NATS 1580 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Heliosphere, Solar Wind, Chromosphere
26 Nov 2018
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~ nats 1580 sun, space weather and life on earth ~ Heliopause: boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar medium. A very thin and irregular interface layer separating the chromosphere and the much hotter corona. Heat flows down from the corona into the chromosphere and in the process, produces this thin region where temperature changes rapidly from 1,000,000 c down to about 20,000 c. Can"t be seen in visible light or ha line, but in uv light. During a total solar eclipse, (when the moon is lined up exactly between the sun and earth), light can be seen around the sun. This light is referred to as the corona; sunlight is scattered by electrons in the sun"s outside atmosphere. The corona is not spherically symmetric or equal bright in all directions. Its spatial structure, with more emission (and hence plasma) near the equator than the poles, is due to the structure of the sun"s magnetic field.
