Solar fan. Sunny wind. Facts and theory. Can a person feel the solar wind?

sunny wind

Such recognition is worth a lot, because it revives to life the half-forgotten solar-plasmoid hypothesis of the origin and development of life on Earth, put forward by the Ulyanovsk scientist B. A. Solomin almost 30 years ago.

The solar-plasmoid hypothesis states that highly organized solar and terrestrial plasmoids played and still play a key role in the origin and development of life and intelligence on Earth. This hypothesis is so interesting, especially in light of the receipt of experimental materials by Novosibirsk scientists, that it is worth getting to know it in more detail.

First of all, what is a plasmoid? Plasmoid is a plasma system structured by its own magnetic field. In turn, plasma is a hot ionized gas. The simplest example of plasma is fire. Plasma has the ability to dynamically interact with a magnetic field and retain the field within itself. And the field, in turn, regulates the chaotic movement of charged plasma particles. At certain conditions a stable but dynamic system is formed, consisting of plasma and a magnetic field.

The source of plasmoids in the Solar System is the Sun. Around the Sun, like around the Earth, there is its own atmosphere. The outer part of the solar atmosphere, consisting of hot ionized hydrogen plasma, is called the solar corona. And if on the surface of the Sun the temperature is approximately 10,000 K, then due to the flow of energy coming from its interior, the temperature of the corona reaches 1.5–2 million K. Since the density of the corona is low, such heating is not balanced by the loss of energy due to radiation.

In 1957, University of Chicago professor E. Parker published his hypothesis that the solar corona is not in hydrostatic equilibrium, but is continuously expanding. In this case, a significant part of the solar radiation is a more or less continuous outflow of plasma, the so-called sunny wind, which carries away excess energy. That is, the solar wind is a continuation solar corona.

It took two years for this prediction to be confirmed experimentally using instruments installed on Soviet spacecraft"Luna-2" and "Luna-3". Later it turned out that the solar wind carries away from the surface of our star, in addition to energy and information, about a million tons of matter per second. It contains mainly protons, electrons, some helium nuclei, oxygen, silicon, sulfur, nickel, chromium and iron ions.

In 2001, the Americans launched into orbit the Genesis spacecraft, created to study the solar wind. Having flown more than one and a half million kilometers, the device approached the so-called Lagrange point, where gravitational influence The Earth is balanced by the gravitational forces of the Sun, and has deployed its traps of solar wind particles there. In 2004, the capsule containing the collected particles crashed to the ground, contrary to the planned soft landing. The particles were “washed” and photographed.

To date, observations made from Earth satellites and other spacecraft show that interplanetary space is filled with an active medium - the flow of solar wind, which originates in the upper layers of the solar atmosphere.

When flares occur on the Sun, streams of plasma and magnetic plasma formations - plasmoids - fly out from it through sunspots (coronal holes) - areas in the solar atmosphere with a magnetic field open into interplanetary space. This flow moves from the Sun with significant acceleration, and if at the base of the corona the radial speed of particles is several hundred m/s, then near the Earth it reaches 400–500 km/s.

Reaching the Earth, the solar wind causes changes in its ionosphere, magnetic storms, which significantly affects biological, geological, mental and even historical processes. The great Russian scientist A.L. Chizhevsky wrote about this at the beginning of the 20th century, who, since 1918 in Kaluga, conducted experiments in the field of air ionization for three years and came to the conclusion: negatively charged plasma ions have a beneficial effect on living organisms, and positively charged plasma ions have a beneficial effect on living organisms. act opposite. In those distant times, there were 40 years left before the discovery and study of the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere!

Plasmoids are present in the Earth's biosphere, including in the dense layers of the atmosphere and near its surface. In his book “Biosphere” V.I. Vernadsky was the first to describe the mechanism of the surface shell, finely coordinated in all its manifestations. Without the biosphere there would be no globe, because, according to Vernadsky, the Earth is “molded” by the Cosmos with the help of the biosphere. “Molded” through the use of information, energy and matter. “Essentially, the biosphere can be considered as a region earth's crust, occupied by transformers(emphasis added - Auto.), converting cosmic radiation into effective earthly energy - electrical, chemical, thermal, mechanical, etc.” (9). It was the biosphere, or the “geological-forming force of the planet,” as Vernadsky called it, that began to change the structure of the cycle of matter in nature and “create new forms and organizations of inert and living matter.” It is likely that, speaking about transformers, Vernadsky spoke about plasmoids, about which at that time they knew nothing at all.

The solar-plasmoid hypothesis explains the role of plasmoids in the origin of life and intelligence on Earth. In the early stages of evolution, plasmoids could have become a kind of active “crystallization centers” for the denser and colder molecular structures of the early Earth. “Dressing” in relatively cold and dense molecular clothing, becoming a kind of internal “energy cocoons” of emerging biochemical systems, they at the same time acted as control centers complex system, directing evolutionary processes towards the formation of living organisms (10). MNIIKA scientists also came to a similar conclusion, who managed to achieve the materialization of uneven ethereal flows under experimental conditions.

