Flux Ropes in the Solar Wind

[Solar]

Cathode spots can only be produced by solid electrodes.

Disagreeing with that. It seems to me that the advancing ionization front of cathode-like horizontal surface 'arcing' is occurring with the plasma boundaries of the sun.

Will anyone verify that in this GIF
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... rface.html
The flaring does not seem to be occurring along the length of the flare all at once? The flaring starts a specific height above the sun,and "lingers" there for a second or two (at the base of what will become that detached flare)?

It even looks (in the last few seconds),that it is lines of fixed contour that are flaring?

That movie is looking down the length, with a slight angle, at the progression of a "magnetic arcade" which later erupts into an arc discharge perpendicular to the 'surface'. They change the filtering while one is viewing. Here is another version from a different time viewed from above that exhibits ‘cathode spot-like arcing’ along (or ‘through’) the ‘horizontal surface’ of a double-layer:

AR9077: Solar Magnetic Arcade

Original TRACE Movie Quicktime needed.

Notice that the rise of these “loops” are preceded by ionization along the horizontal ‘surface’ of a plasma ‘boundary’; an analogous “skin effect” occurring horizontally across said ‘surface’ advancing outward. This is the transient plasma equivalent of the 'cathode spot' that “starts racing around the surface of the electrode”. per Chandler.

Were the ‘boundary’ upon which the “magnetic arcade” is seated a solid - one would subsequently observe an electrically etched (ionized) ‘cathode spot’. With the sun; the ‘surface’, or ‘boundary’ where this occurs is not solid; neither is it a liquid - but the electrical dynamic is the same. The loops, arcades, flaring etc are impressive but the relative ‘surface effect’ is being ignored. Here is a another movie of these arcades but instead of watching the looping arcade watch the transient “ring shaped” - ‘cathode-like etching’ (an advancing ionization front) that progresses outward along the relative ‘surface’ below the arcades:

TRACE: Ring-shaped filament activation and eruption in 171Å on 20 September 1998

___________

It is the interruption of the current flow (or electric potential of a CFDL) that is ‘discharging at that point’. There do exist 'liquid' cathodes; they’re simply rare anymore:

Mercury Arc Rectifier Note the 'sparks' atop the Mercury poll at the bottom of the unit.

Mercury pool cathode

Mercury vapor hotspots can be seen dancing atop/over the surface, or boundary, of the pool of mercury. As everyone knows these are the units from which Alfven deduced the concept of a double-layer which, once the current is interrupted, proved to be very dangerous:

At times, a double layer might interrupt charge flow in the circuit, causing a catastrophic rise in voltage across it. The powerful energy release of the exploding double layer is sometimes observed in power transmission switchyards when a circuit breaker is opened incorrectly.

Hannes Alfvén identified just such an occurrence when he was contracted by the Swedish Power Company to investigate some serious accidents that had occurred. A few of the mercury arc rectifiers used in the power transmission circuits had exploded for no apparent reason. Alfvén identified the cause as unstable double layers within the plasma flow.

He wrote: “In Sweden the waterpower is located in the north, and the industry in the south. The transfer of power between these regions over a distance of about 1000 km was first done with a.c. When it was realized that d.c. transmission would be cheaper, mercury rectifiers were developed. It turned out that such a system normally worked well, but it happened now and then that the rectifiers produced enormous over-voltages so that fat electrical sparks filled the rectifying station and did considerable harm…

“An arc rectifier must have a very low pressure of mercury vapor in order to stand the high back voltages during half of the a.c. cycle. On the other hand, it must be able to carry large currents during the other half-cycle. It turned out that these two requirements were conflicting, because at a very low pressure the plasma could not carry enough current. If the current density is too high, an exploding double layer may be formed. This means that in the plasma a region of high vacuum is produced: the plasma refuses to carry any current at all. At the sudden interruption of the 1000 km inductance produces enormous over-voltages, which may be destructive.” – TPOD: Double Layers in Laboratory and Cosmic Plasmas

Nature has presented plenty of examples of phase-states that are ‘between’ the more definite phases. Electrified plasma is such a phase. By saying that ‘cathode-like’ dynamics only appear on the surface of solids one is basically disassociating equivalent electrical phenomena from the ‘liquid’ and/or ‘liquid-like’ phases functioning as 'cathode’. This appears to be what is occurring 'inside' the bright spots as the material of the cathode is 'eroded' (ionized) leaving the signature of a stationary 'cathode spot' behind as an after effect in a solid.

