Thank you by the way for the explanation about the processing technique used on the image. As you noted, it would be easy to get the color scheme backwards.

IMO, you also just gave the one line answer as to why Lockheed has this labeled backwards, that blue background is 6000K.

Let me try this purely from a gas model perpective so you understand my motives here and why I think this is so critically important.

The surface of the penumbral filaments has been measured at 6000K. That is the average temp of the "surface" of the photosphere. Somewhere deep in the core of the sun, a magnetic flux occurs and sends a streaming column of superheated plasma that rises through the surface of the photosphere and sometimes far into the corona. Whatever the processes in play that bring that superheated plasma through the penumbral filaments, that superheated column comes from below the photosphere.

The reason we know the coronal loop has superheated plasma in it, is because it emits photons that are consistent with very high temperatures. These superheated columns of plasma pump huge amounts of heat into the sun's outer atmospheres, and even pick up some of that heat from the corona, if they rise that far.

We can even see the three dimensional rise of this plasma column in the composite image from Yohkoh/Trace. In the lower regions, the base of the coronal loop is relatively cool, and relatively invisible to Yohkoh. As the superheated column reaches the corona, it picks up a lot of heat, and the plasma glows in x-ray that Yohkoh sees quite easily.

So why is this so important that I would question Lockheed?

It strikes to the very heart of the placement problem Lockheed has with the transition layer IMO. Alexander Kosovichev's work suggests that about 4800km below the surface of the photosphere, there is a distinct layer with a temperature/density change, where sound begins to travel much faster than it does through the first 4800km of the photosphere. We know this from heliosciesmology, and I trust Dr. Kosovichev's work. I'm impressed with it in fact. I trust that this sound transition layer exists at this location.

If this superheated column of plasma is the heat source and rising through the photosphere, the Lockheed has this image backwords. The green plasma columns themselves are absolutely a higher temperature the then photosphere they are rising through, and a much higher temperature than the chromosophere as well. It is likely that the heat from these superheated columns of plasma are what pump heat into the corona and help heat the plasma one it reaches the corona.

So how does all this apply? That blue area is dark in the original image because it's the outer photosphere. Several columns of superheated plasma are rising from the transition layer, through the photosphere, into the corona, where the columns glow in x-ray. The columns however are at a much, much, much higher temperature than anything else around it until it reaches the corona. Even then it is not clear how much of the heat originate from the coronal loops and simply ends up in the corona to begin with. The implication here is that the coronal loops, these superheated columns of plasma are much hotter the most of the medium they traverse.

That Trace/Yohkoh image is increadibly revealing IMO as it shows the layer where x-rays are visible very clearly and shows a cooler plasma region below.

Lockheed missed the boat here IMO since the blue areas are not superheated plasma, but are dark to both satellites. They are the visible photosphere and chromosphere. This is critically important IMO because it suggests that the transition layer is not above the photosphere, but underneath it. That transition layer we see at 4800km is where see these superheated columns originate, far below the photosphere. The rise up, through the photosphere and into the outer regions where Yohkoh sees the x-ray energy from these columns.

You of course explained why Lockheed is wrong in a single sentence. I actually liked your explanation better, but I wanted to explain the significance of this image from my perspective, and why I believe it is critical. It has very important ramifications for the gas model. If that transition layer is below the photosphere, then the implications for the gas model must also be profound. The work of Dr. Kosivichev strongly suggests the transition layer is beneath the visible photosphere, not above it IMO.