New models show solar energetic particles spiraling out much wider and farther than previous models predicted – explaining how SEPs find their way to even the far side of the sun.
What are SEP's?
Solar energetic particles (SEP) are high-energy particles coming from the Sun. They were first observed in the early 1940s. They consist of protons, electrons and HZE ions with energy ranging from a few tens of keV to GeV (the fastest particles can reach 80% of the speed of light).
This animation compares the two models for particle distribution over the course of just three hours after an SEP event. The white line represents a magnetic field line, the general path that the SEPs follow. The line starts at an SEP event at the sun, and leads the particles in a spiral around the sun. The animation of the updated model, on the right, depicts a static field line, but as the SEPs travel farther in space, turbulent solar material causes wandering field lines. In turn, wandering field lines cause the particles to spread much more efficiently than the traditional model, on the left, predicted.
Read & Learn:http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/wayward-field-lines-challenge-solar-radiation-models
Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/UCLan/Stanford/ULB/Joy Ng, producer
No comments:
Post a Comment