Solar and Space Physics A Science for a Technological Society: An Overview (2014) / Chapter Skim
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Heliophysics: A System Science
Heliophysics: A System Science
Pages 6-14
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From page 6... ...
These active regions, ultimately generated by churning plasmas deep within the Sun, store tremendous amounts of energy and lie at the heart of hazardous solar activity associated with explosive flares and dramatic coronal mass ejections. Even though new techniques are revealing conditions beneath the solar surface, an unanticipated lull in solar activity in 2008-2009 delayed the start of Solar Cycle 24, the weakest cycle in more than a century.
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From page 7... ...
Near the Sun's surface, magnetic reconnection can trigger solar flares, heating the corona to 20 million degrees, producing intense X-ray radiation, and accelerating electrons and ions to nearly the speed of light. The corona's magnetic fields can also destabilize on a near-global scale, triggering a coronal mass ejection -- a billion-ton eruption of magnetized plasma traveling into interplanetary space at speeds of hundreds to thousands of kilometers per second.
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From page 8... ...
It is buffeted by gusts in the solar wind and coupled by reconnecting magnetic fields to solar wind mass, momentum, and energy flow. A key question for future research is, What are the interactions and feedbacks that connect the magnetosphere, solar wind, and ionosphere?
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From page 9... ...
These other systems present a suite of vastly different conditions, offering a chance to deepen our understanding of the fundamental processes at work in all magnetospheres. A key question for future research is, How do other planetary magnetospheres interact with their ionospheres, atmospheres, and the solar wind?
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From page 10... ...
atmosphere; it overlaps with the thermosphere and is where the atmosphere begins to connect to space, at around 100 km above A key question for future research is, How does Earth's atmo the surface. Both of these regions play key roles in modifying and sphere couple to its space environment?
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From page 11... ...
From this dynamic interplay between the ions and neutrals emerge behaviors of the geospace system that are currently difficult to predict; understanding the coupling between the ions and neutrals in the upper atmosphere is therefore of key importance. A key question for future research is, How does the ionosphere-thermosphere system regulate the flow of solar energy throughout geospace?
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From page 12... ...
Explosive releases of energy stored in magnetic fields -- solar flares and coronal mass ejections -- can inject huge quantities of fast-moving material into the heliosphere. A key question for future research is, How does the Sun's magnetic field shape the dynamic heliosphere?
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From page 13... ...
Therefore, the coming decade is a critical window for discovering how the Sun interacts with the local galactic medium. A key question for future research is, How does our Sun interact with the interstellar medium?
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