With the mercury vapor hotspots formed at the ‘surface’, or ‘boundary’, in mercury arc rectifiers, were it possible to ‘flash freeze’ the moment of the arc to 37.8 degrees when liquid mercury becomes a solid then yes, one would probably see a ‘cathode spot’ on the surface of that now solid mercury. So, imho we’re not seeing the activities of the liquid-like plasma phase functioning as cathode - as displaying its own unique transient version of what subsequently becomes an imprint on a solid.

Thoughts anyone?

[celeste]

Cathode spots can only be produced by solid electrodes.

Disagreeing with that. It seems to me that the advancing ionization front of cathode-like horizontal surface 'arcing' is occurring with the plasma boundaries of the sun.

Will anyone verify that in this GIF
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... rface.html
The flaring does not seem to be occurring along the length of the flare all at once? The flaring starts a specific height above the sun,and "lingers" there for a second or two (at the base of what will become that detached flare)?

It even looks (in the last few seconds),that it is lines of fixed contour that are flaring?

That movie is looking down the length, with a slight angle, at the progression of a "magnetic arcade" which later erupts into an arc discharge perpendicular to the 'surface'.

Solar, I think we may be on the same page? What I saw in the GIF was this:
The surface of the sun is one charged layer, but there is another opposite charge layer above it that we do not see. That is we don't see it until charge from the sun's surface rises up to meet it. Then we get to the recombination in that video, which always seems to occur at that altitude. The front of recombination in that video spreads out on contour lines defined by the height of the charged layer that we can't otherwise see. Are you seeing that? In other words, discharge from surface to that outer layer, then spreading across that otherwise invisible layer.

The mechanism (I think)is this: Say gravity caused,and maintains the charged segregated layers. Magnetic forces then get charge at the sun's surface to loop in and out of that single charged layer, causing those nice "stable" arches. Once material spirals too far out from the sun's surface, we get that arcing to the other charged double layer (that we didn't see before).
Charles pointed out that magnetism shouldn't be able to carry charge against the electric field, but note that is not what is happening. The oppositely charged layers are drawn together electrically. It is gravity that is keeping the layers segregated. So it is gravitational forces (not electrical forces), that are being overcome by magnetism here.

Charles said earlier,
"The only thing that can separate charges in the absence of electrical resistance is the magnetic force. So are there powerful magnetic fields in the vicinity of sunspots? Yes. Do they go away just before the flare? Yes. So the magnetic fields were keeping opposite charges separated, but when they go away, the charges are allowed to recombine, hence the discharge."
But we also can have gravity causing charge segregation, with magnetism being the cause of recombination.
These are not mutually exclusive ideas. We can have filaments on the sun, where magnetic forces MAINTAIN the charge segregation, and gravitationally formed double layers, where magnetism DESTROYS the charge segregation?

[CharlesChandler]

Cathode spots can only be produced by solid electrodes.

Disagreeing with that.

OK, I'll concede that mercury, in liquid form, can host cathode spots, as you later demonstrated. But I still maintain that a cathode spot is fundamentally different from the surface-to-surface discharges in solar flares. A cathode spot is a small arc discharge embedded within a larger corona discharge. Once the arc is struck, it can persist with less voltage than it took to strike it in the first place. And the resistance is less in the plasma discharge channel. So the arc becomes the preferred pathway for currents. If the amps are regulated, you'll get a persistent arc, though it will move around on the electrode (solid or liquid metal), because it discharges the potential wherever it is, and thus keeps moving around to discharge potentials elsewhere. If the amps are not regulated, all of the potential gets discharged instantaneously, and the arc dies out. But cathode spots are discharges from the electrode, through a medium with some sort of resistance, toward an opposite electrode on the other side of that medium. An arc across a spark plug gap is a good example. It is not an arc from one point on the electrode, to another point on the same electrode, which is quite impossible. (There is no way to build up the potential for an arc within an excellent conductor.) Yet what we're seeing on the Sun is precisely that -- a spark from one point to another within an excellent conductor. So that isn't a cathode spot, because it isn't sustained, and it isn't an arc discharge embedded within a larger corona discharge. It's an instantaneous flash within a sustained arc discharge. So that calls for different physics.

Here is a another movie of these arcades but instead of watching the looping arcade watch the transient “ring shaped” - ‘cathode-like etching’ (an advancing ionization front) that progresses outward along the relative ‘surface’ below the arcades:

TRACE: Ring-shaped filament activation and eruption in 171Å on 20 September 1998

Very cool! The ring-shaped flash, though rare, is not outside the limits of my model. The sunspot shaft is negatively charged, surrounding by a cylindrical concentration of positive charge, where the charge separation is preserved by the magnetic force, which discourages current perpendicular to it:

http://qdl.scs-inc.us/2ndParty/Images/C ... ut_wbg.png

If the magnetic force relaxes, the charges can recombine. Since it's a core-and-sheath configuration, it's at least theoretically possible to get a symmetrical ring discharge between the core and the sheath, though it would be rare than the potentials would be so perfectly balanced all of the way around that it would all flash at the same time.

