The TRACE images may be used without restrictions in publications of any kind. We appreciate an acknowledgement indicating that the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer, TRACE, is a mission of the Stanford-Lockheed Institute for Space Research, and part of the NASA Small Explorer program. More information on TRACE and other TRACE images can be found here.

	In its near-minimum state, the Sun only occasionally shows an active region, like this one, AR10949, observed by TRACE in its 171&ARing; channel. But even that region is small and tired, with two faint ridges of magnetic flux with tufts of coronal emission over them, and a filament riding between them. This region did not even generate flares at the A level, leaving the X-ray emission a few hundred thousand times below the peak during the brighest flare observed by TRACE . Image courtesy of Kelly Korreck (SAO).
	On 19 March 2007, TRACE observed two eclipses (not visible from Earth). Images of the 2nd event are shown here (images taken in the 171Å channel between 02:49:35 and 02:51:58. The Moon appears to move rapidly from left to right, which is a consequence of parallax as TRACE moves in its orbit across the Earth's polar region in the opposite direction. These images were obtained using only 12s exposures, 2x2 summed on readout from the CCD, and still the edge of the Moon is blurred substantially by its apparent motion during these exposures. For observations of other eclipses or planetary transits, click here.
	On 2007/03/02 TRACE observed a filament eruption in Active Region 10944. This event, associated with a mere B2 class flare, initially shows the motion of a brightening hot loop wrapped around the filament, quickly followed by the brightening of multiple distant flare ribbons as the filament turns counterclockwise, as shown in this (22MB)quicktime movie. Notice how the nearby cool loop fans from the leading sunspot do not change their shape at all during this event: the confined filament eruption is, it would seem, an altogether local rearrangement of the magnetic field. Event pointed out by Kathy Reeves (SAO).
	TRACE observed its fifth solar eclipse on 2007/02/17 as the Moon passed across the southern solar limb. This (1.4MB) QuickTime movie shows a series of 1600Å images from 16:51UT through 16:56UT (shown at half size; a full-sized image, taken at 16:55:25UT, can be viewed by clicking on the image to the left). [A white-light (5.5MB) QuickTime movie, made by David McKenzie (MSU), can be accessed here] Other TRACE eclipse images: Eclipse 2000/04/04, Eclipse 2001/06/21, Eclipse 2003/05/31, and Eclipse 2004/09/24.
	TRACE observed Active Region 10941 as it approached the Sun's western limb (the images have been rotoated 90 degrees counterclockwise). This (12MB) QuickTime movie was made by selecting one image roughly every 3h, starting on 2007/02/04 at 08:08UT, and ending on 20070208 at 21:07UT. Playing this movie back and forth gives the viewer a sensation of depth: even though individual coronal loops evolve on a time scale of hours, the patterns formed by emitting loops in this 4.5 day movie is stable enough to be able to grasp many aspects of the 3-dimensional structure of the coronal field. For example, the fuzzy patches that form an sweeping arc near the lower edge of the images, can be seen to connect to the magnetic field near the center of the field of view. Images courtesy of Antonia Sevcheva (SAO).
	Flare/filament (re)connection On 2001/09/30 TRACE observed an M1.0 flare in Active Region 9628 very near to the solar limb. This 90-minute (20MB) QuickTime movie shows the evolution around the time of the X-ray flare onset (at 11:31 UT according to the GOES X-ray monitor). Prior to the flare, we see a fragments of a prominence hovering above the regions, with filamentary dark (relatively cool) material moving along the field lines (and, perhaps, connecting down to the surface near the region). Then, around 11:30UT, a cusp-like brightening forms at the bottom edge of the prominence. This spreads to form the dragon-like bright outline (see the image to the left, taken at 11:34UT), as the M1.0 flare below brightens (including the two bright diffraction patterns seen in the 11:34UT image). In the next few minutes, the prominence material reveals clear connections to hot, bright loops in the distance on both sides, as if the material sits in a dip in the field. Then, around 11:43UT, the post-flare loops become visible in the TRACE images, connecting the spots where the diffraction patterns were centered a few minutes before.
	This TRACE 171Å image (rotate by 90 degrees clockwise) shows Active Regions 10938 (at the limb) and 10939 (trailing) as they approach the Sun's western limb. The smaller trailing region shows pattern of relatively cool (1 million Kelvin) loops, brighest in those inclided towards the horizontal, like a butterfly with open wings. The larger, leading region has a rather different appearance, although it too is magnetically relatively simple.
	As active region AR10933 rotates off the solar disk on 2007/01/10 at 22:12 UT, it shows a fan of high-reaching loops that stick out above the solar limb in this TRACE 171Å image (rotated by 90 degrees clockwise). Not only the main active region itself shows such loops, however; they show up in the surroundings also, both in another trailing region and over the strong magnetic network between the regions. Some of the field in and surrounding these fan-like structures can reach out far into the heliosphere as can be see in this comparison of a full-Sun SOHO/EIT 171Å image with model field lines overlaid. The field lines shown in this image are those that reach into the plane of the planets according to our solar-weather model (with black and white lines for the two opposite polarities). The reasons why the cool loop fans light up in the TRACE 171Å image, and their possible relationship to the field that connects to the far heliosphere remain topics of much scientic study. Image courtesy of Dawn Myers (GSFC)
	Around the time of solar minimum there are but few active regions, and thus few major solar flares. Active Region 10930 was therefore a rare treat: it produced multiple X-class flares as new magnetic field emerged into an existing configuration. This (32MB) QuickTime movie shows the evolution of the complex spot group, surrounded by many small dark pores and bright magnetic faculae, as observed by TRACE over a 12-day interval, from 2006 December 06 04:24 UT through December 19, 11:22 UT. Even in this series of white-light images, the major flares show up as they faintly outshine even the bright solar surface: see the images of two of the X-class flares at 2006/12/06 19:05:19 UT and 2006/12/14 22:10:08 UT (the latter is shown to the left, in a 360x240 pixel cutout from the full TRACE images).
	Beginning of the new sunspot cycle? TRACE observed a small, unnumbered active region in this full-disk mosaic taken on 2006/11/28; it is circled in the SOHO/MDI magnetogram below it. As unassuming as the region appears, it may actually be somewhat auspicious. Its relatively high latitude (north 35 degrees on the solar disk) is uncharacteristic for active regions or sunspots at the end of a solar activity cycle--all the other activity at this time is much nearer the Sun's equator. Full-disk magnetograms from SOHO MDI faintly show a concentration of magnetic field at this same location (circled), with polarity opposite that of the other north-hemisphere sunspot--in the image, the high-latitude region has negative (black) magnetic field in its west and positive (white) field in its east. In fact, the polarity of this high-latitude region is opposite that of all other north-hemisphere regions during this sunspot cycle, and is more like the polarity of south-hemisphere active regions. High latitude and reversed polarity are characteristics shared by sunspots and active regions of a new sunspot cycle. It's not uncommon to have a mixture of old-cycle and new-cycle regions on the Sun simultaneously, during the "overlap" period when the old cycle is finishing and the new is beginning. But the question is always, 'Has the new cycle actually begun?' This high-latitude active region, which has not yet been given an official NOAA number, may be suggesting an answer. Courtesy David McKenzie (MSU).