The aura that sensitive physical instruments detect around biological objects is, apparently, the outer part of the plasmoid “energy cocoon” of a living being. It can be assumed that the energy channels and biologically active points of oriental medicine are internal structures"energy cocoon".

The source of plasmoid life for the Earth is the Sun, and the streams of the solar wind bring us this life principle.

What is the source of plasmoid life for the Sun? To answer this question, it is necessary to assume that life at any level does not arise “on its own”, but is introduced from a more global, highly organized, rarefied and energetic system. Just as for the Earth the Sun is a “maternal system,” so for the luminary there must be a similar “maternal system” (11).

According to Ulyanovsk scientist B.A. Solomin, the “mother system” for the Sun could be interstellar plasma, hot hydrogen clouds, nebulae containing magnetic fields, as well as relativistic (that is, moving at a speed close to the speed of light) electrons. A large amount of rarefied and very hot (millions of degrees) plasma and relativistic electrons, structured by magnetic fields, fill the galactic corona - the sphere in which the flat stellar disk of our Galaxy is enclosed. Global galactic plasmoid and relativistic electron clouds, the level of organization of which is incommensurable with the solar one, give rise to plasmoid life on the Sun and other stars. Thus, the galactic wind serves as the carrier of plasmoid life for the Sun.

What is the “mother system” for galaxies? Scientists pay a large role to ultralights in the formation of the global structure of the Universe. elementary particles- a neutrino, literally penetrating space in all directions at speeds close to the speed of light. It was neutrino inhomogeneities, clumps, and clouds that could serve as the “frameworks” or “crystallization centers” around which galaxies and their clusters formed in the early Universe. Neutrino clouds are an even more subtle and energetic level of matter than the stellar and galactic “mother systems” of cosmic life described above. They could well be the designers of evolution for the latter.

Let us finally rise to the highest level of consideration - to the level of our Universe as a whole, which arose about 20 billion years ago. By studying its global structure, scientists have established that galaxies and their clusters are located in space not chaotically or evenly, but in a very definite manner. They are concentrated along the walls of huge spatial “honeycombs”, inside of which, as was believed until the recent past, giant “emptiness” - voids - are contained. However, today it is already known that “voids” do not exist in the Universe. It can be assumed that everything is filled with a “special substance”, the carrier of which is the primary torsion fields. This “special substance”, which represents the basis of all life functions, may well be for our Universe that World Architect, Cosmic Consciousness, Supreme Intelligence, which gives meaning to its existence and the direction of evolution.

If this is so, then already at the moment of its birth our Universe was alive and intelligent. Life and intelligence do not arise independently in some cold molecular oceans on planets, they are inherent in the cosmos. The cosmos is saturated with various forms of life, sometimes strikingly different from the protein-nucleic acid systems we are accustomed to and incomparable with them in their complexity and degree of intelligence, space-time scale, energy and mass.

It is rarefied and hot matter that directs the evolution of denser and colder matter. This appears to be a fundamental law of nature. Cosmic life hierarchically descends from the mysterious matter of voids to neutrino clouds, the intergalactic medium, and from them to galactic nuclei and galactic coronas in the form of relativistic electronic and plasma magnetic structures, then to interstellar space, to stars and, finally, to planets . Cosmic intelligent life creates in its own image and likeness all local forms of life and controls their evolution (10).

Along with well-known conditions (temperature, pressure, chemical composition etc.) for the emergence of life, the planet must have a pronounced magnetic field, which not only protects living molecules from deadly radiation, but also creates around it a concentration of solar-galactic plasmoid life in the form of radiation belts. Of all the planets solar system(except for the Earth) only Jupiter has a strong magnetic field and large radiation belts. Therefore, there is some certainty of the presence of molecular intelligent life on Jupiter, although perhaps of a non-protein nature.

WITH high degree It is possible to assume that all processes on the young Earth did not proceed chaotically or independently, but were directed by highly organized plasmoid designers of evolution. The current hypothesis of the origin of life on Earth also recognizes the need for the presence of certain plasma factors, namely powerful lightning discharges in the atmosphere of the early Earth.

Not only the birth, but also the further evolution of protein-nucleic acid systems occurred in close interaction with plasmoid life with the latter playing a directing role. This interaction became more and more subtle over time, rising to the level of the psyche, soul, and then the spirit of increasingly complex living organisms. Spirit and soul of the living and intelligent beings- This is a very thin plasma matter of solar and terrestrial origin.

It has been established that plasmoids living in the Earth's radiation belts (mainly of solar and galactic origin) can descend along the lines of the Earth's magnetic field into the lower layers of the atmosphere, especially at those points where these lines most intensively intersect the Earth's surface, namely in the regions of the magnetic poles (north and south).

