PHYS 1010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Solar Wind, Solar Constant, Maunder Minimum
23 Apr 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Ours is a typical star, nothing really too special about ours. Photosphere is what we see, everything else is beneath, 500km thick. The core is where nuclear fusion takes place. Luminosity total energy radiated by the sun; can be calculated from the fraction of that energy that reaches earth. Total luminosity of the sun is about. 4x1026 w; the equivalent of 10 billion 1-megaton nuclear bombs per second. One astronomical unit = distance between earth and the sun. We use the solar constant which is 1400 watts per square meter (w/m2) or (j/s) This is how much energy reaches 1 square meter at the top of earth"s atmosphere. The sun does not spin as one solid body. The rotation period at the equator is about 25 days. At latitude 60o there is a 31 day period. The rotation period continues to increase as we approach the poles.
