TRACE Solar Flare

On 6 June 2000, TRACE observed two X-class flares (the largest, most intense class of solar flares). This image is a composite image showing a combination of the white-light, ultraviolet, and extreme-ultraviolet images. In red, it shows the ultraviolet continuum, which shows the small-scale magnetic fields at the surface as yellow/orange dots; a white-light image was blended in to show the location of the large, dark sunspots. The green-white image shows the location of the bright coronal loops. Note that the flare site runs over the middle of the central spot complex (in which two polarities are joined in one structure), and that they reach out toward the lower small spot as well as to a ridge between the polarities running northward from the center.

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Image and text are courtesy of: TRACE Team