Diff for "SolarWind"

http://wiki.keithl.com/SolarWind

Basics of the Solar Wind

Nicole Meyer-Vernet PSULib QB529.M485 2007

• Observatoire de Paris and Centre National de la Rechereche Scientifique website

• p009 Sun: mass 1.98892e30 kg, radius 695700 km, Luminosity 3.828e26 W +/-0.1%
• p054 plasmas interact less with radiation than with plasmas

• p057 Fermi energy

  • book's "comet-like" heliosphere model obsolete

  • Imaging the Interaction of the Heliosphere with the Interstellar Medium from Saturn with Cassini

• p057 heliospheric dust grains

• p057 plasma particle collisional free path increases strongly with speed, fast particles nearly collisionless
• p064 Magnetic mirrors: particle moving towards converging/increasing field mirrors and reflects
• p066 transverse gradient produces a small transverse drift

• p069 Vlasov equation Liouville's theorem

• p080 "upstream kinetic energy converted to downstream enthalpy, high temperature

• p083 viscous forces generally much less important than inertial effects, but

  • see E. M. Purcell Life at low Reynolds number Am. J. Phys. 45, 3–11 (1977)

• p083 ions transport momentum, determining viscosity; electrons transport heat, determining thermal conductivity
• p084 Reynolds number very large for space plasmas, viscosity generally negligable
• p084 1e6 K (kelvin) solar corona heat conductivity 1e4 W/m-K "same order of magnitude as brass"

  • NO, brass approx. 150 W/m-K Silver around 430 W/m-K

• p084 conductivity low perpendicular to B, high parallel to B only if mean free path much smaller than scales of variation.

• p088 magnetic Reynolds number convection ÷ diffusion

• p090 magnetic field freezing Alfvén's theorem

• p090 plasmas in space tied to field lines, do not mix across field
• p091 magnetized plasma has
  • inertia, corresponding to bulk kinetic energy ½ρV²
  • thermal pressure, corresponding to random kinetic energy ρkT/m
  • magnetic forces, corresponding to B²/2μ₀

• p092 V = B/(μ₀ρ)½ ≡ V_A Alfvén speed

• p098 Whistler