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(play -jiz) (formerly sometimes termed bright flocculi) Bright patches in the solar chromosphere, at a higher temperature than their surroundings, that occur in areas where there is an enhancement of the relatively weak vertical magnetic field. They are approximately coincident with photospheric faculae (though unlike the faculae they are visible, in the monochromatic light of certain strong Fraunhofer lines, anywhere on the Sun's disk) and may be considered as defining the extent of active regions.