Low-lying dynamic prominences                  

20-cm, f=400 cm coronagraph

Solar prominences are seen as bright translucent clouds at the solar limb because they mainly scatter light from the underlying disc. These clouds form in regions of complex magnetic topology, which can evolve abruptly, disintegrating the prominence and ejecting magnetised material into the heliosphere. Interestingly for space weather predictions, 50% of solar tornadoes — a particular kind of prominence associated with apparently rotating, vertical, funnel-shaped dark structures — are eruptive and can have strong implications for the coronal magnetic field and the heliosphere.

The image shows a low-lying prominence. The prominence was observed on 1966 using a Lyot filter FWHM = 1. nm and ORWO film.

Image credit: Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences