Visualization of Sun’s magnetic fields: Gradient Sun

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s visualization studio made an amazing video of Sun using a gradient filter which highlighted the details of the sun’s complex magnetic fields. Gradient filter helps researchers in better understanding how solar activity affects space weather. Scientists use gradient filters to study a phenomenon known as coronal loops – giant arcs of solar material constrained to travel along that particular path by the magnetic fields in the sun’s atmosphere. Magnetic fields can power great eruptions on the Sun such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections.

Video courtesy of NASA/GSFCGradients are a mathematical description that highlights the places of greatest physical change in space. A gradient filter enhances places of contrast, making them all the more obviously different. Scientists often use gradient filters to enhance contrast, using them to accentuate fine structures that might otherwise be lost in the background noise.

This video is in public domain and can be downloaded here.