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The Magnetic Field of the Sun: An Object Lesson

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2016

E. N. Parker*
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astrophysics University of Chicago 933 East 56th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

Abstract

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The magnetic field of the sun is created by a magnetohydrodynamic dynamo under conditions bearing some qualitative similarities to the apparent generation of the galactic field in the gaseous disk of the galaxy. There is a similarity, too, in the extension of bipolar lobes of the solar field above the surface of the sun and the extension of bipolar lobes of the galactic field outward from both sides of the disk. Hence one can learn a lot about the expected origin and activity of the galactic field by studying the behavior of the magnetic field of the sun. In particular, the mysteries associated with the “simple” circumstances of the origin of the solar magnetic field far below the surface are no less than the mysteries in the theoretical origin of the galactic field, where there is so little direct observation of the small scale motions and magnetic fields. There is reason to think that the activity of the magnetic field of the sun, producing prominences, flares and X-ray corona, a solar wind, and coronal mass ejection may all have counter parts in the activity of the galactic field above the surface of the gaseous disk.

Type
1. A Survey of Magnetic Phenomena near the Solar Photosphere, in the Corona, and in Stellar Winds
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1990 

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