Strange bright spots in SDO AIA 195å image

[Sunshine]

Looking at today's solar weather, I noticed a bunch of strange white spots in 193å image, which are also visible in SOHO EIT 171 and 284. This is something I have not seen before, but since it's only been about 3 years that I look at the solar weather more closely, I hardly have seen anything. However, I haven't found anything on those spots, and I wonder what that could be? Considering that we are moving towards a solar cycle peak, it could actually be small flares, but so many and spread all over the visible side of Sol? What else could it be?
 

Best visible in SDO  AIA 193å from 2023-11-14 21:47:05 UT.

[hamateur 1953]

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_1024_0131.jpg    If you’re referring to the bright flashes seen during the 48 hr 131 run accessible on solar ham, yes those seem to be a regular occurrence and probably are below the current level of detection by our instruments or perhaps just ignored. I also see these regularly nowadays.   There was a reference made last year by the late Wild Will to Ellerman bombs, perhaps @Newbie might chime in here if she knows more about them and whether these qualify as such.   Hopefully I linked that properly above for you to review.  Mike 

Edited November 15, 2023 by hamateur 1953
Errors. Corrected

[Newbie]

5 hours ago, hamateur 1953 said:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_1024_0131.jpg    If you’re referring to the bright flashes seen during the 48 hr 131 run accessible on solar ham, yes those seem to be a regular occurrence and probably are below the current level of detection by our instruments or perhaps just ignored. I also see these regularly nowadays.   There was a reference made last year by the late Wild Will to Ellerman bombs, perhaps @Newbie might chime in here if she knows more about them and whether these qualify as such.   Hopefully I linked that properly above for you to review.  Mike 

 

 

6 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Looking at today's solar weather, I noticed a bunch of strange white spots in 193å image, which are also visible in SOHO EIT 171 and 284. This is something I have not seen before, but since it's only been about 3 years that I look at the solar weather more closely, I hardly have seen anything. However, I haven't found anything on those spots, and I wonder what that could be? Considering that we are moving towards a solar cycle peak, it could actually be small flares, but so many and spread all over the visible side of Sol? What else could it be?
 

Best visible in SDO  AIA 193å from 2023-11-14 21:47:05 UT.

The Ellermann bomb is a small-scale brightening phenomenon in the lower chromosphere of the Sun. These usually occur in areas with strong magnetic fields or near new magnetic flux areas. They are named after Ferdinand Ellermann, who studied them in detail in the 20th century. This phenomenon was first reported by W. M. Mitchell in the early 1900s. Ellermann first described this phenomenon in 1917, but the physical mechanisms behind it are still debated.

arXiv: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics | 2019

Dissecting bombs and bursts: non-LTE inversions of low-atmosphere reconnection in SST and IRIS observations.

In other words Ellerman Bombs are small explosions occurring in the lower chromosphere and do not emanate from the same area solar flares do, the corona, where Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Suns corona occur.

However each Ellerman bomb event releases about 1026 ergs of energy, equivalent to 100,000 atomic bombs used in the World War II

Incidentally solar flares are around one million times larger.

It is thought these explosions occur because of the changes to magnetic complexity on the Sun as its polarity is being reshaped. As the poles move to occupy their opposite positions, the solar matter of opposite polarities bump into each other, reconnect and lead to these explosions.

They would appear to be Ellerman bombs in the pic.

N.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Newbie
Clarity

[Jesterface23]

34 minutes ago, Newbie said:

Simultaneous SDO images in He II 304 Å, Fe IX 171 Å, and Fe XIV 211 Å show no clear effect of the Ellerman bombs on the overlying transition region and corona.

This might be the issue with it though. They seem close to mini almost sunspot regions where some can't get up and running.

[Newbie]

47 minutes ago, Jesterface23 said:

This might be the issue with it though. They seem close to mini almost sunspot regions where some can't get up and running.

Solar flares hence sunspots occur in a different area of the sun’s atmosphere. 
The mechanisms in the production of flares and bombs is similar both rely on reconfiguring of magnetic fields. These bombs are far less energetic than flares.
I removed that first reference because it has since been determined that Ellerman bombs emanate in the lower chromosphere as I continue to read further. There are quite a few recent papers that study this particular phenomenon.

The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 875, Issue 2, article id. L30, 6 pp. (2019).

Certainly the current downturn in solar activity is caused by processes within the corona and underlying transition zone.

N.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Newbie

[Philalethes]

12 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Looking at today's solar weather, I noticed a bunch of strange white spots in 193å image, which are also visible in SOHO EIT 171 and 284. This is something I have not seen before, but since it's only been about 3 years that I look at the solar weather more closely, I hardly have seen anything. However, I haven't found anything on those spots, and I wonder what that could be? Considering that we are moving towards a solar cycle peak, it could actually be small flares, but so many and spread all over the visible side of Sol? What else could it be?
 

Best visible in SDO  AIA 193å from 2023-11-14 21:47:05 UT.

I believe those are what are referred to as EUV bright points/spots/dots; I know Scott (McIntosh) has done a lot of work involving them, so if you search for that and his name you'll probably find some good articles about it. Here is an example of an article.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Philalethes

[Jesterface23]

2 hours ago, Philalethes said:

I believe those are what are referred to as EUV bright points/spots/dots; I know Scott (McIntosh) has done a lot of work involving them, so if you search for that and his name you'll probably find some good articles about it. Here is an example of an article.

That looks to be it, Coronal bright points (CBPs). Then it looks like Ellerman bombs (EBs) can be associated with them.

[Philalethes]

4 hours ago, Jesterface23 said:

That looks to be it, Coronal bright points (CBPs). Then it looks like Ellerman bombs (EBs) can be associated with them.

Yeah, I think one can reasonably say that the bright points are essentially tiny coronal loops emanating from tiny sunspots of opposite polarity, and that Ellerman bombs are micro-flares that are typically associated with them (although perhaps not exclusively), but I haven't looked that deeply into it.

[hamateur 1953]

All very interesting stuff.  I learned to disregard them awhile back once I discovered that they didn’t seem to be associated with any particular active region. It might be interesting to note whether they appear along lines of opposite polarity as we have daily synoptic diagrams available to us.  

[Philalethes]

On 11/15/2023 at 10:04 PM, hamateur 1953 said:

All very interesting stuff.  I learned to disregard them awhile back once I discovered that they didn’t seem to be associated with any particular active region. It might be interesting to note whether they appear along lines of opposite polarity as we have daily synoptic diagrams available to us.  

That's definitely an interesting thought, would be cool to see an overlay of some sort. That being said, there is a certain level of polarization almost everywhere on the surface, even within areas that are predominantly of one polarity and marked as such on the synoptic maps, so I don't think you'd expect to find them exclusively along the borders there, but it could very well be that there are more of them to be found there.