[celeste]

Yet what we're seeing on the Sun is precisely that -- a spark from one point to another within an excellent conductor. So that isn't a cathode spot, because it isn't sustained, and it isn't an arc discharge embedded within a larger corona discharge. It's an instantaneous flash within a sustained arc discharge. So that calls for different physics.

Charles, We don't need different physics. We just need to combine both ideas. That was where I was going in my last post.

We do seem to get sustained arcs (arches) from one point on the sun's surface, to another point on the same surface (two points on the same electrode). If that arch gets high enough to reach the next charged layer, we get discharge (from one electrode to another). If we have an arch of charged material flowing up out of the sun,and back down into the sun, it is from the top of that arch that we get discharge to the next charged layer. That gives us the instantaneous flash within a sustained arc discharge. I think that explains what we are seeing (just that the upper charged layer is not visible except when we have the discharge to it).

Even if we started simply as they did here http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001A%26A...372..913N , we would have a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a gap maintained by gravity. If we simply added in magnetism,caused by the differential rotation of the sun by latitude, we would end up with spiraling of material up and down out of each of our charged layers. We would just need to get protons spiraling up out of that deeper layer,and out near that layer of electrons , and we would have that recombination.

[CharlesChandler]

We do seem to get sustained arcs (arches) from one point on the sun's surface, to another point on the same surface (two points on the same electrode). If that arch gets high enough to reach the next charged layer, we get discharge (from one electrode to another). If we have an arch of charged material flowing up out of the sun,and back down into the sun, it is from the top of that arch that we get discharge to the next charged layer. That gives us the instantaneous flash within a sustained arc discharge. I think that explains what we are seeing (just that the upper charged layer is not visible except when we have the discharge to it).

I "think" that you have a mixed metaphor going there, but I can't be sure. I can't get any traction with an idea until I see all of the fundamental forces identified, and I can start to check that they are all operating as expected under the circumstances. So why would we have an "arch of charged material flowing up out of the sun, and back down into the sun"? Something has to make it do that. Then, if the charged double-layers are stacked one on top of the other in the Sun, the electric field is oriented vertically. In such a field, there is no horizontal electric field to transport matter horizontally across the surface, unless you change the configuration somehow. I'm saying that the electric field is basically vertical, but underneath the surface, surrounding the sunspot shaft, there is a different field, where +ions are attracted to the negative charge in the sunspot shaft, in a core-and-sheath configuration. Failure of the charge separation mechanism there can produce a solar flare. But this has nothing to do with coronal loops. Currents can flow through coronal loops after a flare, since the flare might eject a bunch of charged particles from the Sun, leaving a charge disparity between one sunspot and another, and thus a current between them, which will naturally follow the magnetic lines of force between a sunspot pair. But that's after the flare.

[celeste]

So why would we have an "arch of charged material flowing up out of the sun, and back down into the sun"? Something has to make it do that. Then, if the charged double-layers are stacked one on top of the other in the Sun, the electric field is oriented vertically. In such a field, there is no horizontal electric field to transport matter horizontally across the surface, unless you change the configuration somehow.

Let's start there. I agree with you, that there is no significant electric field across the surface of any single charged layer. But if a single charged layer on the sun , shows differential rotation by latitude (faster at the equator), that is a current within that single charged layer. That current, will generate a magnetic field that will cause spiraling of material up through our single charged layer, across the equator, and back down through the the charged layer. All this, without any consideration from any charged layer above or below.

Of course, I've grossly oversimplified. If we have differential rotation by depth in the sun, and depth means different charge layers, we have even more magnetic forces to contend with. The picture I'm trying to paint is this: gravity alone (in a non spinning sun), leads to nice concentric spheres of charge. Add in rotation (and magnetism), and we get charge spiraling around the sun,up and down within the charged separated layers. Think of it as helical motion, with the helical axis embedded in our single charged layer. Once those arches (the radius of that helical spiraling) become large enough to carry charge to the next charge layer, we get the discharge.

Does this make sense?

[CharlesChandler]

I agree with you, that there is no significant electric field across the surface of any single charged layer. But if a single charged layer on the sun , shows differential rotation by latitude (faster at the equator), that is a current within that single charged layer. That current, will generate a magnetic field that will cause spiraling of material up through our single charged layer, across the equator, and back down through the the charged layer. All this, without any consideration from any charged layer above or below.

