Talk:Solar prominence

Solar filaments
I've redirected Solar filament here. Please change this redirect if it is erroneous. --Smack (talk) 22:21, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

They don't "jet out from sunspots". Sometimes they appear far from any sunspots, sometimes even when there are no sunspots at all.

Fixed. Poobar 13:37, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Prominence pictures
I replaced the picture of a flare with three pictures of prominences. Please feel free to replace them with better pictures of prominences, but please do not put a picture of a flare to the article. Flare and prominences are different solar events.--Mbz1 15:37, 7 August 2007 (UTC)Mbz1

Solar prominence vs. solar protuberance
Are these two words a sort of synonyms? I know that protuberance in general can apply to many things ("things that protrude from something else", see here), like for instance there's Occipital protuberance etc. But maybe should we create a redirect page (i.e. Solar protuberance redirecting here)? Because Google search for Solar protuberance shows this article as the first/topmost result, and there is even an entry Solar protuberances on Free Online Dictionary.. Also searching Wikipedia for solar protuberance does return some results. --Wayfarer (talk) 22:30, 22 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I don't think they are really synonyms in this context. I've never heard the term "protuberance" used in English. However, "protubérance solaire" is the French expression for "solar prominence", so it could be that there have been occasions where both terms were mixed up. --Nicalacla (talk) 00:18, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Improving content
I know a few things about solar prominences, and this article deserves more attention. I will from time to time bring in some new elements, but at a slow pace because of time constraints. One of the first things I would do though is bring some additional references, and remove some statements which I find strange - unless I see them supported by valid sources. 1) "prominences can last up to almost a year": I don't think it's true, but I'd be interested to hear otherwise. 2-3 solar rotations at most, ie roughly 3 months. 2) "prominences are also sometimes called flocculi". A loooong time ago, maybe? But not anymore as far as I know. If I don' see a supporting reference here, I will delete this sentence. --Nicalacla (talk) 00:24, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
 * The term "flocculi" is still used today, but not very often. CoronalMassAffection (talk) 16:39, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

Merge Solar prominence and Coronal loop?
The two articles Solar prominence and Coronal loop seem to my uneducated eye to overlap to a significant degree. Should one of these articles be merged into the other? The lead sentence of this article describes prominences as "...a large, bright, gaseous feature extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape." The word "loop" is used 3 times in the introduction to describe prominences. It seems from the definition that a coronal loop is a type of prominence. But neither article has a link to the other, and in fact neither article even mentions the other term!!! I added merger tags to the two pages to attract discussion. --ChetvornoTALK 17:35, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

The issue is that using words such as "loop" to describe prominences is misleading. Coronal loops are completely distinct from prominences. One could describe coronal loops as relatively small-scale, fine structures that actually really look like simple loops. The plasma inside them is quite hot (coronal temperatures). They are often referred to the "building blocks of the solar corona". On the other hand, prominences are usually on larger scales, have much more complex shapes. The plasma inside prominences is much cooler than the coronal plasma. The magnetic field, which is responsible for the existence of these two different objects, is structured differently in both cases, which also implies that they will have different temporal evolutions. Nicalacla (talk) 09:52, 2 December 2018 (UTC)


 * You can read here more about Solar prominences and coronal loops. These two types of coronal structures are often associated with each other but they are nevertheless very distinct. Ruslik_ Zero 20:20, 2 December 2018 (UTC)


 * Oppose, per Ruslik0. Not exactly the same subject. Randy Kryn (talk) 21:59, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Many thanks for straightening me out on this! Removed merger tags. --ChetvornoTALK 00:16, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Article overhaul
In the coming weeks I will be adding new sections and revising/adding to existing ones. Some topics I hope to add include prominence classification, formation, eruption, and morphology (e.g., filament channel, spine, barbs, prominence-corona transition region, plasma parameters). I will be submitting them sporadically. CoronalMassAffection (talk) 16:39, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

Relationship with coronal loop, solar flare, and coronal mass ejection
Like Chetvorno in 2018, I find this article confusing regarding the relationship between prominences and coronal loops. I gather from that discussion that they're on different scales and involve different physics, but the article doesn't state that. I think it would be very helpful to explain the difference either in the lede or in the Classification section.

I have similar confusion regarding solar flares; when I see photos of them they often look like loops. I think flares are sometimes but not always caused by prominences? Describing that relationship in the text would also be helpful. I'd be happy to add it myself, but if someone here has more expertise I think they're more likely to get it right. Justin Kunimune (talk) 15:33, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Hi . I agree this article is really confusing at the moment. I have been meaning to work on improving it for a few years now and will hopefully get to it this summer. In the meantime, I can help verify info if you get a chance to add anything. CoronalMassAffection 𝛿&thinsp;talkcontribs 16:45, 9 April 2024 (UTC)