On 04/01/2017 12:24 PM, MJC wrote:
In article ,
says...
The solar wind has to be neutral on average, because otherwise the
voltage on the Sun would increase indefinitely.
What do you think causes Coronal Mass Ejections? (Whether premature or
not...)
Mike.
Because the body of the Sun is a good conductor, the magnetic field gets
frozen in--it can change only by diffusion, which is very slow on long
length scales. (It slows down quadratically with distance.)
The Sun also doesn't rotate like a rigid body--the equator rotates
faster than the poles, which kinks up the field. That does work on the
magnetic field, just the way an electric generator works. The resulting
local increases in B eventually causes the magnetic force to overcome
gravity in "reconnection events" where the kinks unkink themselves by
tossing huge chunks of solar material into space.
It's sort of a magnetic version of a watch spring buckling sideways when
you tighten it past a certain point with the cover off.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net