Solar wind and where it blows
(ORDO NEWS) — The sun is the source of a constant stream of particles. Neutrinos, electrons, protons, alpha particles, and heavier atomic nuclei all together make up the corpuscular radiation of the Sun.
A significant part of this radiation is a more or less continuous outflow of plasma, the so-called solar wind, which is a continuation of the outer layers of the solar atmosphere – the solar corona.
Near the Earth, its speed is usually 400–500 km/s. A stream of charged particles is ejected from the Sun through coronal holes – regions in the Sun’s atmosphere with a magnetic field open into interplanetary space.
The first measurements of the solar wind were made in 1959 on the Luna-9 AMS. In 1962, Mariner 2, heading for Venus, made observations of the solar wind and obtained the following results: the solar wind speed varied from 350 m/s to 800 m/s, the average concentration of the solar wind was 5.4 ions per 1 cm 3 , ion temperature 160,000 K. Average magnetic field strength 6×10 -5 oersted.
A lot of new information about the solar wind was found out by the international space station SOHO. It turned out that he carries elements such as nickel, iron, silicon, sulfur, calcium, chromium.
The sun rotates with a period of 27 days. The trajectories of solar wind particles moving along the lines of magnetic field induction have a spiral structure due to the rotation of the Sun.
As a result of the rotation of the Sun, the geometric shape of the solar wind flow will be an Archimedean spiral, reminiscent of the shape of a jet of water from a garden hose rotating around an axis.
On days of solar storms, the solar wind increases sharply. It causes auroras and magnetic storms on Earth, and astronauts should not go into outer space at this time.
Under the influence of the solar wind, the tails of comets are always directed away from the Sun. The Voyager spacecraft detected the solar wind even beyond the orbit of Pluto. In fact, we live in a giant heliosphere formed by the solar wind, although protected from it by the Earth’s magnetic field.
The sun is a powerful source of radio emission. Centimeter radio waves emitted by the chromosphere and longer waves emitted by the corona penetrate into interplanetary space.
If in the visible rays the Sun radiates relatively stably (changes occur by fractions of a percent), then in the radio range the radiation can change hundreds and even thousands of times. The radio emission of the Sun has two components – constant and variable.
The constant component characterizes the radio emission of the quiet Sun. The solar corona radiates radio waves as an absolutely black body with a temperature of T = 10 6 K. The variable component of the Sun’s radio emission manifests itself in the form of bursts, noise storms.
Noise storms last from several hours to several days. Ten minutes after a strong solar flare, the radio emission from the Sun increases thousands and even millions of times compared to the radio emission from the quiet Sun and lasts from several minutes to several hours. This radio emission has a non-thermal nature.
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