I don't understand the sentence in bold.

Here is the form of the magnetic fields in sunspot pairs:

http://qdl.scs-inc.us/2ndParty/Images/C ... otPair.png

Notice the two dashed yellow circles -- they represent the electric current necessary to generate magnetic fields like these. Now, if there is a major charge disparity between the two sunspots, such as immediately after a CME, there will be an electric current from one to the other, to equalize the balance of charges. And of course that current will follow the magnetic field lines to get there. But that's an electric field driving an electric current. The magnetic field in that configuration cannot drive the current out of one sunspot, around a coronal loop, and back down into the other sunspot. Where magnetic lines of force are converging, magnetically responsive matter, including ferromagnets and electromagnets (such as Birkeland currents) are accelerated in the direction of the convergence. This is what causes the aurora at the Earth's poles -- the solar wind doesn't ordinarily travel fast enough for the energetic collisions necessary to produce the aurora, but the Birkeland currents are accelerated in the converging magnetic field, from <700 km/s, to over 60,000 km/s, and that produces the energetic collisions that light up the polar skies. Well, the corollary to that is that going in the other direction, particles are decelerated. So you're not going to get ferromagnets or electromagnets traveling in the direction of the divergence of the magnetic field lines -- at least not because of the magnetic force, which is acting against motion in that direction. Thus the only possible electromotive force is an electric field. This is supplied by the charge disparity that results from CMEs, which eject +ions, creating a charge imbalance that drives electric currents for a short while after the flare.

Birkeland's terrella experiments successfully reproduced coronal loops, but only with the sphere negatively charged, and only with an extremely powerful magnetic field (which was perhaps unrealistic). What he didn't do was prove that there was a current flowing from one point on the surface of the sphere to another. IMO, the current was from the sphere outward to the surrounding anode, which was deflected in the direction of the magnetic field, causing illumination. In a rough analogy, consider the following photograph of a supersonic bow shock:

http://qdl.scs-inc.us/2ndParty/Images/C ... wShock.gif

This is not caused by air flowing up one side of the loop and back down the other. Rather, the air is flowing past the obstacle, and the effects of the obstacle create a distinct condition that is bow-shaped. So I'm saying that the electric current in Birkeland's terrella was outward from the sphere, but its luminosity was accentuated in a loop shape, because those were the magnetic field lines that the current had to cross.

[Solar]

We do seem to get sustained arcs (arches) from one point on the sun's surface, to another point on the same surface (two points on the same electrode). If that arch gets high enough to reach the next charged layer, we get discharge (from one electrode to another). If we have an arch of charged material flowing up out of the sun,and back down into the sun, it is from the top of that arch that we get discharge to the next charged layer. That gives us the instantaneous flash within a sustained arc discharge. I think that explains what we are seeing (just that the upper charged layer is not visible except when we have the discharge to it).

I "think" that you have a mixed metaphor going there, but I can't be sure. I can't get any traction with an idea until I see all of the fundamental forces identified, and I can start to check that they are all operating as expected under the circumstances. So why would we have an "arch of charged material flowing up out of the sun, and back down into the sun"? Something has to make it do that.

But this has been an observable for quite some time. See

NASA's STEREO “Winks” and Provides Stunning Solar Imagery

“Gas Heading the Wrong Way” and/or the observation of what has become known as “Coronal Inflows” via LASCO (scroll down).

From the POV being considered a discharge progressing perpendicular through the various double layers of the Sun might see the induction of ‘counter flows’ or counter-discharges as a result of the interaction.

An inflow can start 1,700,000 miles above the Sun's visible surface. That distance is equal to twice the Sun's diameter. At that altitude, the departing accelerating solar wind reaches a speed of 75 miles per second. Flying in the face of that, the gas clouds travel inward at 31 to 62 miles per second. It seems to stop about 435,000 miles out. - “Gas Heading the Wrong Way”

Wang et al. recently described white-light coronagraph observations of faint coronal features moving inward toward the Sun at heliocentric distances of 2 6 R . In a study of these inflows during 1996 2000, we have found that they occur along bends of the coronal streamer belt and are especially common when the magnetic field has a four-sector structure. The measured inflow rate is dominated by episodic bursts that are correlated with the occurrence of nonpolar coronal holes and other indicators of the Sun's nonaxisymmetric open flux. However, the inflow rate has only a broad long-term correlation with conventional indicators of solar activity like the sunspot number and coronal mass ejection rate. We conclude that most inflows indicate collapsing field lines that occur as nonpolar coronal holes are subjected to photospheric motions and the eruptions of new flux. - Coronal Inflows and the Sun's Nonaxisymmetric Open Flux

Not all of that material is ‘escaping’. Moving back closer to the sun’s double-layers I think there is need to consider the:

Townsend Discharge

In this image (Source) the gap between the cathode surface is one layer. The space between the “Original ionization event” and the anode is a different layer. So we see a bright “solar flare in one layer, and “magnetic arcades” in the next layer as a function of e-field acceleration for that next layer.

[CharlesChandler]

So why would we have an "arch of charged material flowing up out of the sun, and back down into the sun"? Something has to make it do that.

But this has been an observable for quite some time. See

NASA's STEREO “Winks” and Provides Stunning Solar Imagery

“Gas Heading the Wrong Way” and/or the observation of what has become known as “Coronal Inflows” via LASCO (scroll down).

Neither of those are evidence of charged particles flowing through loops, arching out of the Sun and back into it.

[celeste]

I agree with you, that there is no significant electric field across the surface of any single charged layer. But if a single charged layer on the sun , shows differential rotation by latitude (faster at the equator), that is a current within that single charged layer. That current, will generate a magnetic field that will cause spiraling of material up through our single charged layer, across the equator, and back down through the the charged layer. All this, without any consideration from any charged layer above or below.

I don't understand the sentence in bold.

Here is the form of the magnetic fields in sunspot pairs:

http://qdl.scs-inc.us/2ndParty/Images/C ... otPair.png

Notice the two dashed yellow circles -- they represent the electric current necessary to generate magnetic fields like these. Now, if there is a major charge disparity between the two sunspots, such as immediately after a CME, there will be an electric current from one to the other, to equalize the balance of charges. And of course that current will follow the magnetic field lines to get there. But that's an electric field driving an electric current.

Charles, I agreed with your original assessment, that the electric field on the sun was vertical (between charged layers), and not horizontally across any single charged layer. Now you are trying to make the current flow due to an electric field that exists between sunspots (two points on the same charged layer)? Just to make sure we are on the same page: You are saying that there is a charge disparity between sunspots. Which means one or both sunspots are charged differently than the layer in which they sit? But they don't discharge to the surrounding charged layer, or even to each other through the surrounding charged layer? I had thought that the whole reason we had no electric field across any charged layer, was that it was so easy for charge to travel across that layer and equalize? Which also means it would be very difficult to create "a major charge disparity" between two sunspots, in the first place?

[CharlesChandler]

Charles, I agreed with your original assessment, that the electric field on the sun was vertical (between charged layers), and not horizontally across any single charged layer. Now you are trying to make the current flow due to an electric field that exists between sunspots (two points on the same charged layer)? Just to make sure we are on the same page: You are saying that there is a charge disparity between sunspots. Which means one or both sunspots are charged differently than the layer in which they sit? But they don't discharge to the surrounding charged layer, or even to each other through the surrounding charged layer? I had thought that the whole reason we had no electric field across any charged layer, was that it was so easy for charge to travel across that layer and equalize? Which also means it would be very difficult to create "a major charge disparity" between two sunspots, in the first place?

I'm saying that in one particular condition, and only in that condition, is there a major charge disparity between two sunspots: after a flare. Then the coronal loops light up with electric currents. Otherwise, you're exactly right in saying that there shouldn't be any point-to-point currents at the surface, which is all the same layer, and which is highly conductive, and shouldn't have any point-to-point potentials to drive currents. It's just after a flare that there is a charge disparity. And it's just after a flare that the coronal loops light up vigorously. So it's all very simple. IMO, a great deal of confusion comes from the mainstream treatment of the topic. They have it all backwards. Focusing on the magnetic force in their MHD frameworks, they say that magnetic reconnection causes an explosive release of energy that causes flares. Then they show imagery of post-flare arcades as the proof of how vigorous the magnetic fields are. But wait! If the magnetic fields release so much energy in solar flares, why are they more vigorous after releasing their energy in flares? That would be like having more sticks of dynamite left over after the explosion than you had before the explosion, and that would be just wrong. In reality, the magnetic fields go away just before a flare. So it isn't a strengthening of the magnetic fields, or a sudden release of stored magnetic potential -- it's a weakening of the magnetic field. (I described the mechanism for this in previous posts.) Then, the flare ejects particles from a charged double-layer, which means a net loss of one sign of charge at the Sun's surface. And that means a charge disparity, which drives electric currents, and which generate magnetic fields. That's why the coronal loops are more vigorous after the flares. Magnetic fields can only be generated by electric currents, and though time-varying magnetic fields can drive electric currents, a weakening magnetic field doesn't drive an explosive electric current. If you pay attention to all of those details, it's easy to sort it out. The semi-steady-state electric current in a sunspot generates a powerful magnetic field (>4000 Gauss!). That field can create a charge separation between the sunspot core and its sheath. But if that current weakens, the magnetic field goes away, and then there is nothing maintaining the charge separation. Thus there can be a point-to-point discharge at or near the surface, causing a flare and possibly a CME. Then there is a neutralizing current due to the charge disparity.

[seasmith]

2014 solar moss

What we’ve learned about solar “moss”, in the past 15 years:

NASA's Trace probe
NASA NEWS RELEASE
Posted: Dec. 17, 1999

A new feature near the surface of the Sun, termed "solar moss" because its weird, sponge-like appearance resembles the plant, has been discovered by astronomers using NASA's Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) spacecraft.
"With this discovery, we are beginning to resolve the Sun's mysterious transition region, a thin region in the solar atmosphere where the temperature soars from ten thousand to millions of degrees," said Dr. Thomas Berger of the Lockheed-Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab (LMSAL), Palo Alto, Calif. "We are excited because this discovery offers us a new way to study the mass and energy flows in this region. It also helps us understand how the large magnetic loops in the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, form out of the highly intermittent magnetic fields on the Sun's surface. Studying the solar moss may ultimately shed light on the long-standing problem of how the corona is heated to million-degree temperatures."

Solar moss occurs at the base of certain coronal loops, immense magnetic arches of hot gas that are anchored in the Sun's visible surface and could span several dozen Earths laid end to end. It appears only below high pressure coronal loops in active regions, typically persisting for tens of hours, but has been seen to form rapidly and spread in association with loops that arise after a solar explosion, called a flare.

The moss consists of hot gas at about two million degrees Fahrenheit which emits extreme ultraviolet light observed by the TRACE instrument. It occurs in large patches, about 6,000 - 12,000 miles in extent, and appears between 1,000 - 1,500 miles above the Sun's visible surface, sometimes reaching more than 3,000 miles high. It looks "spongy" because the patches are composed of small bright elements interlaced with dark voids in the TRACE images. These voids are caused by jets of cooler gas from the Sun's lower atmosphere, the chromosphere, which is at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The bright moss elements move around and can vary in brightness over very short periods of time -- 30 seconds or less. [cation / anion flows?]

"The TRACE observations of solar moss show how the transition region is much more complex and dynamic than previously observed," said Dr. Bart De Pontieu of LMSAL. "We are getting a glimpse of how the Sun's magnetic field changes from a chaotic jumble at its visible surface to the well-organized magnetic field present in coronal loops. This transition is complicated by the presence of the dynamic and relatively cold jets from the chromosphere. These jets sometimes interact with and push around the much hotter plasma at the base of the coronal loops."
The coronal loops, at up to nine million degrees Fahrenheit,…

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/9912/17tracemoss/

Royal Astronomical Society, United Kingdom Tuesday, June 24, 2014



Hi-C’s camera has five times the number of pixels as the latest generation of ultra-high definition (UHD) televisions. Images from it are sharp enough to allow the fundamental structures of the corona, which are strongly shaped by magnetic fields, to be resolved. During its flight, the camera was centered on a region where the magnetic field was particularly strong and where a phenomenon known as moss is found. In the Hi-C images, the moss appeared as some of the brightest features, forming net-like (reticulated) patches of emission.

∞ Moss forms the lower sections of the hottest structures in the corona, the upper parts of which are invisible to the Hi-C camera as they predominantly emit X-rays. ∞
….
With his colleague Richard Morton, James McLaughlin used the Hi-C data to measure the intrinsic properties of the moss for the first time, discovering that its individual magnetic elements are highly dynamic, shaking back and forth at speeds of up to 10,000 mph (16,000 km/h).

[Alfven waves, to anybody who’s made it through public schooling]


In the Hi-C images, a violent oscillating motion is seen, which can be interpreted in terms of swaying magnetic waves. Conceptually, these are similar to those that are seen to move along a taut string or as an up-and-down wave on a rope. The magnetic waves are of great interest as they are particularly good at transporting energy along the magnetic structures and distributing it ~around the atmosphere of the Sun.

http://www.astronomy.com/news/2014/06/s ... s-per-hour


So we’ve finitely learned that ‘solar moss’ is a Transition Zone
~ and have also identified horizontal and vertical dynamic components in the solar atmosphere (photosphere, chromospheric double-layer, and corona):
transverse ‘waves’ and vertical radiations/emmissions.

