Spacecraft Trio Peeks At Secret Recipe For Stormy Solar Weather

In article , Ron Baalke
writes

Lindsay Renick Mayer June 18, 2003
Goddard Space Flight Center
(Phone: 301-286-7646)

Release: 03-66

SPACECRAFT TRIO PEEKS AT SECRET RECIPE FOR STORMY SOLAR WEATHER

A three-spacecraft collaboration recorded for the first time the
entire initiation process of a high-speed eruption of electrified gas
from the Sun, providing clues about the Sun's secret recipe for
stormy weather. The April 21, 2002 observation confirmed the
predominant scenario for how these eruptions, called Coronal Mass
Ejections, are blasted from the Sun.

The three spacecraft involved were NASA's Reuven Ramaty High Energy
Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), which takes pictures of flaring
regions using the Sun's high-energy X-rays and gamma rays; NASA's
Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE), which makes images
using ultraviolet light from the Sun; and the Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, a collaboration between NASA and the
European Space Agency.

"This was the first time that we have been able to identify and study
in detail the region on the Sun where the initiation and acceleration
of a coronal mass ejection occurs," said Dr. Peter Gallagher,
research scientist for RHESSI and SOHO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md., and lead author of two papers on this
research. "We now have a better understanding of how the energy
release above the surface of the Sun relates to the ejection of
material, perhaps allowing some real-time forecasts." The results are
being presented today during a meeting of the American Astronomical
Society's Solar Physics Division in a press conference at the Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.

Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) are often associated with solar flares.
A flare is a giant explosion in the solar atmosphere that spews
radiation and results in the heating of solar gas and the
acceleration of particles to nearly the speed of light. Both events
can be initiated in a matter of seconds, making their joint
observations difficult to coordinate.

The twisting and snapping of magnetic field lines on the Sun, called
magnetic reconnection, seem to cause CMEs and solar flares. When
these fields snap from the buildup of magnetic energy, plasma is
heated and particles are accelerated, resulting in massive explosions
and emitting radiation ranging from radio waves to X-rays.

Magnetic field lines are not like rubber bands. They are intended to
indicate the magnitude and direction of the magnetic field - a
mathematical concept by Faraday. If the lines really were like rubber
bands, the intense magnetic field between stator and rotator in
operating electrical generators and motors would act as a brake or cause
disruption. Yet most astronomers continue to assume magnetic field lines
are physical and similar to rubber bands. A theory of CMEs as a direct
electrical characteristic is a far better and more rational explanation,
including the reason for the assumed ultra high temperature.
See http://www.brox1.demon.co.uk/Sun2.htm

--
Eric Crew