Animations of solar activity
The following are video clips of the live sun showing prominences, sunspots and other phenomena
visible in the Sun's chromosphere. The chromosphere (literally, "color sphere") is a thin layer of the
Sun's atmosphere just above the photosphere, roughly 2,000 kilometers deep. The chromosphere
is more visually transparent than the photosphere. The name comes from the fact that it has a reddish color,
as the visual spectrum of the chromosphere is dominated by the deep red H-alpha spectral line of hydrogen.
These events can be seen only through narrow band filters tuned to the hydrogen alpha spectral line.
1) This video is a sequence of 24 still images acquired over a 5 1/2 hour period on May 25, 2009 and consists of solar prominences,
the largest of which extends approximately 66,000km above the Sun's surface. This is a 'medium size'
prominence. The largest ones can measure up to 10 times this size! . See the movie.
If you have trouble seeing it, you might need to download adobe shockwave here . If all else fails You Tube version: