ERTH 2415 Chapter 16: ERTH 2415 Chapter 16.docx
14 Mar 2012
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Document Summary
Erth 2415 a chapter 16: hazards from space. The sun sends a stream of subatomic particles called the solar wind in all directions (gravity is not strong enough to hold the turbulent upper fringes of the sun"s atmosphere that are released in space). Two mechanisms are responsible for solar wind: coronal holes and coronal mass ejections. Coronal holes are localized phenomena producing high-speed streams of plasma. Coronal mass ejections are star-scale events sending out clouds of plasma and are accompanied by bursts of radiation released in the vicinity of sunspots. There is an interrelation between magnetism and electricity magnetic field variations induce electrical currents in a medium (these laws describe the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction). Solar winds take 2-5 days to reach earth . Earth"s response to solar wind: electrical currents are produced in ionosphere (which may cause rapid geomagnetic field variations).
