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The Solar Wind

The document discusses the solar wind, which is a stream of charged particles that flows from the Sun's corona into space. The solar wind extends beyond Earth's orbit and creates a shock front called the heliopause. Voyager 1 is expected to pass through the heliopause in the next decade. The solar wind travels at speeds between 300-1400 km/s and is composed mainly of protons and electrons. Eugene Parker first theorized the existence of the solar wind before satellites could confirm it. The solar wind originates from the Sun's corona, which has a temperature of around 1-2 million Kelvin. Early static models of the corona were found to be unphysical, so Parker proposed a dynamic model of the

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95 views3 pages

The Solar Wind

The document discusses the solar wind, which is a stream of charged particles that flows from the Sun's corona into space. The solar wind extends beyond Earth's orbit and creates a shock front called the heliopause. Voyager 1 is expected to pass through the heliopause in the next decade. The solar wind travels at speeds between 300-1400 km/s and is composed mainly of protons and electrons. Eugene Parker first theorized the existence of the solar wind before satellites could confirm it. The solar wind originates from the Sun's corona, which has a temperature of around 1-2 million Kelvin. Early static models of the corona were found to be unphysical, so Parker proposed a dynamic model of the

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tarx441
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The Solar Wind

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http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/plasma/lectures/node67.html

Next: Parker Model of Solar Up: Magnetohydrodynamic Fluids Previous: MHD Waves Contents

The Solar Wind


The solar wind is a high-speed particle stream continuously blown out from the Sun into
interplanetary space. It extends far beyond the orbit of the Earth, and terminates in a
shock front, called the heliopause, where it interfaces with the weakly ionized
interstellar medium. The heliopause is predicted to lie between 110 and 160 AU (1
Astronomical Unit is
m) from the centre of the Sun. Voyager 1 is expected to
pass through the heliopause sometime in the next decade: hopefully, it will still be
functional at that time!
In the vicinity of the Earth, (i.e., at about 1 AU from the Sun) the solar wind velocity
typically ranges between 300 and 1400
. The average value is approximately
, which corresponds to about a 4 day time of flight from the Sun. Note that
the solar wind is both super-sonic and super-Alfvnic.
The solar wind is predominately composed of protons and electrons.
Amazingly enough, the solar wind was predicted theoretically by Eugine Parker19 a
number of years before its existence was confirmed using satellite data.20 Parker's
prediction of a super-sonic outflow of gas from the Sun is a fascinating scientific
detective story, as well as a wonderful application of plasma physics.
The solar wind originates from the solar corona. The solar corona is a hot, tenuous
plasma surrounding the Sun, with characteristic temperatures and particle densities of
about
K and
, respectively. Note that the corona is far hotter than the
solar atmosphere, or photosphere. In fact, the temperature of the photosphere is only
about
K. It is thought that the corona is heated by Alfvn waves emanating from
the photosphere. The solar corona is most easily observed during a total solar eclipse,
when it is visible as a white filamentary region immediately surrounding the Sun.
Let us start, following Chapman,21 by attempting to construct a model for a static solar
corona. The equation of hydrostatic equilibrium for the corona takes the form
(731)

where

is the gravitational constant, and

1/5/2011 4:21 PM

The Solar Wind

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http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/plasma/lectures/node67.html

is the solar mass. The plasma density is written


(732)

where is the number density of protons. If both protons and electrons are assumed
to possess a common temperature,
, then the coronal pressure is given by
(733)

The thermal conductivity of the corona is dominated by the electron thermal


conductivity, and takes the form [see Eqs. (260) and (280)]
(734)

where

is a relatively weak function of density and temperature. For typical coronal

conditions this conductivity is extremely high: i.e., it is about twenty times the thermal
conductivity of copper at room temperature. The coronal heat flux density is written
(735)

For a static corona, in the absence of energy sources or sinks, we require


(736)

Assuming spherical symmetry, this expression reduces to


(737)

Adopting the sensible boundary condition that the coronal temperature must tend to
zero at large distances from the Sun, we obtain
(738)

The reference level


,

is conveniently taken to be the base of the corona, where


, and
K.

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http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/plasma/lectures/node67.html

Equations (731), (732), (733), and (738) can be combined and integrated to give
(739)

Note that as

the coronal pressure tends towards a finite constant value:


(740)

There is, of course, nothing at large distances from the Sun which could contain such a
pressure (the pressure of the interstellar medium is negligibly small). Thus, we
conclude, with Parker, that the static coronal model is unphysical.
Since we have just demonstrated that a static model of the solar corona is
unsatisfactory, let us now attempt to construct a dynamic model in which material flows
outward from the Sun.

Next: Parker Model of Solar Up: Magnetohydrodynamic Fluids Previous: MHD Waves Contents
Richard Fitzpatrick 2008-12-19

1/5/2011 4:21 PM

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