In general, plasmoids are extremely widespread on Earth. They may have a high degree of organization and show some signs of life and intelligence. Soviet and American expeditions to the region of the south magnetic pole in the mid-20th century encountered unusual luminous objects floating in the air and behaving very aggressively towards members of the expedition. They were called the plasmasaurs of Antarctica.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the registration of plasmoids not only on Earth, but also in nearby space has increased significantly. These are balls, stripes, circles, cylinders, poorly formed luminous spots, ball lightning etc. Scientists were able to divide all objects into two large groups. These are, first of all, objects that have distinct signs of known physical processes, but in them these signs are presented in a completely unusual combination. Another group of objects, on the contrary, has no analogies with the known ones physical phenomena, and therefore their properties are generally inexplicable on the basis of existing physics.

It is worth noting the existence of plasmoids of terrestrial origin, born in fault zones where active geological processes take place. Interesting in this regard is Novosibirsk, which stands on active faults and, in connection with this, has a special electromagnetic structure above the city. All glows and flashes recorded over the city gravitate towards these faults and are explained by vertical energy imbalance and space activity.

The largest number of luminous objects is observed in central region city, located in an area where concentrations of technical energy sources and faults of the granite massif coincide.

For example, in March 1993, near the dormitory of the Novosibirsk State pedagogical university a disk-shaped object about 18 meters in diameter and 4.5 meters thick was observed. A crowd of schoolchildren chased this object, which slowly drifted above the ground for 2.5 kilometers. The schoolchildren tried to throw stones at him, but they were deflected before reaching the object. Then the children began to run under the object and amuse themselves by having their hats thrown off, as their hair stood on end from electrical voltage. Finally, this object flew out onto the high-voltage transmission line, without deviating anywhere, flew along it, gained speed and luminosity, turned into a bright ball and went up (12).

Of particular note is the appearance of luminous objects in experiments conducted by Novosibirsk scientists in Kozyrev’s mirrors. Thanks to the creation of left-right rotating torsion flows due to rotating light flows in the windings of the laser thread and cones, scientists were able to simulate in Kozyrev’s mirror information space planets with plasmoids appearing in it. It was possible to study the influence of the emerging luminous objects on cells, and then on the person himself, as a result of which confidence in the correctness of the solar-plasmoid hypothesis was strengthened. The belief has emerged that not only the birth, but also the further evolution of protein-nucleic acid systems proceeded and continues to occur in close interaction with plasmoid life with the guiding role of highly organized plasmoids.

This text is an introductory fragment.

Figure 1. Helisphere

Figure 2. Solar flare.

The solar wind is a continuous stream of plasma of solar origin, propagating approximately radially from the Sun and filling the Solar System to heliocentric distances of the order of 100 AU. The solar energy is formed during the gas-dynamic expansion of the solar corona into interplanetary space.

Average characteristics of the Solar wind in Earth's orbit: speed 400 km/s, proton density - 6 to 1, proton temperature 50,000 K, electron temperature 150,000 K, magnetic field strength 5 oersted. Solar wind streams can be divided into two classes: slow - with a speed of about 300 km/s and fast - with a speed of 600-700 km/s. The solar wind arising over regions of the Sun with different orientations of the magnetic field forms streams with differently oriented interplanetary magnetic fields - the so-called sector structure of the interplanetary magnetic field.

Interplanetary sector structure is the division of the observed large-scale structure of the Solar wind into an even number of sectors with different directions of the radial component of the interplanetary magnetic field.

The characteristics of the Solar wind (speed, temperature, particle concentration, etc.) also, on average, naturally change in the cross section of each sector, which is associated with the existence of a fast flow of Solar wind inside the sector. The boundaries of the sectors are usually located within the slow flow of the Solar wind. Most often, two or four sectors are observed, rotating with the Sun. This structure, formed when the solar wind stretches the large-scale coronal magnetic field, can be observed over several solar revolutions. The sector structure is a consequence of the existence of a current sheet in the interplanetary medium, which rotates along with the Sun. The current sheet creates a jump in the magnetic field: above the layer, the radial component of the interplanetary magnetic field has one sign, below it - another. The current sheet is located approximately in the plane of the solar equator and has a folded structure. The rotation of the Sun leads to the twisting of the folds of the current layer in a spiral (the so-called “ballerina effect”). Being near the ecliptic plane, the observer finds himself either above or below the current sheet, due to which he finds himself in sectors with different signs of the radial component of the interplanetary magnetic field.

When the Solar wind flows around obstacles that can effectively deflect the Solar wind (magnetic fields of Mercury, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn or the conducting ionospheres of Venus and, apparently, Mars), a bow shock wave is formed. The solar wind slows down and heats up at the front of the shock wave, which allows it to flow around the obstacle. At the same time, a cavity is formed in the Solar wind - the magnetosphere, the shape and size of which is determined by the balance of the pressure of the planet’s magnetic field and the pressure of the flowing plasma flow. The thickness of the shock wave front is about 100 km. In the case of interaction of the Solar wind with a non-conducting body (the Moon), a shock wave does not arise: the plasma flow is absorbed by the surface, and behind the body a cavity is formed that is gradually filled with solar wind plasma.

