EIT Images of the W limb events of 1996/12/23 - 24

All images are in Fe XII 195 Å.

The "Main Event"

20:32 UT20:41 UT20:53 UT

Click on the thumbnails for 256 x 256 pixel, full-resolution GIF images.


This is really two or three events overlapping in time.

  1. The first "change" we notice is at 19:30:37 UT, in the small prominence just N of the AR on the W limb.

  2. At 20:20:43, the "main" event just S of the apparent equator starts, loop in absorption visible at 20:41:32, "outrunner" emission loop with absorption needle's-eye inside at 20:53:26 (pretty much gone in one frame ==> v >= 410 km/s, probably greater since it appears to start from behind the limb). If we assume that the absorbing material behind the outrunner is the same as the loop in the 20:41:32 image, the dark material is moving at ~ 230 km/s. The thin filament to the S of the active region, at the ~ 4:00 position, starts to rise at 21:22:43 UT.

  3. An emission transient (heating/photoionization of filament?) rising at 4:00 position at 12/24 00:51:49 UT, appears to last until end of movie (12:45:00 UT). There's a bright flash at the SE end of the SW streamer (still on disk, near edge of S polar hole) at 01:33:00 - 02:44:25, then starts travelling back westward (03:01:49 UT) and disappears thereafter as the whole streamer appears to expand.

In case it isn't obvious, this is really preliminary and may well be wrong, partially or totally. So exercise a little rational thought before accpeting anything said on this page.
Web curator:
Joseph B. Gurman
Responsible NASA official: Joseph B. Gurman,
Facility Scientist, Solar Data Analysis Center
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Solar Physics Branch / Code 682
Greenbelt, MD 20771

Last revised - J.B. Gurman