Questions tagged [solar-wind]
A supersonic flow of ionized particles emanating from the sun
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Why is aurora borealis circular in shape when viewed from space?
These are some false color images of the northern lights captured by NASA's satellite Dynamics Explorer-1.
Image credits: Dynamics Explorer - 1 (DE-1)
Spin-Scan Auroral Imaging (SAI)
Photo Gallery
It'...
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What's wrong with solar wind?
As you know, the sun emits into the surrounding space the so-called "solar wind", consisting of plasma. In turn, plasma is a mixture of charged particles.
According to the laws of physics, ...
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Gyrating proton near magnetic pole of the Earth
Imagine a proton from space which approaches the magnetic pole in the Northern hemisphere of the Earth. The proton spirals around the magnetic field lines. The $\vec{B}$-field is stronger near the ...
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Paper about solar wind model
I am searching for a paper about the solar wind. In particular, I need a model (or real data) that describes plasma density as a function of time and location in space. Do such data exist in the ...
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Sling-Shooting Around a Star to Catch a Solar Flare
How much thrust could a solar sail receive from sling shooting around the Sun and riding the wave of a solar flare during the escape?
I found this link https://ww4.fmovies.co/film/the-ark-season-1-...
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Recombination of protons in solar wind
All accounts of solar wind I have seen (I am no expert in the topic), seem to refer to it being everywhere a plasma (mainly composed of protons/electrons). For example, I have seen statements about ...
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How big can solar flares get and could they boil away Earth's atmosphere?
Is there a known theoretical maximum size for a solar flare and would it mean curtains for life on Earth?
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Why are planetary orbits stable given accumulation of forces due to solar wind?
The solar system is more than 4 billion years old. Ever present solar winds which emanates from the sun consists of photons, hydrogen and helium. The momentum transfer from photons upon contact with ...
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Alfven velocity in space. Maybe too large?
I'm calculating the Alfven velocity in space plasma.
B = 4.2 nT (nanoTesla)
...
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Magnetic explosions on Sun
They say (in popular videos and articles) that tangled magnetic fields on Sun explode. But i don't understand why and how magnetic fields, tangled or not, explode. Could anyone explain?
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Would the Earth's magnetosphere be more effective against the Sun's solar wind if the planet's rotation was faster?
As far as I understand it, the Earth's magnetic field rotates around the planet's axis at the same rotational velocity as the planet's rotational velocity around its axis.
From what I understand about ...
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Do solar flares move the dust on the surface of the Moon?
The TV show For All Mankind has a reputation for scientific accuracy, so I think it's fair game to ask if it lives up to this reputation.
In this video clip, we see the dust on the surface of the Moon ...
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Interaction of a magnetized plasma beam with a dielectric surface
The topic is inspired by the interaction of solar wind plasma with bodies without an atmosphere and magnetosphere (the Moon, asteroids etc.), though overall the question is more general. So let's ...
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Electrons carry the bulk of heat flux in the solar wind?
In the introduction of the attached paper is mentioned that:
Electrons provide additional heating by carrying the bulk of the solar
wind heat flux and through collisions with the protons.
Electron ...
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Have solar wind particles escaped the Sun's gravity or will they eventually return back?
I've read that solar wind consists of hydrogen atoms that are, near the Earth, travelling at about 450 km/s. This is only 3/4 of the Sun's escape velocity, but then the Earth is also 150 million km ...
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Radial dependence of temperature of solar wind?
How does the temperature of the solar wind plasma depend upon radial distance from the Sun?
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What is the definition of a plasma?
I understand that the conventional definition of a plasma is that the Debye length is much smaller than the size of the plasma, however I can't seem to find what the numerical value of this ratio ...
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Aurora Borealis
As we know that during a solar flare, a large number of electrons and protons are ejected from the sun.
Some of them get trapped in the earth’s magnetic field and move in helical paths along the
field ...
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Resultant particle distribution function for mixing of two particle species
I would like to know if there is any way to compute the resultant particle distribution for system where two kinds of particles are mixed. For me one kind is Maxwellian and another is non-thermal ...
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How do I set up surface pressure as function of time due to atmospheric erosion by Solar wind?
It is known that highly energetic particles from the sun when striking a planet ionize the atmospheric particles and the ions may escape the planet by being guided by the solar magnetic flux that ...
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Drift of neutral particles in plasmas
I'm learning about $\mathbf{E}\times \mathbf{B}$ drifts in plasmas. The drift speed is given by $\mathbf{v}=\mathbf{E}\times \mathbf{B}/B^2$. Chen (in Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled ...
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Magnetic sunspot propulsion [closed]
Could a solar sail use the sun, its sunspots, or solar flares, in close proximity, use opposing magnetic fields, to add significant acceleration?
https://www.mae.ucla.edu/nasa-selects-artur-davoyans-...
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Interaction of supersonic wind with static Inter-Stellar Medium (ISM)
Recently I was studying about the interaction of supersonic flow (wind) with a slowly flowing medium. In a paper by Dyson, Falle, and Perry 1980 MNRAS stated that when a supersonic wind impinged upon ...
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In plasma physics what does beam of particles mean
I often hear about a beam of particles on top of a background population in plasma physics. What does exactly beam mean?
Is it a subset of particles that belong to a different distribution?
What ...
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Is the radiation on IO's surface directional?