Charles wrote:
Currents can flow through coronal loops after a flare, since the flare might eject a bunch of charged particles from the Sun, leaving a charge disparity between one sunspot and another, and thus a current between them, which will naturally follow the magnetic lines of force between a sunspot pair. But that's after the flare.

An alternative interpretation, covering both ‘spots’ and ‘holes’, being bandied about here is that what you are calling “currents” are,
like the juice at an electrode, probing the interface with electric “leaders” (similar to terrestrial lightning),
and so projecting spicules, moss, hoops, loops and whatever other categorized solar prominences; and
finally resolving in “upper parts of which are invisible to the Hi-C camera as they predominantly emit X-rays…”.

If those parts Were visible to our state-of-the-art detectors (which now seem quite wonderful, but will one day be deemed very basic and crude), imo
they would reveal the longitudinal core(s) of Aetheric Birkeland Currents • seeking their equi-potential • out in the solar system, or perhaps beyond.

To redundanate my earlier posts, the surficial magnetic displays are driven by volumetric electric impulses.
Said another way, longitudinal dielectric potentials are invisible because they are Not electro-magnetic phenomena. They do create EM displays, in conjugation and interaction with common mass and matter.

Or so it would appear...

[CharlesChandler]

So we’ve finitely learned that ‘solar moss’ is a Transition Zone

No we haven't -- that's an assumption, not a fact. Scientists can't understand how the iron in the photosphere could be 2 MK, when the hydrogen is supposedly only 6000 K. So they just assume that there is a 1:1 correspondence between temperature and altitude, and thus temperature is an index of altitude, and the hotter iron has to be up above the surface, where the chromosphere transitions into the corona. But when we overlay imagery taken in different wavelengths, we find that the solar moss lines up with the photosphere itself. Scientists would rather disregard geometric analysis of the imagery, and stick with their thermodynamic model, rather than the acknowledge the actual data, and realize that the thermodynamic model is broken anyway. (By the Second Law, entropy is supposed to increase with distance from the source of the energy, not decrease!)

[seasmith]

A test of the DKIST Visible Broadband Imager interference filter in 2012 shows material flowing from a sunspot’s outer penumbra into the surrounding solar gases. Credit: NSO

["material" + matter/ ionized plasma]



I'm not sure why you keep invoking a "thermodynamic model", when this thread has been constantly emphasizing the dominance electric and electro-gravitic forces in solar atmospheric displays.

?

[seasmith]

Electrode 'Tufting' &
Nascent Current Filaments


excerpt from James Hogan, following Wallace Thornhill
2005

High-voltage, direct-current transmission lines, for example, discharge practically continuously to the surrounding air. In the case of a positive (anode) line, electrons--always present in the atmosphere--are drawn by the positive potential, gaining energy as they accelerate through the electric field and frequently exciting air molecules ~ by collision~ to produce glow effects.
At higher field strengths ionization sets in, freeing more electrons and creating positive ions that drift the other direction in the field. In this way a more or less steady discharge is maintained, although there is nothing other than the surrounding air that plays the role of cathode.

The situation is curiously reminiscent of our electrically positive ball of gravitationally compressed hydrogen, sitting in a sea of electron-rich plasma formed from the same galactic currents that created it. The Sun, in other words, takes on the role of the anode in a local, cosmic-scale, cathodeless discharge....

The hot--as measured by particle velocities--

gases of the corona and the "wind" of protons accelerating away from the Sun behaves as a flux of positive particles ought to in an electric field. The recently reported "anomalies" of space probes in the outer Solar System being slowed down by some mysterious agency could be due to their acquiring a negative charge from the electrons flowing the other way. Such a possibility has apparently not been considered by the research people quoted, who rush into inventing new, unknown forces and exotic unobservable physics.

http://www.jamesphogan.com/bb/CPG_Fig1.jpg

The reddish glow of the Sun's chromosphere, closer in where the converging field lines create an intensifying field, is strongly suggestive of a glow discharge region. This is also consistent with the appearance of "red giant" stars, where a chromosphere viewed from afar would give a bloated appearance if the supply current were sufficiently low for nothing more spectacular to be happening inside.
To maintain a steady discharge, the anode must collect an uninterrupted stream of sufficient electrons to carry the current--charge moved per unit time--flowing in the full cross-section of the discharge plasma. ...

