Solar flares, huge explosions of gasses, gamma rays and ultra-violet rays. These massive flares that come from the solar atmosphere are what I will be analyzing and teaching you about in this essay. Solar flares have had a profound effect on life and resources on earth throughout the history of our planet. Nowadays we are aware of the causes of solar flares and the damage that solar flares are capable of. Throughout this essay we will look into what solar flares are and how solar flares affect life and recourses on Earth.
Solar flares have existed throughout the history of our planet. In 1856 the British astronomers Richard Carrington and Roger observed and discovered the first solar flare. It wasn’t the first flare from the sun however it was the first solar flare us humans observed. The solar flare that was observed by the astromemers was also the biggest solar flare ever recorded. (Telegraph UK, Solar flares)
Solar flares are violent eruptions and explosions of gasses that release gamma rays and ultra-violet radiation. A flare is usually defined as a sudden, rapid and intense variation of brightness. Although you cannot see a solar flare with the naked eye from the surface of earth, space x-rays and thermal imaging equipment are used to observe these huge monsters. A solar flare occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the suns atmosphere is unexpectedly released. This occurs mostly in the active regions around sunspots. The frequency of solar flares varies from several a days when the sun is active, to one a week during periods when the sun is less active. (ESA, What are Solar Flares) The amount of energy released by a normal sized flare is equivalent to one hundred million megaton hydrogen bombs exploding at the same...
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...we should become more educated and aware of solar flares. I hope that I answered my question on how solar flares affect life and resources on earth and remember solar flares affect us and our resources in a negative way.
Works Cited
1) NASA. "Overview of solar flares" NASA RHESSI. NASA, . Web. 22/09/2013. http://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/rhessi2/home/mission/science/overview-of-solar-flares/
2) ESA Space. "Space Science" What are solar flares. esa, . Web. 22/09/2013. http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/What_are_solar_flares
3) Telegraph UK. "The telegraph" Solar Flare: Everything you need to know. Telegraph UK, . Web. 22/09/2013. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9097587/Solar-flares-everything-you-need-to-know.html
4) Britannica. "The Sun" Britannica School. Britannica, . Web. 22/09/2013. http://school.eb.co.uk/levels/intermediate/article/276056
Cosmic rays are high energy charged particles, originating in outer space, that travel at nearly the speed of light and strike the Earth from all directions. The term "cosmic rays" usually refers to galactic cosmic rays, which originate in sources outside the solar system, distributed throughout our Milky Way galaxy. However, this term has also come to include other classes of energetic particles in space, including nuclei and electrons accelerated in association with energetic events on the Sun (called solar energetic particles), and particles accelerated in interplanetary space. Co...
Lighting is a great mystery to many. Many do not know the origin of lightning bolts nor their true strength. Lightning bolts are produced from opposite fields interacting. This can result in dangerous bolts that can have devastating results. The bolts have the capacity to injure many things, including appliances, people, forest, etc. However, although these bolts can have dangerous affects, there are prevention techniqies for lightening. These procedures can protect you, loved ones, and property. With lightning come many myths. These myths can endanger people by giving them completely wrong information. However, some myths are ancient and involve rituals of the gods. Lightning is complex in formation, protection, and myths. With lightning comes much danger, which still keeps scientists busy today studying the causes and effects of lightening.
"Ultraviolet Radiation: How It Affects Life on Earth : Feature Articles." Ultraviolet Radiation: How It Affects Life on Earth : Feature Articles. Version 1.0. NASA Earth Observatory, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. .
The sun has been a major aspect of life since the beginning of time. People used many other forms of energy before electricity was discovered. There has been a debate over energy resources for years. Many people are worried about what current energy resources may be doing to the environment. Oil spills and nuclear power plant mishaps have only been a few accidents that have had a big impact on the environment and the people who inhabit it. There are plenty of energy sources that do not harm the environment and are still able to get the job done. Solar energy is one energy alternative that will insure the betterment of the country and, at the same time, protect the natural environment.
Changes in the magnetic field of the sun affect us here on earth in a number of interesting ways. This magnetic field is caused by the flow of electrically charged ions and electrons on the sun, and if it didn't exist, the sun would be a much more boring star. The 11-year cycle of the sun's magnetic field accounts for many of the cool features of the sun: sunspots, solar flares, and aurora borealis. At the beginning of the cycle, the magnetic field is weak and there are very few sunspots; later, at the peak of the cycle, the magnetic field is strong, and there are many sunspots. Sunspots are relatively cool areas that appear as dark patches on the face of the sun. They occur where magnetic field lines are twisted below the surface. The period of time when the magnetic field is strong and there are many sunspots is called a solar maximum. The sun approached one of its solar maximums in the year 2000, and this maximum affected the conditions on earth.
Today many patterns including real estate sales to fluctuations in the climate have been attributed to the cycle of sunspots. These fluctuations may be an explanation of the decline of Sun worship in India due the increased sunspot activity during the time of the Medieval Maximum. Throughtout history these fluctuations have been omens (e.g. a slave revolutionists incited a riot when he interpreted the site of a large black area on the Sun as the black taking over the white) (Schaefer 38). There are also modern examples of solar fluctuations affecting the Earth like the delayed launch of the Hubble Telescope (Schaefer 38) and the disruptions in electrical and radio technology during solar flares due to increased activity of sunspots at the last solar maximum in 1989.
Radiation is excess energy, which travels through space in the form of heat, light, sound, microwaves, radio waves and x-rays. Low radioactive substances can be found everywhere.
A supernova is an explosion of a massive supergiant star. It may shine with a brightness of 10 billion suns! The total energy output may be 10^44 joules, as much as the total output of the sun during its 10 billion year lifetime. The likely scenario is fusion proceeds to build up a core of iron. The “iron group” of elements around mass number A=60 are the most tightly bound nuclei, so no more energy can be gotten from nuclear fusion. Supernovas are classified at Type one if their light curves exhibit sharp maxima and then die away gradually. The maxima may be about 10 billion solar luminosities. Type two supernovas have less sharp peaks at maxima and peak at about 1 billion solar luminosities. They die away more sharply than Type one. Type two supernovas are not observed to occur in elliptical galaxies, and are thought to occur in population one type stars in the spiral arms of galaxies. Type one supernovas occur typically occur in elliptical galaxies, so they are probably Population type two stars. With the observation of a number of supernovas in other galaxies a more refined classification of supernovas has been developed based on the observed spectra. Th...
Smil, Vaclav. "The Long Slow Rise Of Solar And Wind." Scientific American 310.1 (2014): 52-57. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 May 2014.
...t I didn’t know about solar energy before this project, and that I knew only a sliver of what was out there to be learned before I made my pamphlet. I believe that this project has expanded my knowledge on not only solar energy, but also renewables as a whole.
David, Leonard. "Proposed Satellite Would Beam Solar Power to Earth." 6 April 2012. Space.com. Website. 18 November 2014.
There are two types of ways a Supernova can be triggered. The first trigger is the result of a white dwarf accumulating matter from a companion. This causes the dwarf to reach a core temperature too high to survive which in turn makes an explosion. The second trigger is when a star’s nuclear fuel is diminishing and can no longer support the release of nuclear energy. If the star’s core is large enough it will breakdown and become a supernova. Most observations of a supernova are made through spectral lines. Classification agrees with the physical classification, because large stars are made of mostly hydrogen, while white dwarf stars are plain. White dwarfs have a bare surrounding because the original star’s explosion was so great that the winds pushed the hydrogen away.
Violent eruptions of gas on the Sun’s surface called solar flares can send solar charged particles towards Earth and appear to be possible threats to the safety of mankind. These expulsions of charged particles come from the sun flares’ relationship with sun spots. Sun spots are cooler and darker regions of the Sun where the solar magnetic field extends off of the Sun’s surface. When the charged particles ejected from the sun reach Earth and enter its upper atmosphere, they react with present atoms and can cause major disturbances to satellites and terrestrial communications systems such as T.
Solar flares are cyclical, usually over a period of eleven years. There are three basic stages to a solar flare. The first stage is the precursor stage, where the release of magnetic energy is triggered. In the second or impulsive stage, radio waves are emitted. During the third or decay stage, the gradual build up and decay of soft x-rays can be detected.
[6] Yochanan Kushnir, “Solar Radiation and the Earth's Energy Balance”, 2000. [Online]. Available: http://eesc.columbia.edu/courses/ees/climate/lectures/radiation/. [Access: Feb.9, 2014]