The stationary process of coronal plasma outflow is superimposed by non-stationary processes associated with solar flares. During strong solar flares, matter is ejected from the lower regions of the corona into the interplanetary medium. This also produces a shock wave, which gradually slows down as it moves through the solar wind plasma.

The arrival of a shock wave to the Earth leads to compression of the magnetosphere, after which the development of a magnetic storm usually begins.

The solar wind extends to a distance of about 100 AU, where the pressure of the interstellar medium balances the dynamic pressure of the solar wind. The cavity swept by the Solar wind in the interstellar medium forms the heliosphere. The solar wind, together with the magnetic field frozen into it, prevents the penetration of low-energy galactic cosmic rays into the Solar System and leads to variations in high-energy cosmic rays.

A phenomenon similar to the Solar wind has also been discovered in some types of other stars (stellar wind).

Flow of solar energy powered by thermonuclear reaction at its center, fortunately, is exceptionally stable, unlike most other stars. Most of it is eventually emitted by the thin surface layer of the Sun - the photosphere - in the form of electromagnetic waves in the visible and infrared range. The solar constant (the amount of solar energy flux in Earth's orbit) is 1370 W/. One can imagine that for every square meter The surface of the Earth accounts for the power of one electric kettle. Above the photosphere is the corona of the Sun - a zone visible from Earth only during solar eclipses and filled with rarefied and hot plasma with a temperature of millions of degrees.

This is the most unstable shell of the Sun, in which the main manifestations of solar activity that affect the Earth originate. The shaggy appearance of the Sun's corona demonstrates the structure of its magnetic field - luminous clumps of plasma stretched along the lines of force. Hot plasma flowing from the corona forms the solar wind - a flow of ions (consisting of 96% hydrogen nuclei - protons and 4% helium nuclei - alpha particles) and electrons, accelerating into interplanetary space at a speed of 400-800 km/s .

The solar wind stretches and carries away the solar magnetic field.

This happens because the energy of the directed motion of the plasma in the outer corona is greater than the energy of the magnetic field, and the freezing-in principle drags the field behind the plasma. The combination of such a radial outflow with the rotation of the Sun (and the magnetic field is “attached” to its surface) leads to the formation of a spiral structure of the interplanetary magnetic field - the so-called Parker spiral.

The solar wind and magnetic field fill the entire solar system, and thus the Earth and all other planets are actually located in the corona of the Sun, experiencing influences not only electromagnetic radiation, but also the solar wind and the solar magnetic field.

During the period of minimum activity, the configuration of the solar magnetic field is close to dipole and similar to the shape of the Earth's magnetic field. As activity approaches its maximum, the structure of the magnetic field, for reasons that are not entirely clear, becomes more complex. One of the most beautiful hypotheses says that as the Sun rotates, the magnetic field seems to wrap around it, gradually plunging under the photosphere. Over time, during just the solar cycle, the magnetic flux accumulated under the surface becomes so large that the bundles of field lines begin to be pushed out.

The exit points of the field lines form spots on the photosphere and magnetic loops in the corona, visible as areas of increased plasma glow in X-ray images of the Sun. The magnitude of the field inside sunspots reaches 0.01 tesla, a hundred times greater than the field of the quiet Sun.

Intuitively, the energy of a magnetic field can be related to the length and number of field lines: the higher the energy, the more of them. When approaching solar maximum, the enormous energy accumulated in the field begins to be periodically released explosively, spent on accelerating and heating particles of the solar corona.

Sharp intense bursts of short-wave electromagnetic radiation from the Sun that accompany this process are called solar flares. On the Earth's surface, flares are recorded in the visible range as small increases in the brightness of individual areas of the solar surface.

However, already the first measurements carried out on board spacecraft showed that the most noticeable effect of flares is a significant (up to hundreds of times) increase in the flux of solar X-rays and energetic charged particles - solar cosmic rays.

During some flares, significant amounts of plasma and magnetic field are also released into the solar wind - the so-called magnetic clouds, which begin to rapidly expand into interplanetary space, maintaining the shape of a magnetic loop with ends resting on the Sun.

The plasma density and the magnitude of the magnetic field inside the cloud are tens of times higher than the typical quiet time values ​​of these parameters in the solar wind.

Although up to 1025 joules of energy can be released during a major flare, the overall increase in energy flux into solar maximum is small, amounting to only 0.1-0.2%.

There is a constant stream of particles ejected from upper layers atmosphere of the Sun. We see evidence of the solar wind all around us. Powerful geomagnetic storms can damage satellites and electrical systems on Earth, and cause beautiful auroras. Perhaps the best evidence of this is the long tails of comets when they pass close to the Sun.

Dust particles from a comet are deflected by the wind and carried away from the Sun, which is why the tails of comets are always directed away from our star.

