A plage / p l eɪ dʒ / is a bright region in the Sun 's chromosphere , typically found in and around active regions . Historically, they have been referred to as bright flocculi , in contrast to dark flocculi , and as chromospheric faculae , in contrast to photospheric faculae .
2-649: The term plage is often believed to be poetically taken from the French word for "beach"; however, this is likely a misunderstanding of an 1893 article by Henri-Alexandre Deslandres where the name facular flames was suggested. In the article, Deslandres also refers to them as plages brillantes , meaning bright regions , which became the more commonly used term. Classically, plage have been defined as regions that are bright in Hα and other chromospheric emission lines . With modern imaging, most researchers now identify plage based on
4-509: The photospheric magnetic field concentration of the faculae below. The magnetic field of plage is confined to the intergranular lanes in the photosphere with a strength of around 1500 G, but expands into a volume filling canopy in the chromosphere with a field of around 450G. It is believed that plage is formed from decaying emerging flux regions, and often acts as a footprint for coronal loops and fibrils, which makes them an important interface for coronal heating . This article related to
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