#magneticfield — Public Fediverse posts

Striations on the Sun

One of the perpetual challenges for fluid dynamicists is the large range of scales we often have to consider. For something like a cloud, that means tracking not only the kilometer-size scale of the cloud, but the large eddies that are about 100 meters across and smaller ones all the way down to the scale of millimeters. In turbulent flows, all of these scales matter. That problem is even harder for something like the Sun, where the sizes range from hundreds of thousands of kilometers down to only a few kilometers.

It’s those fine-scale features that we see captured here. This colorized image shows light and dark striations on solar granules. Scientists estimate that each one is between 20 and 50 kilometers wide. They’re reflections of the small-scale structure of the Sun’s magnetic field as it shapes the star’s hot, conductive plasma. (Image credit: NSF/NSO/AURA; research credit: D. Kuridze et al.; via Gizmodo)

#fluidDynamics #magneticField #magnetohydrodynamics #physics #science #solarDynamics #sun #turbulence

Glimpses of Coronal Rain

Despite its incredible heat, our sun‘s corona is so faint compared to the rest of the star that we can rarely make it out except during a total solar eclipse. But a new adaptive optic technique has given us coronal images with unprecedented detail.

These images come from the 1.6-meter Goode Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory, and they required some 2,200 adjustments to the instrument’s mirror every second to counter atmospheric distortions that would otherwise blur the images. With the new technique, the team was able to sharpen their resolution from 1,000 kilometers all the way down to 63 kilometers, revealing heretofore unseen details of plasma from solar prominences dancing in the sun’s magnetic field and cooling plasma falling as coronal rain.

The team hope to upgrade the 4-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope with the technology next, which will enable even finer imagery. (Image credit: Schmidt et al./NJIT/NSO/AURA/NSF; research credit: D. Schmidt et al.; via Gizmodo)

#flowVisualization #fluidDynamics #magneticField #magnetohydrodynamics #physics #plasma #science #solarDynamics #stellarEvolution

World Magnetic Model 2025 Released [NOAA]
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https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/world-magnetic-model-2025-released <-- technical article
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https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/world-magnetic-model-high-resolution <-- updated map/data, World Magnetic Model, NOAA
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #navigation #geomagnetic #geology #WMM #worldmagneticmodel #magneticfield #model #spatiotemporal #global #technology #GPS #WMM2025 #highresolution #WMMHR2025