Solar wind: origin, characteristics

It comes from the Sun's upper atmosphere, called the corona. In this region, the temperature is more than 1 million Kelvin, and the particles have an energy charge of more than 1 keV. There are actually two types of solar wind: slow and fast. This difference can be seen in comets. If you look at the image of a comet closely, you will see that they often have two tails. One of them is straight and the other is more curved.

Solar wind speed online near Earth, data for the last 3 days

Fast solar wind

It is moving at a speed of 750 km/s, and astronomers believe it originates from coronal holes - regions where magnetic field lines make their way to the surface of the Sun.

Slow solar wind

It has a speed of about 400 km/s, and comes from the equatorial belt of our star. The radiation reaches the Earth, depending on the speed, from several hours to 2-3 days.

The slow solar wind is wider and denser than the fast solar wind, which creates the comet's large, bright tail.

If not for the Earth's magnetic field, it would have destroyed life on our planet. However, the magnetic field around the planet protects us from radiation. The shape and size of the magnetic field is determined by the strength and speed of the wind.

V.B. Baranov, Moscow State University them. M.V. Lomonosov

The article examines the problem of supersonic expansion of the solar corona (solar wind). Four main problems are analyzed: 1) the reasons for the outflow of plasma from the solar corona; 2) is such an outflow homogeneous; 3) changes in solar wind parameters with distance from the Sun and 4) how the solar wind flows into the interstellar medium.

Introduction

Almost 40 years have passed since the American physicist E. Parker theoretically predicted the phenomenon, which was called the “solar wind” and which a couple of years later was confirmed experimentally by the group of the Soviet scientist K. Gringaus using instruments installed on the Luna spacecraft. 2" and "Luna-3". The solar wind is a flow of fully ionized hydrogen plasma, that is, a gas consisting of electrons and protons of approximately the same density (quasi-neutrality condition), which moves from the Sun at high supersonic speed. In Earth's orbit (one astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun), the speed VE of this flow is approximately 400-500 km/s, the concentration of protons (or electrons) ne = 10-20 particles per cubic centimeter, and their temperature Te equal to approximately 100,000 K (electron temperature is slightly higher).

In addition to electrons and protons, alpha particles (of the order of several percent), a small amount of heavier particles, as well as a magnetic field, the average induction value of which turned out to be on the order of several gammas in Earth’s orbit, were discovered in interplanetary space (1

= 10-5 G).

A little history related to the theoretical prediction of solar wind

During the not so long history of theoretical astrophysics, it was believed that all stellar atmospheres are in hydrostatic equilibrium, that is, in a state where the gravitational pull of the star is balanced by the force associated with the pressure gradient in its atmosphere (with the change in pressure per unit distance r from the center stars). Mathematically, this equilibrium is expressed as the ordinary differential equation

(1)

where G is the gravitational constant, M* is the mass of the star, p is the atmospheric gas pressure,

- its mass density. If the distribution of temperature T in the atmosphere is given, then from the equilibrium equation (1) and the equation of state for ideal gas

(2)

where R is the gas constant, the so-called barometric formula is easily obtained, which in the particular case of a constant temperature T will have the form

(3)

In formula (3), the value p0 represents the pressure at the base of the star’s atmosphere (at r = r0). From this formula it is clear that for r

, that is, at very large distances from the star, the pressure p tends to a finite limit, which depends on the value of the pressure p0.

Since it was believed that the solar atmosphere, like the atmospheres of other stars, is in a state of hydrostatic equilibrium, its state was determined by formulas similar to formulas (1), (2), (3). Considering the unusual and still not fully understood phenomenon of a sharp increase in temperature from approximately 10,000 degrees on the surface of the Sun to 1,000,000 degrees in the solar corona, Chapman (see, for example,) developed the theory of a static solar corona, which was supposed to smoothly transition into the interstellar medium surrounding the solar system.

However, in his pioneering work, Parker drew attention to the fact that the pressure at infinity, obtained from a formula like (3) for a static solar corona, turns out to be almost an order of magnitude greater than the pressure value that was estimated for interstellar gas based on observations. To resolve this discrepancy, Parker proposed that the solar corona is not in a state of static equilibrium, but is continuously expanding into the interplanetary medium surrounding the Sun. Moreover, instead of the equilibrium equation (1), he proposed using the hydrodynamic equation of motion of the form

(4)

where in the coordinate system associated with the Sun, the value V represents the radial velocity of the plasma. Under

refers to the mass of the Sun.

For a given temperature distribution T, the system of equations (2) and (4) has solutions of the type presented in Fig. 1. In this figure, a denotes the speed of sound, and r* is the distance from the origin at which the gas speed is equal to the speed of sound (V = a). Obviously, only curves 1 and 2 in Fig. 1 have physical meaning for the problem of gas outflow from the Sun, since curves 3 and 4 have non-unique velocity values ​​at each point, and curves 5 and 6 correspond to very high velocities in the solar atmosphere, which is not observed in telescopes. Parker analyzed the conditions under which the solution corresponding to curve 1 is realized in nature. He showed that in order to match the pressure obtained from such a solution with the pressure in the interstellar medium, the most realistic case is the transition of gas from a subsonic flow (at r< r*) к сверхзвуковому (при r >r*), and called such a flow the solar wind. However, this statement was disputed in the work by Chamberlain, who believed that the most realistic solution corresponds to curve 2, which describes the subsonic “solar breeze” everywhere. At the same time, the first experiments on spacecraft (see, for example,), which discovered supersonic gas flows from the Sun, did not seem, judging by the literature, to be sufficiently reliable to Chamberlain.

Rice. 1. Possible solutions of one-dimensional gas dynamics equations for the speed V of gas flow from the surface of the Sun in the presence of gravity. Curve 1 corresponds to the solution for the solar wind. Here a is the speed of sound, r is the distance from the Sun, r* is the distance at which the gas speed is equal to the speed of sound, and is the radius of the Sun.

The history of experiments in outer space has brilliantly proven the correctness of Parker's ideas about the solar wind. Detailed material on the theory of solar wind can be found, for example, in the monograph.

Concepts of a uniform outflow of plasma from the solar corona

From the one-dimensional gas dynamics equations one can obtain known result: in the absence of mass forces, the spherically symmetric flow of gas from a point source can be everywhere either subsonic or supersonic. The presence of gravitational force in equation (4) (right side) leads to the appearance of solutions like curve 1 in Fig. 1, that is, with a transition through the speed of sound. Let's draw an analogy with the classical flow in a Laval nozzle, which is the basis of all supersonic jet engines. This flow is shown schematically in Fig. 2.

Rice. 2. Flow diagram in a Laval nozzle: 1 - a tank called a receiver, into which very hot air is supplied at low speed, 2 - an area of ​​geometric compression of the channel in order to accelerate the subsonic gas flow, 3 - an area of ​​geometric expansion of the channel in order to accelerate the supersonic flow.

Gas heated to a very high temperature is supplied to tank 1, called the receiver, at a very low speed (the internal energy of the gas is much greater than its kinetic energy directional movement). By geometrically compressing the channel, the gas is accelerated in region 2 (subsonic flow) until its speed reaches the speed of sound. To further accelerate it, it is necessary to expand the channel (region 3 of the supersonic flow). In the entire flow region, gas acceleration occurs due to its adiabatic (without heat supply) cooling (the internal energy of chaotic motion transforms into the energy of directed motion).

In the problem of solar wind formation under consideration, the role of the receiver is played by the solar corona, and the role of the walls of the Laval nozzle is gravitational force solar attraction. According to Parker's theory, the transition through the speed of sound should occur somewhere at a distance of several solar radii. However, an analysis of the solutions obtained in the theory showed that the temperature of the solar corona is not enough for its gas to accelerate to supersonic speeds, as is the case in the Laval nozzle theory. There must be some additional source energy. Such a source is currently considered to be the dissipation of wave motions that are always present in the solar wind (sometimes called plasma turbulence), superimposed on the average flow, and the flow itself is no longer adiabatic. Quantitative analysis of such processes still requires further research.

Interestingly, ground-based telescopes detect magnetic fields on the surface of the Sun. The average value of their magnetic induction B is estimated at 1 G, although in individual photospheric formations, for example in sunspots, the magnetic field can be orders of magnitude greater. Since plasma is a good conductor of electricity, it is natural that solar magnetic fields interact with its flow from the Sun. In this case, a purely gas-dynamic theory provides an incomplete description of the phenomenon under consideration. The influence of the magnetic field on the flow of the solar wind can only be considered within the framework of a science called magnetohydrodynamics. What results do such considerations lead to? According to pioneering work in this direction (see also), the magnetic field leads to the appearance of electric currents j in the solar wind plasma, which, in turn, leads to the appearance of a ponderomotive force j x B, which is directed in the perpendicular to the radial direction. As a result, the solar wind acquires a tangential velocity component. This component is almost two orders of magnitude smaller than the radial one, but it plays significant role in the removal of angular momentum from the Sun. It is assumed that the latter circumstance may play a significant role in the evolution of not only the Sun, but also other stars in which a “stellar wind” has been discovered. In particular, to explain the sharp decrease angular velocity Stars of the late spectral class are often attracted by the hypothesis of the transfer of rotational momentum to the planets formed around them. The considered mechanism for the loss of angular momentum of the Sun through the outflow of plasma from it opens up the possibility of revising this hypothesis.

Story

It is likely that the first to predict the existence of the solar wind was the Norwegian researcher Kristian Birkeland in “From a physical point of view, it is most likely that the sun’s rays are neither positive nor negative, but both.” In other words, the solar wind is made up of negative electrons and positive ions.

