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

Sadly, this cartoon has little to do with solar flares. Instead it describes an instability in a solar flux tube, more likely perhaps to be related to spicules. It is included here because large-scale wave motions are also bound to be important in flare dynamics. As this paper remarks, though, there is much more theoretical work to be done.

Another reason for the inclusion of this cartoon is of course the sheer elegance of its coloring.

23 November 2011