If the anode were in direct contact with the plasma, its fixed size would render it incapable of adjusting to fluctuations. For example, a random current adding to the drift current in such a way as to exceed the current that the discharge was capable of sustaining would result in an instability needing to correct itself. It does so by physically disengaging the anode from the plasma. By initially accepting an excess of electrons that repels lower-energy electrons from the immediate vicinity, the anode creates a thin charge-separation sheath above itself, of the kind we met before.
The outer boundary of the sheath becomes the effective anode surface, but since it is a dynamic structure, it is able to alter its size to present a varying surface area. In other words, it adjusts its current density to the level needed for collecting the total electric current, enlarging itself if need be to "reach out" into the plasma to collect more electrons.
As the sheath expands, its associated electric field (arising from the separation of charges) grows stronger, accelerating electrons to greater energies and intensifying the discharge glow in the anode vicinity. But this can only be taken so far.
Beyond a certain point, further current increase cannot be handled by increasing the sheath's area.

When ionization becomes appreciable, the sheath itself breaks down to initiate a new mode of anode burning. Suddenly, at one or more localized points of intensified activity, small "tufts" of secondary plasma spring into being, forming highly luminous nodules within the anode glow region. These high-temperature regions yield a copious supply of positive ions that are swept away in the opposite direction to augment the current of the incoming electrons. A condition for tufting to occur is a gas density great enough to support a sufficiently high rate of ionizing collisions.

It should be clear by now that the suggestion here is that what we're seeing when we look at the Sun's photosphere is the anode plasma of a cosmic electrical discharge, with tufting showing itself as the bright granulated structure and providing the protons that supply the solar wind. Eventually the accumulation of excess electrons reduces the tuft potential to a level where de-ionization sets in, and the tuft simply dies away to be replaced by a newly budding one, in keeping with the pattern observed. The radiated energy comes primarily from the tufts. It is delivered by electrons accelerated from interstellar space, which calculation indicate would achieve relativistic velocities in the voltage drop near the solar anode.
The system acts, in effect, like a local step-down transformer of the power distribution grid,...

Prominences and other dynamic structures are consistent with the behavior of plasmas in a complex external electrical environment. Magnetic effects follow naturally from the currents involved, ...

The appearance of the dark blotches called sunspots would indicate areas of reduced current density, where tufting isn't needed and temporarily shuts down, providing glimpses of the true "anode" surface. That it is darker than the surrounding granulated photosphere favors the suggestion that the radiant energy is being generated at the photosphere, not coming up from below. It implies the impinging of some kind of filamentary currents on the surface. A possible cause is the interception of part of the incoming electron flux by the magnetospheres of the planets. Is it mere coincidence that the basic 11-year sunspot cycle corresponds to the orbital period of Jupiter? Further analysis of solar activity shows a 170-180 year repetition of sunspot cycle intensity that has been linked to recurring lineups of planets but conventionally conjectured to be a tidal effect. It is also possible that the pattern could reflect the Sun's passing through regions of filamentary structures traversing space.

The "Fraunhofer spectrum" from the cooler region at the base of the Sun's atmosphere contains over 27,000 dark spectral lines, which remove about 9% of the energy from the background sunlight and indicate the presence of 68 of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements. No standard model has ever been able to explain even the gross characteristics of this spectrum. Elements heavier than iron cannot be formed by the fusion reactions said to be going on at the Sun's core,...

But gravitationally bound fusion plasmas are perhaps the most inefficient way of manufacturing heavy nuclei. The laboratory method of using electric fields to accelerate protons or other light nuclei is much simpler and can make them fuse with just about any element in the Periodic Table. It's practically 1920s vacuum tube technology. You could probably make such a working fusion machine fairly cheaply in your garage.

Don't be deterred by the high temperatures that fusion scientists like to talk about to impress people. The unit that researchers use to measure acceleration energy is the "electron-volt," equal to the particle's charge number (one for an electron or proton) multiplied by the voltage it's accelerated through. To equate this figure to degrees Kelvin, multiply by 11,604. Hence, a daunting-sounding 50-million-degree "ignition" temperature is achieved with a paltry 4300 ev. And the nuclear reactions involved in such fusions would be expected to generate all three kinds of neutrinos, at all kinds of energies.
What we're suggesting, then, is that the elements are made right there in the Sun's photosphere, where we see them. ...

http://www.jamesphogan.com/bb/CPG.html


Suns are not linear crt electrodes, as depicted in the image below; and are much more complex than would be a simple transformer, capacitor or homopolar device.
A sun seems to transform/convert ~charge~ among & through electro-gravitic, electro -optic, electro-magnetic and electro-aetheric (states), at multiple layers and scales.


.