MATCHING THE MORPHOLOGIES

The upper image (clickable), a TRACE UV frame, shows the chromospheric structure related to the magnetic field. The bright clouds are "plage", the faintly-seen darker regions are sunspots. Strong hints of the irregular cellular structure of the "chromospheric network" or supergranulation can easily be seen, especially outside the active region itself.

To recover from this heavy dose of jargon, refresh yourself with Dr. Strous's astrononomy glossary.

The lower image shows an overlay of contours from a TRACE EUV (coronal) image on the same UV (chromospheric) image. Note the drastic change in morphology - but there is some clear relationship between the patterns, especially at the left (E) end of the ribbons, where they appear to match the boundaries of a network cell. Amazing.