Aplage/pleɪdʒ/ is a bright region in theSun'schromosphere, typically found in and aroundactive regions. Historically, they have been referred to asbright flocculi, in contrast todark flocculi, and aschromospheric faculae, in contrast tophotospheric faculae.[1]
The termplage is often believed to be poetically taken from the French word for "beach"; however, this is likely a misunderstanding of an 1893 article byHenri-Alexandre Deslandres where the namefacular flames was suggested. In the article, Deslandres also refers to them asplages brillantes, meaningbright regions, which became the more commonly used term.[2]
Classically, plage have been defined as regions that are bright inHα and other chromosphericemission lines. With modern imaging, most researchers now identify plage based on thephotospheric magnetic field concentration of thefaculae 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.[3][4]
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 forcoronal heating.[2]
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