Saturday, January 15, 2005

SOHO Reads the Solar Flares


Measurements of the Sun's oscillations provide a window into the invisible interior of the Sun allowing scientists to infer the structure and composition as well as the rotation and dynamics of the solar interior.

(Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope) images the solar atmosphere at several wavelengths, and therefore, shows solar material at different temperatures. In the images taken at 304 Angstroms the bright material is at 60,000 to 80,000 degrees Kelvin. In those taken at 171, at 1 million degrees. 195 Angstrom images correspond to about 1.5 million Kelvin. 284 Angstrom, to 2 million degrees. The hotter the temperature, the higher you look in the solar atmosphere.


p-Modes

The mysterious source of these oscillations was identified by way of theoretical arguments in 1970 and confirmed by observations in 1975. The oscillations we see on the surface are due to sound waves generated and trapped inside the sun. Sound waves are produced by pressure fluctuations in the turbulent convective motions of the sun's interior. As the waves move outward they reflect off of the sun's surface (the photosphere) where the density and pressure decrease rapidly..



No comments:

Post a Comment