Click on the image above for a larger .gif version.

Simple and to the point, this cartoon illustrates the idea that an excitation in the chromosphere would correspond to a diffuse illumination of the photosphere below, implying a different structure for the "backwarming" as a source of white-light flare emission. The S and N here refer to the ribbon layout in the particular flare observed, namely SOL2006-12-13 (X3.4).

This flare, and its active region, must have taken the Hinode observers by surprise, but they got some excellent flare observations with unique instrumentation and then (thanks to the protracted solar minimum) have had plenty of time to think about them.

4 June 2012