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SOLAR FLARES

A happy ending for SADs

Nature Astronomy volume 6, pages 299–301 (2022)Cite this article

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Supra-arcade downflows (SADs) are dark, turbulent flows that appear in the Sun’s corona during a solar flare, which have defied explanation for over two decades. A three-dimensional simulation can finally explain the origins of these plasma downflows.

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Fig. 1: A TRACE image of an X1.5-class solar flare taken on 21 April 2002.
Fig. 2: Simulations from Shen and colleagues show how SADs form as instabilities where low-density, high-speed reconnection outflow meets high-density plasma overlying post-flare loops.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Daniel B. Seaton

  2. Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, USA

    Daniel B. Seaton

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  1. Daniel B. Seaton
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Correspondence to Daniel B. Seaton.

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Seaton, D.B. A happy ending for SADs. Nat Astron 6, 299–301 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01607-0

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