CHARGE PARTICLES FROM THE SUN

Charge particles from the Sun

Charge particles from the Sun

Light from the Sun

The Sun may be described as a giant ball of incandescent gas. As such, it emits the whole spectrum of electromagnetic waves. It emits visible light, of course, but also infrared and ultraviolet "light"as well as radio waves, x-rays, and gamma rays. All of these forms of energy are related to what we know of as "light"—only the wavelength is different. We are unable to detect wavelengths other than visible light with our eyes, though we can "sense" infrared waves from the Sun with our skin—it feels warm. We can also sense ultraviolet with our skin when it gets burned. Microwaves at high intensity can be sensed as warmth as well, since like food, our skin can be heated by microwaves. However, the Sun gives off far too few radio waves in the microwave region to be sensed as heat. X-ray and gamma rays from the Sun are thankfully blocked by the atmosphere but may pose a hazard to space travelers unprotected by Earth's layer of air (Russell & Mulligan, 1995: 3287).

All of the light and waves (properly called electromagnetic waves) emitted by the Sun travel at the speed of light, 300,000 kilometers per second, or 186,000 miles-per second. With this incredibly fast speed, you might suppose that sunlight reaches us almost instantaneously. This is not true. Because of the large distance from the Sun to the Earth, it actually takes light 8 minutes to travel from the surface of the Sun to the Earth (Russell & Elphic, 1979: 616). If a dramatic event takes place on the Sun, light (and information about the event) reaches the Earth 8 minutes later.

MATLAB tests Analysis

In the low-energy limit, the electric field of the incident wave (photon) accelerates the charged particle, causing it, in turn, to emitradiation at the same frequency as the incident wave, and thus the wave is scattered. Thomson scattering is an important phenomenon in plasma physics and was first explained by the physicist J.J. Thomson. As long as the motion of the particle is non-relativistic (i.e. its speed is much less than the speed of light), the main cause of the acceleration of the particle will be due to the electric field component of the incident wave, and the magnetic field can be neglected. The particle will move in the direction of the oscillating electric field, resulting in electromagnetic dipole radiation. The moving particle radiates most strongly in a direction perpendicular to its motion and that radiation will be polarized along the direction of its motion. Therefore, depending on where an observer is located, the light scattered from a small volume element may appear to be more or less polarized.

The electric fields of the incoming and observed beam can be divided up into those components lying in the plane of observation (formed by the incoming and observed beams) and those components perpendicular to that plane. Those components lying in the plane are referred to as "radial" and those perpendicular to the plane are ...