources California drought California snowpack California wildfires Cambodia Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Canary Islands Cape Cod Cape Hatteras carbon Carbon County carbon dioxide carcinogens Carlsbad Carrington Event Casiguran Caspian Sea Cassini Central Valley CFCs Channel Country Chariot Fire Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk meteor Chile China Chita chlorofluorocarbons Chris Hadfield Christchurch Christi Turner Christmas Christopher C. Burt Christopher Small Chukchi Sea CIMSS cirrus clouds Cleveland volcano climate Climate Central climate change climate change communication climate change impacts Climate Extremes Index Climate Prediction Center climate variation Climatic Research Unit cloud formations cloud patterns cloud spirals cloud streets clouds CME CMI CO2 coal coastal erosion Coffin v Left Hand cold front cold snap Colin McDonald Colony Collapse Disorder Colorado Colorado Big Thompson Project Colorado deluge Colorado flooding Colorado Plateau Colorado River Colorado wildfires comet Comet 67P Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Comet Encke Comet Ison Comet PanSTARRS computer modeling Connecticut River ConocoPhillips convection convection layer Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies Copernicus Corey Powell corona coronal arcs coronal hole coronal holes coronal loops coronal mass ejection coronal mass ejections coronal rain Cory Powell cosmic origins cottonwood trees Crimea Cristobal CryoSat-2 Cuba cumulus cloud cumulus clouds cyanobacteria cyclogenesis cyclone Cyclone Phailin cyclones Dan Kahan Dark Snow Project David Rose David Strait David Thomas Smith Davina Andersson Day Fire dead zones Deadliest Catch deadly twisters Dean Pesnell Death Valley deep freeze Deep Impact Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Delhi Denver International Airport derecho devastating floods development Digital Globe disappearing Rio Grande DMSP DMSP satellite DOW draa Drake Olson drilling drinking water drone drought Drought Monitor drug development dry Dulag dumb dumberer dunes dust dust front dust storm dust storms E-1 settlement earth Earth Art Earth mosaic Earth Observatory earth science Earth Systems Research Laboratory Earth's terminator EarthArt Earthquakes eastern Pacific effluent Egil Olli Eiler Fire El Ni�o El Ni�o-ish elections Elephant Butte Reservoir Elizabeth McNie embargo energy ENSO environmental journalism Environmental Visualization Laboratory eolian EOSDIS equatorial Pacific Eric Holthaus Eric Rignot Eric Steig Erie County eruption ESA Espen Barth Eide ESRL EUMETSAT Eurasian Plate European Space Agency eutrophication every day wonders extreme storms extreme weather extreme weather NCDC extreme wildfire eye candy Eye of the Storm fertilizer filament eruption filament eruptions fine particulate pollution fire fire clouds fire suppression fireball fires erupt flare flash flooding Flight 370 floating objects flood risks flooding floods Flores Florida fog Folsom Lake food security Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics Fort Collins fossil fuels Fountain Formation Fourmile Canyon Fourmile Creek fracking fractal drainages fractals Front Range FSEE Fukushima Funny River Fire Furious Fifties Furnace Creak Future Tense Galena Fire Galileo geomagnetic storm geomorphology geopotential height GEOS-5 Germany gibbous moon Gifford Miller GISS glaciers glaciology Glen Canyon Dam global average temperature global cooling global warming global warming climate change global warming hiatus global warming pause Goddard Institute for Space Studies Goddard Space Flight Center GOES weather satelittes GOES-12 GOES-13 GOES-14 GOES-15 GOES-East GOES-West Google Google Earth Google Maps government shutdown Grand Canyon granules Great Lakes Great Plains Great Salt Lake Greeley Greenbay Packers greenhouse gases Greenland Greenland ice sheet Greenland melt duration Greenland melt extent Greenland Summit Greg Gorman ground-level ozone Guatemala Gulf of Mexico Gulf Stream gypsum haboob Hainan Haines Index Haiyan Hangzhou Happy Holidays Harald Loeng Harold Brooks Hathaway Fire Hatteras Island Hawaii Hawaiian Islands Hayn Crater hazardous air pollution Headwaters Economics Heard Island heat heat wave heat waves heliocentric model Henry Paulson here we go again High Plains High Plains haboob high temperatures Himalayas Hinode HiRise HiRise camera Hiroshima hoar frost honeybees Hoover Dam Horseshoe Falls hosed hottest years on record Hubble Space Telescope hurricane Hurricane Amanda Hurricane Arthur Hurricane Edouard Hurricane Genevieve Hurricane Gonzalo Hurricane Iselle Hurricane Julio Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Sandy hurricane warning hurricane-force low hurricanes hydraulic