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Coronal Hole Coming Around

Dec. 6, 2016
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spied a substantial coronal hole begin to rotate into view over Dec. 1-2, 2016. Coronal holes are magnetically open areas of the sun's magnetic field structure that spew streams of high speed solar wind into space.

A substantial coronal hole began to rotate into view over the past few days (Dec. 1-2, 2016). Coronal holes are magnetically open areas of the sun's magnetic field structure that spew streams of high speed solar wind into space. In about a week or so that coronal hole might send streams of particles in the direction of Earth. Often times these streams can interact with Earth's magnetosphere and generate aurora. The images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.

Movies
PIA21208_Cor_hole193_Dec_big.mp4
PIA21208_Cor_hole193_Dec_sm.mp44

SDO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Its Atmosphere Imaging Assembly was built by the Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), Palo Alto, California.

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