Elongated plasma structures in the lower solar atmosphere transport energy into the Sun‘s corona – and heat up this outermost layer of our star.
The chromosphere, a 2000 kilometer thick layer of plasma with temperatures of a few thousand degrees, is located between the Sun‘s visible surface and its hot outer atmosphere. During solar eclipses, this layer is visible as a thin red ring around the occulted solar disc. Elongated, finger-like plasma flows, so-called spicules, are omnipresent in this layer. These short-lived structures are created by interactions in the Sun‘s complex magnetic…