Features seen in the chromosphere are prominences, filaments, flares, and plages. Prominences are loops of chromospheric gas held up by the Sun's magnetic field. They appear as pinkish purple or red prominences when seen above the limb of the solar disk. When the prominences are seen in front of the solar disk, they look dark and are called filaments. Flares are sudden eruptions of high-energy particles which reach Earth and can disrupt communications.
Flares occur near sunspots groups and are caused by tangled magnetic field.
The corona extends above the chromosphere to many Sun diameters. The temperature of this layer is about a million Kelvin. Even though it is a very hot gas, it is very diffuse. The hot coronal gas emits mostly x-rays, but also scatters light from the photosphere to give a pearly, milky glow in visible light. Features seen in the corona are plumes, streamers, loops, hot spots, flares, prominences, coronal holes, and coronal mass ejections which are shaped by the solar magnetic field.