In the 1930s, scientists determined that the temperature of the solar corona must reach a million degrees because the corona remains bright enough at great distances from the Sun, which is clearly visible during solar eclipses. Later spectroscopic observations confirmed this conclusion. In the mid-50s, British mathematician and astronomer Sidney Chapman determined the properties of gases at such temperatures. It turned out that the gas becomes an excellent conductor of heat and should dissipate it into space beyond the Earth's orbit. At the same time, the German scientist Ludwig Biermann (German. Ludwig Franz Benedikt Biermann ) became interested in the fact that the tails of comets always point away from the Sun. Biermann postulated that the Sun emits a constant stream of particles that put pressure on the gas surrounding the comet, forming a long tail.

In 1955, Soviet astrophysicists S.K. Vsekhsvyatsky, G.M. Nikolsky, E.A. Ponomarev and V.I. Cherednichenko showed that an extended corona loses energy through radiation and can be in a state of hydrodynamic equilibrium only with a special distribution of powerful internal energy sources. In all other cases there must be a flow of matter and energy. This process serves as the physical basis for an important phenomenon - the “dynamic corona”. The magnitude of the flow of matter was estimated from the following considerations: if the corona were in hydrostatic equilibrium, then the heights of the homogeneous atmosphere for hydrogen and iron would be in the ratio 56/1, that is, iron ions should not be observed in the distant corona. But that's not true. Iron glows throughout the corona, with FeXIV observed in higher layers than FeX, although the kinetic temperature is lower there. The force that maintains the ions in a “suspended” state may be the impulse transmitted during collisions by the ascending flow of protons to the iron ions. From the condition of the balance of these forces it is easy to find the proton flux. It turned out to be the same as followed from the hydrodynamic theory, which was subsequently confirmed by direct measurements. For 1955, this was a significant achievement, but no one believed in the “dynamic crown” then.

Three years later, Eugene Parker Eugene N. Parker) concluded that the hot flow from the Sun in Chapman's model and the stream of particles blowing away cometary tails in Biermann's hypothesis are two manifestations of the same phenomenon, which he called "solar wind". Parker showed that even though the solar corona is strongly attracted by the Sun, it conducts heat so well that it remains hot for a long time. long distance. Since its attraction weakens with distance from the Sun, a supersonic outflow of matter into interplanetary space begins from the upper corona. Moreover, Parker was the first to point out that the effect of weakening gravity has the same effect on hydrodynamic flow as a Laval nozzle: it produces a transition of flow from a subsonic to a supersonic phase.

Parker's theory has been heavily criticized. An article sent to the Astrophysical Journal in 1958 was rejected by two reviewers and only thanks to the editor, Subramanian Chandrasekhar, made it onto the pages of the journal.

However, wind acceleration up to high speeds was not yet understood and could not be explained from Parker's theory. The first numerical models of the solar wind in the corona using magnetic hydrodynamics equations were created by Pneumann and Knopp. Pneuman and Knopp) in

In the late 1990s, using the Ultraviolet Coronal Spectrometer. Ultraviolet Coronal Spectrometer (UVCS) ) on board the SOHO satellite, observations of areas where fast solar wind occurs at the solar poles were carried out. It turned out that the wind acceleration is much greater than expected based on purely thermodynamic expansion. Parker's model predicted that wind speeds become supersonic at an altitude of 4 solar radii from the photosphere, and observations showed that this transition occurs significantly lower, at approximately 1 solar radius, confirming that there is an additional mechanism for solar wind acceleration.

Characteristics

Due to the solar wind, the Sun loses about one million tons of matter every second. The solar wind consists primarily of electrons, protons, and helium nuclei (alpha particles); the nuclei of other elements and non-ionized particles (electrically neutral) are contained in very small quantities.

Although the solar wind comes from the outer layer of the Sun, it does not reflect the actual composition of the elements in this layer, since as a result of differentiation processes the content of some elements increases and some decreases (FIP effect).

The intensity of the solar wind depends on changes in solar activity and its sources. Long-term observations in Earth's orbit (about 150,000,000 km from the Sun) have shown that the solar wind is structured and is usually divided into calm and disturbed (sporadic and recurrent). Depending on their speed, calm solar wind streams are divided into two classes: slow(approximately 300-500 km/s around the Earth’s orbit) and fast(500-800 km/s around the Earth’s orbit). Sometimes the stationary wind includes the region of the heliospheric current layer, which separates regions of different polarities of the interplanetary magnetic field, and is close in its characteristics to the slow wind.

Slow solar wind

The slow solar wind is generated by the “quiet” part of the solar corona (the region of coronal streamers) during its gas-dynamic expansion: at a corona temperature of about 2 10 6 K, the corona cannot be in conditions of hydrostatic equilibrium, and this expansion, under the existing boundary conditions, should lead to acceleration of the coronal substances up to supersonic speeds. Heating of the solar corona to such temperatures occurs due to the convective nature of heat transfer in the solar photosphere: the development of convective turbulence in the plasma is accompanied by the generation of intense magnetosonic waves; in turn, when propagating in the direction of decreasing density of the solar atmosphere sound waves transform into drums; shock waves are effectively absorbed by the corona matter and heat it to a temperature of (1-3) 10 6 K.

