Joyce Dustin
Demientieff
PHYS F211X
November 26, 2014
INTRO: PLASMA |
MAGNETISM |
SOLAR WIND |
CORONAL
MASS EJECTIONS (CMEs) |
SOLAR FLARES |
DYSTOPIA |
MAGNETOSPHERE |
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE SUN LOBBING AT US THAT WE
SHOULD DETECT/PREDICT?
Plasma, Magnetism, Solar Wind, Coronal Mass
Ejections, Solar Flares...oh, my!
The path of plasma from the sun
to our detectors (Part 1)
In the spring F212X edition
(Part 2), I plan to follow the path of the sun's plasma deeper
into our atmosphere and into our various meters here in
Alaska.
PLASMA
First of all, I didn’t quite
understand what the sun is even made of to understand what it
has to throw at us. I
vaguely remember hearing it was made of plasma, which is pretty
much out of my experience besides prodding plasma globes.
Yeah, the sun gives us heat and light. Yeah, it must throw
off other radiation that can give us skin cancer.
But I thought of the sun like a thermal inferno, a volcanic
orb. I pictured the fiery loops of prominences as flung
lava.
But watch this NASA video of a prominence in 2012 and notice how
the molten spray DOESN'T follow the rules of gravity and fall
limply toward the center of the sun like it is supposed
to. Instead, the plasma filaments tightly coil back on
themselves as if channeled on an extreme roller coaster
track. Tentacles of plasma stretch out and retreat back at
the same impossible angle rather than splatting to the
surface. Plasma is NOT like lava and as you can see
through this video, these motions are NOT due to gravity.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
Instead, this plasma is following the
rules of magnetism.
Did you know that ALMOST ALL OF THE VISIBLE UNIVERSE is
plasma? It
makes sense, since what we can see of the universe is mainly
stars and some plasma tendrils between them. Rather
than having normal little planetary-model hydrogen and helium
molecules like a normal gas, plasma has all of its charged
protons and electrons ripped apart, forming an ionized,
electromagnetically volatile soup. The protons
(mainly loner hydrogen and helium duos in the sun) still
cling together, bereft of their electrons in this
magnetic flux. The most important thing to
understand is that plasma is composed of CHARGED particles
blindly responding to magnetic fields.
Like many modern humans, my experiences with (largely
low-temperature) plasma include: buying compact
fluorescents, identifying venues by neon-light letters, counting
the seconds after seeing lightning, and poking at plasma balls
in novelty shops. Life exists because of our
high-temperature plasma star, but I had only peeked at eclipses
through black and white film and identified
constellations. I didn't understand that most of the
roiling solar surface is due to magnetic fields twisting,
shearing, and interacting. The sun's rotation further
twists and stretches these magnetic fields, since the plasma
near the poles rotates slower than at the equator (see image
below) [1]
Jose
Francisco Salgado, Adler Planetarium http://ibex.swri.edu/students/How_does_the_Sun.shtml |
And
finally, I didn't understand that the surface magnetic activity
of the sun is correlated with earth's climate. The fusion
cauldron may be burning, but the last time we went 50 years with
low sunspot (read low magnetic) activity, Europe experienced the
"Little Ice Age" or the Maunder Minimum 1645-1715.
Snow remained on the ground year-round. [2] The reliability of
aurora borealis activity may be important for steady Japanese
winter tourism, but is more importantly an indicator of ongoing
solar warmth.