Submerged source for sunquakes (IMAGE)

University of California - Berkeley

Submerged source for sunquakes

Caption

Solar flares trigger acoustic waves (sunquakes) that travel downward but, because of increasing temperatures, are bent or refracted back to the surface, where they produce ripples that can be seen by Earth-orbiting observatories. Solar physicists have discovered a sunquake generated by an impulsive explosion 1,000 kilometers below the flare (top), suggesting that the link between sunquakes and flares is not simple.

Credit

UC Berkeley graphic by Juan Camilo Buitrago-Casas

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