Solar phenomena

Solar phenomena are the natural phenomena occurring within the magnetically heated outer atmospheres in the Sun. These phenomena take many forms, including solar wind, radio wave flux, energy bursts such as solar flares, coronal mass ejection or solar eruptions, coronal heating and sunspots.On August 31, 2012 a long prominence/filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT.Diagram of the magnetic-field structure of a solar flare and its origin, inferred to result from the deformation of such a magnetic structure linking the solar interior with the solar atmosphere up through the corona.A complete 2D-Image taken by STEREO (High Resolution)Spörer's law noted that at the start of an 11-year sunspot cycle, the spots appeared first at higher latitudes and later in progressively lower latitudes.A report in the Daily Mail characterized sunspot 1302 as a 'behemoth' unleashing huge solar flares.Detail of the Sun's surface, analog photography with a 4' Refractor, yellow glass filter and foil filter ND 4, Observatory Großhadern, MunichDetailed view of sunspot, 13 December 2006 Solar phenomena are the natural phenomena occurring within the magnetically heated outer atmospheres in the Sun. These phenomena take many forms, including solar wind, radio wave flux, energy bursts such as solar flares, coronal mass ejection or solar eruptions, coronal heating and sunspots. These phenomena are apparently generated by a helical dynamo near the center of the Sun's mass that generates strong magnetic fields and a chaotic dynamo near the surface that generates smaller magnetic field fluctuations. The total sum of all solar fluctuations is referred to as solar variation. The collective effect of all solar variations within the Sun's gravitational field is referred to as space weather. A major weather component is the solar wind, a stream of plasma released from the Sun's upper atmosphere. It is responsible for the aurora, natural light displays in the sky in the Arctic and Antarctic. Space weather disturbances can cause solar storms on Earth, disrupting communications, as well as geomagnetic storms in Earth's magnetosphere and sudden ionospheric disturbances in the ionosphere. Variations in solar intensity also affect Earth's climate. These variations can explain events such as ice ages and the Great Oxygenation Event, while the Sun's future expansion into a red giant will likely end life on Earth. Solar activity and related events have been recorded since the 8th century BCE. Babylonians inscribed and possibly predicted solar eclipses, while the earliest extant report of sunspots dates back to the Chinese Book of Changes, c.  800 BCE. The first extant description of the solar corona was in 968, while the earliest sunspot drawing was in 1128 and a solar prominence was described in 1185 in the Russian Chronicle of Novgorod. The invention of the telescope allowed major advances in understanding, allowing the first detailed observations in the 1600s. Solar spectroscopy began in the 1800s, from which properties of the solar atmosphere could be determined, while the creation of daguerreotypy led to the first solar photographs on 2 April 1845. Photography assisted in the study of solar prominences, granulation and spectroscopy. Early in the 20th century, interest in astrophysics surged in America. A number of new observatories were built with solar telescopes around the world. The 1931 invention of the coronagraph allowed the corona to be studied in full daylight. The Sun is a star located at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma and magnetic fields. It has a diameter of about 1,392,684 kilometres (865,374 mi), around 109 times that of Earth, and its mass (1.989×1030 kilograms, approximately 330,000 times that of Earth) accounts for some 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. Chemically, about three quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen, while the rest is mostly helium. The remaining 1.69% (equal to 5,600 times the mass of Earth) consists of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon and iron. The Sun formed about 4.567 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a region within a large molecular cloud. Most of the matter gathered in the center, while the rest flattened into an orbiting disk that became the balance of the Solar System. The central mass became increasingly hot and dense, eventually initiating thermonuclear fusion in its core. The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star (G2V) based on spectral class and it is informally designated as a yellow dwarf because its visible radiation is most intense in the yellow-green portion of the spectrum. It is actually white, but from the Earth's surface it appears yellow because of atmospheric scattering of blue light. In the spectral class label, G2 indicates its surface temperature, of approximately 5778 K (5,505 °C (9,941 °F)) and V indicates that the Sun, like most stars, is a main-sequence star, and thus generates its energy via fusing hydrogen into helium. In its core, the Sun fuses about 620 million metric tons of hydrogen each second. The Earth's mean distance from the Sun is approximately 1 astronomical unit (about 150,000,000 km; 93,000,000 mi), though the distance varies as the Earth moves from perihelion in January to aphelion in July. At this average distance, light travels from the Sun to Earth in about 8 minutes, 19 seconds. The energy of this sunlight supports almost all life on Earth by photosynthesis, and drives Earth's climate and weather. As recently as the 19th century scientists had little knowledge of the Sun's physical composition and source of energy. This understanding is still developing; a number of present-day anomalies in the Sun's behavior remain unexplained. Sun.§ Many solar phenomena change periodically over an average interval of about 11 years. This solar cycle affects solar irradiation and influences space weather, terrestrial weather and climate.