I know that magnetospheres redirect solar radiation into the poles of a planet, but since IO is in Jupiter's magnetosphere does that mean that solar radiation is redirected across the planets surface ...
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Do solar winds / mass ejections produce thrust on sun?
For every action there's a contrary reaction, so can those mass ejections make the sun move?
Of course, the mass of the sun is immensely bigger than what's being eject but even being trillions of ...
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Does the solar wind blow *through* the moon's atmosphere/exosphere?
The Wikipedia article on "Atmosphere of moon" says:
One source of the lunar atmosphere is outgassing: the release of gases
such as radon and helium resulting from radioactive decay within ...
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Are switchbacks travelling Alfven waves?
My question is are the so-called Switchbacks observed in the solar wind traveling Alfven waves? If not what are the differences between them?
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How much of the Sun to not evaporate is due to gravity and how much due to magnetism?
As protons and electrons on the sun 'surface' have high kinetic energy something obviously should stop them to go away.Its gravity is very high compared to planets but is this enough as magnetism also ...
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How much energy per area or volume is the solar wind producing?
Would it be possible to erect essentially a giant loop of wire in interplanetary space to create an electric generator? If so, how much power can we get?
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Is the Sun losing mass and pushing the Earth further away? [duplicate]
With the sun radiating so much energy every millisecond can nuclear fusion keep up with that pace? And if it can’t keep up isn’t the sun losing energy every second and therefor losing mass? Which ...
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To define an equation of state, does the system need to be in some type of equilbrium?
Typically one assumes some sort of equilibrium to define an equation of state for a system. However, I am curious if equilibrium is actually required to define a general equation of state (with the ...
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A technique to distinguish the mean magnetic field from the fluctuations in the solar wind?
My question is:
Is there a technique to distinguish the mean magnetic field from the fluctuations in the solar wind?
Thanks
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Do switchbacks occur in the radial direction of the solar wind magnetic field?
My question is:
When we are talking about switchbacks, do we mean switchbacks in the radial component of the magnetic field or in the total magnetic field?
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Why do we sometimes refer to the solar wind as young solar wind?
Why do we sometimes refer to the solar wind as young solar wind? What does young imply?
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Explanation of figure:turbulent magnetic field lines + spatial distribution of out-of-plane electric current density
The following graph is supposed to present turbulent magnetic field lines along with the spatial distribution of out-of-plane electric current density.
However I am not sure I completely understand ...
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How does a solar wind plasmoid split when it touches the magnetosphere?
I want to try to render (computer graphics) auroras in a physical manner as realistic and realizable as possible. I'm aware that the phenomenon hasn't been completly explained yet (as far as my own ...
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How to define temperature in non-equilibrium, non-thermodynamic systems?
This question stems from an answer to the following question:
What's the most fundamental definition of temperature?
The issue here is how to define the temperature in a system not in thermal or ...
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Reaction of radiation with Nitrogen-14
When solar wind brings high energy neutrons into contact with Nitrogen-14, a well known process occurs yielding Carbon-14 + a proton. N14 is assumed to exist in upper atmosphere as N2 gas, but the ...
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What is happening when magnetic field lines snap or break?
In discussions of sun spots and auroras on Earth, magnetic field lines are often described as "snapping" or "breaking", with the result of releasing charged particles very ...
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Radiation and windows for building of a great project in a low Earth orbit: reference request or exercise as a ficticious need to build it
I know about the existence of certain windows for which it is more suitable to launch a probe for the exploration of a cellestial body in our Solar System (see the Wikipedia Launch window). I wondered ...
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By what mechanism does a solar flare overload electronics?
I apologize for my ignorance, but I lack the underlying knowledge to meaningfully research this myself.
My knowledge of both Solar Flares and EMPs comes almost exclusively from pop-sci reading. I've ...
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Where do the gases such as hydrogen and helium end up after leaving the earths atmosphere?
I've heard that gases like hydrogen and helium leak out of the earth's gravity a little by little.
but where are they going? where do they end up after leaving earth's pull?
would the sun pull them ...
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Are solar flares and solar winds the same?
A solar flare contains high energy protons and particles.
A solar wind is a stream of energized & charged particles primarily electrons & protons.
I am confused whether both are same or not? ...
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Best numerical simulations of Sun's magnetic field
I was trying to find some simulations of the Sun's magnetic field. Which ones are the most accurate to date?
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Thermal velocity of electrons and protons in solar Corona
I would like to know how much (in eV) is the thermal velocity of electrons and protons in the lower solar corona?
Thank you in advance!
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Other than magnitude what are the differences between CME's and Solar flares?
I could not understand the differences between a CME and a Solar flare, aside from the fact that they differ in magnitude.
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Energy spectrum of Solar energetic particles (SEP's)
I would like to know if we have obtained any observations regarding the energy spectrum of solar energetic particles. Something like the following histogram :
And if so, what is the index of the ...
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How does the aurora brightness depend on the distance from the poles?
I checked a few sites about aurora: http://www.aurora-service.eu/aurora-school/all-about-the-kp-index/ https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/3-...
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What would the effect of an antimatter star be upon a normal matter planet? (Thought experiment)
Based on the answers from this question: Would the solar wind from an antimatter star be any different from a non-antimatter star?, it seems that an antimatter Sol type star would conduct fusion ...
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