faculae

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Related to faculae: Facular

faculae:

see photospherephotosphere,
luminous, apparently opaque layer of gases that forms the visible surface of the sun or any other star. The photosphere lies between the dense interior gases and the more attenuated gases of the chromosphere.
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faculae

(fak -yŭ-lee) (singular: facula)

1. Bright patches in the upper part of the solar photosphere that have a higher temperature than their surroundings and occur in areas where there is an enhancement of the relatively weak vertical magnetic field. With the exception of polar faculae, which consist of isolated granules and appear in high heliographic latitudes around the minimum of the sunspot cycle, they are intimately related to sunspots, forming shortly before the spots – in the same vicinity – and persisting for several weeks after their disappearance. Faculae are best seen when near the Sun's limb, where limb darkening renders them more readily visible. They are approximately coincident, albeit at a lower level, with the plages visible in monochromatic light.

2. Bright patches observed on the surface of planetary satellites, especially Ganymede.

References in periodicals archive ?

The emissivity of faculae as they approach the solar limb [135] cannot be reasonably explained within the context of the gaseous models.

Forty lines of evidence for condensed matter--the sun on trial: liquid metallic hydrogen as a solar building block

The calculation of total solar irradiance T(t) and solar spectral irradiance I([lambda], t) at a specified time t assumes that the presence on the solar disk of bright faculae and dark sunspots alters the baseline, quiet, total solar irradiance [T.

A solar irradiance climate data record

The solar spectrum, limb darkening, and the directional emissivity of many structures (sunspots, granules, faculae, magnetic bright points, spicules, the K-corona, and coronal structures) highlight that metallic and non-metallic material can be found within the Sun.

Forty lines of evidence for condensed matter--the sun on trial: liquid metallic hydrogen as a solar building block

AR1530 S19/210[degrees] rounded the SE limb on July 23, a single Hsx sunspot displaying the Wilson effect and amidst an area of faculae.

Solar section

When sunspots and faculae all but disappeared during the low part of the last solar cycle, total solar radiation dropped by only 0.

A star in the greenhouse; can the sun dampen the predicted global warming?

0032% of the Sun's energy, revealing in great detail dark sunspots and their surrounding penumbras as well as bright faculae in the photosphere.

Catch the nearest star: the Sun provides astrophotographers with a captivating target every clear day

AR1082 N29[degrees]/300[degrees] rounded the eastern limb as a bright region of faculae with a small forming sunspot on June 15.

Solar section

All structural features associated with solar activity (sunspots, faculae, prominences, flares, spicules, etc .

Magnetic fields and directional spectral emissivity in sunspots and faculae: complimentary evidence of metallic behavior on the surface of the sun

Between some of the Alaska-size convection cells ("granulation") are tiny, bright walls that, when seen sideon near the limb, form bright faculae.

Big Bear's big new eye

The group then slowly declined and was observed on Feb 17 as two Axx spots approaching the western limb and later that day as just a patch of faculae.

Solar section

The faculae, on the contrary, they suppose due to volcanic eruptions from the liquified mass.

A thermodynamic history of the solar constitution--I: the journey to a gaseous sun

We cannot image active features such as dark spots and bright faculae in distant stars as we can for the Sun, but we can observe them indirectly using spectral features such as these calcium lines.

Lesson from solar twins: the Sun's closest stellar analogs hold clues to our own star's past and future