Doing the wave

An instrument on the SOHO spacecraft shows that the apparent 'superrotation' of the supergranules is due to the vertical motion in the supergranular cells. As in a stadium, people do not move in the direction of 'The Wave' - just up and down. This artist's impression shows a band of supergranules rotating faster across the Sun's surface than other features, such as dark sunsports. This occurs everywhere on the Sun's surface, but is simplified to a narrow band here to highlight the phenomenon.