Solar Prominence on the Southeast Limb

A nice solar prominence has begun to migrate around the southeastern limb of the sun. The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot ionized gas composed of electrically charged hydrogen and helium. The prominence plasma flows along a tangled and twisted structure of magnetic field lines that are generated by the sun’s internal dynamo. Prominence plasma is much cooler and denser than the plasma found in the corona. As forecasters we watch prominence and filament features for instability that can release the feature in an eruptive manner. An eruptive prominence or filament can become a coronal mass ejection and have potential impacts on the Earth's magnetosphere.