Marcus Shinbo and Joel Tome Astronomy Pd. 3 7, March, 2011

i. Solar Winds are the high energy plasma constantly emitted into space from the surface of the sun. ii.It consists of a stream of ionized particles (mostly protons) with the same composition of the Sun’s corona.

 i.The solar wind streams off of the Sun in all directions at speeds of about 400 km/s (about 1 million miles per hour).  ii.The temperature of the corona is so high that the Sun's gravity cannot hold on to it.

 i.The solar wind is not uniform.  ii.Although it is always directed away from the Sun, it changes speed and carries with it magnetic clouds, interacting regions where high speed wind catches up with slow speed wind, and composition variations.  iii.The solar wind speed is high (800 km/s) over coronal holes and low (300 km/s) over streamers.

 i.These high and low speed streams interact with each other and alternately pass by the Earth as the Sun rotates.  ii.These wind speed variations buffet the Earth's magnetic field and can produce storms in the Earth's magnetosphere.

 i.From the beautiful aurorae to magnetic storms, the solar wind plays a large part in what goes on in the Earth's magnetosphere.  ii.The aurora takes place when the solar wind collides with the Earth's ionosphere.  iii.Atmospheric particles become excited during the collision.

 i.A flare is defined as a sudden, rapid, and intense variation in brightness.  ii. A solar flare occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released

 i.The sun, releases as 6 × 1025 joules of energy[1] (about a sixth of the total energy output of the Sun each second).

 i.Under the right situations, when the earth and sun face each other during a solar flare event, earth can be battered by massive bursts of energy via wavelength X-rays, gamma rays and magnetic disturbances, which can alter the earth's ability to protect itself from dangerous particles emitted into space.

 RURU RURU  VDm0

 The sun, releases as 6 × 1025 joules of energy[1] (about a sixth of the total energy output of the Sun each second).  i.A flare is defined as a sudden, rapid, and intense variation in brightness.  ii. A solar flare occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released