fracturing hydroelectricity hypoxia hypoxic zone Ian Joughin ice ice age Ice Bowl ice caps ice cores Ice Makes Fire ice shelves iceberg Iceland ICESat Idaho idvsolutions Idyllwild image of the day ImaGeo Inciweb India Indian Ocean Dipole Indo-Australian plate Indo-Gangetic Plain Indonesia Indonesian volcano insects INSTAAR Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph interference Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change International Space International Space Station inversion layer IPCC Iran IRIS Irkutsk Isanotski Volcano ISON Israel ISS Izu Oshima James Ross Island Jane Lubchenco Janice Brahney Japan Jason Box Jason Neff Jason-2 Java Java Trench Jeff Adkins Jeff Masters Jens Johan Hjort Jeremie Mouginot Jermie Mouginot Jerusalem jet stream John Fasullo John Hawkins John Stetson Joint Typhoon Warming Center Joint Typhoon Warning Center Juno JunoCam Jupiter Juventae Chasma kaleidoscope Kamchatka Peninsula Kanawha River Kansas Karen Nyberg Karl Battams katydids Keith Kloor Kelud Kelut Kelvin Wave Kevin Trenberth King Fire Kirkenes Klaus Wolter Koichi Wakata Kompsat-2 Kyushu La Nada La Ni�a La Ni�o Labrador Labrador Current Lafourche Parish Lahore Lake Baikal Lake Chad lake effect snow Lake Erie Lake Mead Lake Powell Lake Shasta Lake Superior Lake Tahoe Lake Vostok Lambeau Field Landsat Landsat Data Continuity Mission Landsat-8 landscape landslide landslides Las Conchas Fire Las Vegas Laurentide Ice Sheet LDCM LDCM satellite lee-wave lenticular clouds Left Hand Creek Left Hand Water LEM lenticular clouds Lesser Sunda Islands Lifeng Luo lightning Little Sitkin Island Lofoten Islands Long Island longmont Los Angeles LOTI Louisiana LRO Luichow Peninsula Luna Island Lunar Excursion Module lunar impact Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter lunar transit lung cancer Lyons M/S Lofoten Maaleh Adumim MabCent Madden Julian Oscillation magnetic fingerprints Maid of the Mist Malaysian Airlines Maniitsoq Marc Morano Maren Esmark Margaret Campbell-Brown Marie Dumont Marika Holland Mark Rothko Mars Mars Orbiter Mission Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Martha's Vineyard Martin Hoerling massive sea of warmth Mauna Kea Mauna Loa MAVEN Maximilian Teodorescu mayflies McMurdo McMurdo Station MCS megacities MEI Melbourne melt ponds Mercury mesoscale convective system mesoscale convective vortex Messenger meteor meteor crash Meteor Crater meteorite meteorology meteors Meteosat Meteosat-9 methane Mexico MH370 Michael Collins Michael Kodas Michael Studinger Michelle L�Heureux Microcystis mid-latitude cyclone Middle East Mideast midget typhoon Milankovitch cycles MIMIC mimicry Minna Bluff Mississippi River MJO MODIS Mondrian monsoon Montana Monte Carlo simulation moon moon as art moon landing mother Mother Earth Mother's Day moulin Mountain Fire Mountain Research Statio MRoI MRS. Mt. La Perouse MTSAT Murmansk Myles Allen Namib desert Namibia nanoflares Nantucket NASA NASA Earth Observatory Nathalia Alzate National Center for Atmospheric Research national climate overview National Climatic Data Center National Hurricane Center National Interagency Fire Center National Severe Storms Laboratory National Snow and Ice Data Center NATO natural disasters natural gas Naval Research Laboratory NCAR NCDC Neil Armstrong Nelson Mandela Neoguri Nerilie Abram New Melones Reservoir New Mexico New Orleans New River New River Gorge New South Wales New York City New Zealand Newton NEXRAD NFL Niagara Falls night lights Nile Nile Delta nitrogen nitrogen dioxide Niwot no relief no-till agriculture NOAA Nor'easter Noril'sk North Atlantic North Atlantic storms North Carolina North Korea North Pole lake Northeastern United States Northern Lights Northern Territories Northwest Norway Nova Scotia Novaya Zemlya Noxubee County tornado NPR NSIDC NSSL Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array nuclear testing Nuri NuSTAR nutrients Nuuk occluded front ocean acidification ocean currents ocean heat content oceanography Odile oil oil drilling Okinawa Oklahoma OLI Olympic games Olympics OMPS Omsk Operation Ice Bridge Operation IceBridge Oregon orographic cirrus clouds Oscars Out There Outer Banks over-shooting cloud tops over-shooting tops ozone hole Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite Pacheco Canyon Fire Pacific Northwest Pacific Ocean Pale Blue Dot paleoclimatology Palestine Palm Springs Palo Duro Canyon Paluweh Paola Testa particulate pollution Pat Mulroy Paul Kos Paul Lettieri peace peak oil perigee moon perihelion Persian Gulf persuasion pesticides petroleum Philae Philippine Islands Philippines Phoenix phosphorous photography photosphere Physaria bellii physics phytoplankton Pieter Tans Pike Hotshots Pine Island Glacier pineapple