Fast solar wind

Streams of recurrent fast solar wind are emitted by the Sun for several months and have a return period when observed from Earth of 27 days (the period of rotation of the Sun). These flows are associated with coronal holes - regions of the corona with a relatively low temperature (approximately 0.8 10 6 K), reduced plasma density (only a quarter of the density of the quiet regions of the corona) and a magnetic field radial relative to the Sun.

Disturbed flows

Disturbed flows include interplanetary manifestations of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), as well as compression regions in front of fast CMEs (called Sheath in English literature) and in front of fast flows from coronal holes (called Corotating interaction region - CIR in English literature). About half of Sheath and CIR observations may have an interplanetary shock wave ahead of them. It is in disturbed types of solar wind that the interplanetary magnetic field can deviate from the ecliptic plane and contain a southern field component, which leads to many space weather effects (geomagnetic activity, including magnetic storms). Disturbed sporadic flows were previously thought to be caused by solar flares, however sporadic flows in the solar wind are now thought to be caused by coronal ejections. At the same time, it should be noted that both solar flares and coronal ejections are associated with the same energy sources on the Sun and there is a statistical dependence between them.

According to the observation time of various large-scale types of solar wind, fast and slow flows account for about 53%, heliospheric current layer 6%, CIR - 10%, CME - 22%, Sheath - 9%, and the ratio between the observation time various types varies greatly during the solar activity cycle. .

Phenomena generated by the solar wind

On the planets of the Solar System that have a magnetic field, the solar wind generates phenomena such as the magnetosphere, aurorae, and planetary radiation belts.

In culture

"Solar Wind" is a short story by famous science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, written in 1963.

Notes

1. Kristian Birkeland, “Are the Solar Corpuscular Rays that penetrate the Earth’s Atmosphere Negative or Positive Rays?” in Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter, I Mat - Naturv. Class No.1, Christiania, 1916.
2. Philosophical Magazine, Series 6, Vol. 38, No. 228, December, 1919, 674 (on the Solar Wind)
3. Ludwig Biermann (1951). "Kometenschweife und solare Korpuskularstrahlung". Zeitschrift für Astrophysics 29 : 274.
4. Vsekhsvyatsky S.K., Nikolsky G.M., Ponomarev E.A., Cherednichenko V.I. (1955). "On the question of corpuscular radiation from the Sun." Astronomical Journal 32 : 165.
5. Christopher T. Russell . Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics University of California, Los Angeles. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved February 7, 2007.
6. Roach, John. Astrophysicist Recognized for Discovery of Solar Wind, National Geographic News(August 27, 2003). Retrieved June 13, 2006.
7. Eugene Parker (1958). "Dynamics of the Interplanetary Gas and Magnetic Fields". The Astrophysical Journal 128 : 664.
8. Luna 1. NASA National Space Science Data Center. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved August 4, 2007.
9. (Russian) 40th Anniversary of the Space Era in the Nuclear Physics Scientific Research Institute of the Moscow State University, contains the graph showing particle detection by Luna-1 at various altitudes.
10. M. Neugebauer and C. W. Snyder (1962). "Solar Plasma Experiment". Science 138 : 1095–1097.
11. G. W. Pneuman and R. A. Kopp (1971). "Gas-magnetic field interactions in the solar corona". Solar Physics 18 : 258.
12. Ermolaev Yu. I., Nikolaeva N. S., Lodkina I. G., Ermolaev M. Yu. Relative frequency of occurrence and geoeffectiveness of large-scale types of solar wind // Space research . - 2010. - T. 48. - No. 1. - P. 3–32.
13. Cosmic Rays Hit Space Age High. NASA (September 28, 2009). Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2009.(English)

Literature

• Parker E. N. Dynamic processes in the interplanetary environment / Transl. from English M.: Mir, 1965
• Pudovkin M. I. Solar wind // Soros educational journal, 1996, No. 12, p. 87-94.
• Hundhausen A. Corona expansion and solar wind / Per. from English M.: Mir, 1976
• Physical Encyclopedia, vol.4 - M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia p.586, p.587 and p.588
• Physics of space. Little Encyclopedia, M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1986
• Heliosphere (Ed. I.S. Veselovsky, Yu.I. Ermolaev) in the monograph Plasma Heliogeophysics / Ed. L. M. Zeleny, I. S. Veselovsky. In 2 volumes. M.: Fiz-matlit, 2008. T. 1. 672 pp.; T. 2. 560 p.

see also

Links

Sun
Structure	Core · Radiative transfer zone · Convective zone
Atmosphere	Photosphere · Chromosphere · Solar corona
Extended structure	Heliosphere (Heliospheric current sheet · Shock wave boundary) · Heliospheric mantle · Heliopause · Head shock wave
Related to the Sun phenomena	Solar eclipse · Solar activity (Sunspots ·