express PIOMAS plains cottonwood planetary science plasma plate tectonics PM 2.5 PM2.5 Poinsettia Fire polar paradox polar vortex Pollock Pines pollution population growth Populus deltoides Portrait of Earth possibly dangerous Power Dissipation Index power grid Powerhouse Fire precipitable water precipitation President Obama Primal Earth Images prominence eruption Prospect Point prospectors psychedelic Putin Pyongyang pyroCb Blog pyrocumulus pyrocumulus cloud Queensland R&D radiative imbalance rainfall Ray Rasker Red Rocks red zones Reid Wiseman remote sensing Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles retardants Richard Minnich Rick Mastracchio Rim Fire Rio Grande Risky Business Robert Bindschadler Rosa Khutar Rosetta Russia Russian Academy of Sciences Ryan Neely Saharan dust Salekhard salmon farming Sami San Clemente Island San Diego County sand storm sandstorm Sangeang Api Sangkh� River Santa Ana winds Santa Fe Saturn Sawhill Ponds Schr�dinger's Cat Schr�dinger's Comet scientific visualization Scott Bachmeier SDO sea ice sea ice volume sea level rise sea smoke sea surface temperature seasons Sebkhat El Melah Semisopochnoi volcano Seoul Sesriem Canyon Sevastopol severe weather Shanghai Shaun Marcott shipping ships Shishaldin Volcano SHO Siberia Sierra Nevada Sierra Nevada mountains Silver Fire simulation Skeptical Science Slate smoke snow snow squall snow water equivalent snowboob snowpack Snowpocalypse snowstorm Sochi SOHO soil moisture solar activity solar activity cycle Solar and Heliospheric Observatory solar corona solar cycle Solar Dynamics Solar Dynamics Laboratory Solar Dynamics Observatory solar eclipse solar eruption solar filaments solar flare solar flares Solar Heliospheric Observatory solar physics solar storm solar system solar wind Solin Stark Somerset Levels South Africa South Carolina South Korea South Platte River South Sandwich Islands Southern Annular Mode Southern California Southern Nevada Water Authority Southern Ocean Southern Ontario Soviet Union Space Exploration space weather Space Weather Prediction Center Springs Fire square hole SST SSTs Star Trek Starfleet Command State Mine Fire State of the Climate State of the Climate 2012 Stefan Rahmstorf Steigen STEREO STEREO-A Stereo-B Stereo-B spacecraft storm storm surge storms Strait of Hormuz strange bedfellows stratus clouds strongest cyclone stupid subduction subsidence Sukkertoppen ice cap sun sun dogs Suncor sundiving comet sungrazer comets sungrazing comet sunrise sunset sunspots Suomi NPP Suomi NPP satellite Super Typhoon Hagupit Super Typhoon Haiyan Super Typhoon Neoguri Super Typhoon Nuri Super Typhoon Rammasun Super Typhoon Utor Super Typhoon Vongfong super-granules super-storm supercell thunderstorm supercell thunderstorms supermoon superstorm Svalbard Svolv�r Sweden swirling cyclone SWPC Sydney Tacloban Tartars Tasmania Ted Scambos Ted Scripps Fellowships Teide Observatory temperature inversion Terra Terra satellite Terrebone Parish Tettigoniidae Texas The Blob the Mail The Philippines The Sound of Ice Melting The Thing The Walking Dead the West Thomas Mote Three Gorges Dam thunderstorms Thwaites Glacier Tibetan Plateau timelapse timelapse photography tiny typhoon TIROS-1 Tokyo Toledo Tom Yulsman tornado tracks tornadoes Toronto Toronto flooding total precipitable water TPW training thunderstorms transverse cloud banding tree tree swallows TRMM satellite trochoidal wobble Troms� Troms�ya Trond �. J�rgensen tropical cyclone Tropical Cyclone Imelda Tropical Cyclone Ita Tropical Cyclone Victoria Tropical cyclones Tropical Cylone Tracy tropical depression Tropical Storm Ana Tropical Storm Arthur Tropical Storm Boris Tropical Storm Dorian Tropical Storm Eight Tropical Storm Flossie Tropical Storm Genevieve Tropical Storm Hagupit Tropical Storm Julio Tropical Storm Pabuk tropical storms Tsauchab Tundra Lab Two Bulls Fire Tycho crater typhoon Typhoon Haiyan Typhoon Halong Typhoon Jebi Typhoon Labuyo Typhoon Mangkhut Typhoon Nari Typhoon Nuri Typhoon Usagi Typhoon Utor Typhoon Vongfong Typhoon Wipha U.K. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation U.S. Drought Monitor U.S. Forest Service UAV Ukraine Unimak Island United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States unmanned aerial vehicle unnecessary Upper Mississippi River Urals USGS Utah Vallecito Lightning Complex valley fog Valmont power plant Valmont Station Valparaiso Van Karman vortex VegDRI Vegetation Drought Response Index vegetation index Venus Vicky Sama Victoria Vietnam VIIRS visual communication Vitim bolide volcanic ash volcanic eruption volcano volcanoes Volga River Volga River Delta Von Karman vortex Von Karman vortices vortices WAIS Waldo Canyon Fire Waleed Abdalati warm seclusion cyclone Washington water water quality water vapor waterspouts Watts Up With That? Wave at Earth waves weather weather radar weather satellite weather satellites Weld County West Antarctic Ice Sheet West Fork Complex West Virginia Western United States wetlands what are you looking at? What We Know Whirlpool Rapids white Christmas White House White Sands wildfire wildfire season wildfires wildland-urban interface wind winter Winter Storm Boreas Working Group II World Health Organization World Meteorological Organization wreckage WUI WWII x-class X-class flare Xcel Energy XRT Yarnell Hill Fire Year's worth of weather Yosemite National Park Zagros Mountains Select Archive Select Archive December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 More great sites from Kalmbach Publishing Co.: Forgot your password? No problem. Click here to have it e-mailed to you. Not Registered Yet? Register now for FREE. Registration only takes a few minutes to complete. Register now � X-rays streaming off the sun appear in tones of blue and green in an image from NASA�s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array spacecraft, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture acquired by NASA�s orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). If you visit ImaGeo with any frequency, you�ve probably seen many images of the Sun here � but none quite like the one above. The reddish stuff may look familiar. That�s�material in the Sun�s atmosphere, or corona, as imaged by NASA�s orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory , which has been sending back data for nearly four years. But that ethereal blue and green glow? � that�s something else entirely. The glow�was captured separately�by the orbiting Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array �spacecraft, or NuSTAR, and laid over the SDO image to create a composite.� As�the most sensitive view of�high-energy X-ray radiation streaming off the sun, NuSTAR�s contribution may help scientists solve a long-standing mystery: Why is the corona blisteringly hot while the solar surface is considerably cooler? An hypothesized�phenomenon called �nanoflares� may provide the answer. A full-disk NuSTAR-SDO composite of the Sun. (Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC) Scientists did not originally intend to use NuSTAR to�examine the Sun.�The orbiting telescope�was actually�designed to peer deep into the universe � to�look for collapsed stars and black holes, map supernova remnants, and examine galaxies hosting supermassive black holes. �At first I thought the whole idea was crazy,� says Fiona Harrison , NuSTAR�s principal investigator and a scientist�at�the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. But she warmed to the idea when she realized that�NuSTAR�s sensor could pick up the�faint�flashes of X-ray radiation�that would be emitted by hypothesized nanoflares. Regular solar flares�are not hypothetical at all. I�ve written about them many times ( here and here , for example).�They occur when magnetic energy builds up in the Sun�s atmosphere and is then released suddenly with an accompanying burst of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum. As their name implies, nanoflares would be much smaller. Should they exist, they may explain why the temperature of the solar corona�is 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit�on average while the surface of the sun below it is just 10,800 F. �It is like a flame coming out of an ice cube,� as NASA explained it in a press release . Among scientists, the mystery is known as the �coronal heating problem.� In short, where is all that heat coming from? The energy released by regular flares alone�is not enough to account for it. But if nanoflares really do exist, that might solve the mystery. There is a demarcation between Sunspots and no Sunspots. As Solar activity declines, how low can Solar activity become? Sign up to get the latest science news delivered weekly right to your inbox! Tom Yulsman is Director of the Center for Environmental Journalism and a Professor of Journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He also continues to work as a science and environmental journalist with more than 30 years of experience producing content for major publications. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Audubon, Climate Central, Columbia Journalism Review, Discover, Nieman Reports, and many other publications. He has held a variety of editorial positions over the years, including a stint as editor-in-chief of Earth magazine. Yulsman has written one book: Origins: the Quest for Our Cosmic Roots, published by the Institute of Physics in 2003.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment