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Solar Activities and Their
Biological Effects
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Why are studies of Suns activity
important ?
The Climate Connection The Sun - source of light and heat for life on Earth.
The quantity and quality of light from the Sun varies on
time scales from milli-seconds to billions of years
- how these changes influence climate on Earth.
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Space Weather
Solar wind - a flow of gases from the Sun that streams past the Earth at speedsof more than 500 km per second (a million miles per hour). Disturbances in
the solar wind shake the Earth's magnetic field and pump energy into theradiation belts.
Potential hazards
ultraviolet light and x-rays heat up Earth's upper atmosphere - can change the orbits ofsatellites and shorten mission lifetimes.
excess radiation can physically damage satellites and pose a threat to astronauts.
shaking Earth's magnetic field can cause current surges in power lines that destroy equipment
and knock out power over large areas.
The Sun as a Star
serves an important role in understanding the rest of the astronomicaluniverse.
The Sun as a Physical Laboratory
Nuclear physics reproducing the process of nuclear fusion involve extremelyhot plasmas in strong magnetic fields. Much of solar astronomy involvesobserving and understanding plasmas under similar conditions. Therecontinues to be much interaction between solar astronomers and scientificresearchers in this and many other areas.
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Big Questions About the Sun
The Coronal Heating Process The Sun's outer atmosphere (the Corona) is hotter than
1,000,000C (1,800,000F) while the visible surface has atemperature of only about 6000C (10,000F).
The Nature of Solar Flares Areas on the Sun near sunspots blasting billions of tons of
material into space as coronal mass ejections (CME).
The Origin of the Sunspot Cycle 11 years cycle - the number of sunspots seen on the Sun
increases from nearly zero to over 100 and then decreases tonear zero again as the next cycle starts.
The Missing Neutrinos The Sun should produce more than twice as many neutrinos
than are observed.
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Solar Flares
Reasons to study them Influence on climate Potential hazards to space missions
NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center , through NASA OfficialGordon D. Holman of the Heliophysics ScienceDivision, defines a solar flare as,
a sudden, rapid, and intense variation inbrightness. A solar flare occurs when magneticenergy that
has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenlyreleased. As the magnetic energy is being released,particles, including electrons, protons, and heavy nuclei,are heated and accelerated in the solar atmosphere.
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What happens during the Suns 11-year
cycle?
The Sun goes through its 11-yearcycle, wherein the suns magnetic energy
increases, causing a solar flare. Holman addsthat the energy released during a flare is tenmillion times greater than energy releasedfrom a volcanic explosion. On the other hand,a solar flare is less than one-tenth of the totalenergy emitted by the Sun every second.
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It is not known exactly what triggers sucheruptions, but they are associated with strongmagnetic fields, and emanate from sunspots,which are cooler regions of the Sun thatcorrespond to bottled-up magnetic energy.
It must be a combination of the magnetic fieldstrength and the magnetic configuration that
will allow field lines to be opened and hencethe release of gas
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Coronal Mass Ejections Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are eruptions into
interplanetary space of as much as a few billion tons
of plasma and embedded magnetic fields from the Sun's
corona.
CMEs can occur at any time during the solar cycle, but their
occurrence rate increases with increasing solar activity and
peaks around solar maximum. CMEs are propelled outward
at speeds ranging from
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Filaments
Filaments are elongated coronal features
composed of relatively dense material atchromospheric temperatures.
They may erupt, and this often leads to a CME
and to an associated flare-like structure ofenormous scale
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The Biological Effects
Solar flares through their extreme magneticeffects affect the central nervous system, brainactivity and equilibrium (balance), our thoughtpatterns, human behaviours, mental-emotional-
physical response. Therefore solar flares cancause humans and all living beings to be nervous,anxious, worrisome, jittery, dizzy, shaky for thosewho are super sensitive, irritable, lethargic,
exhausted, short memory lost, heart palpitationfor those with weak heart, regular pressure onthe head and headaches.
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On a cellular level, solar flares and photon waveshave a powerful effect on our bodies and canheat our core up rather fast, causing hot
flashes. Other emotions hidden and stored in ourcells from past experiences and traumas arestored as cellular memories and can findthemselves erupting to the surface during strong
magnetic field interactions. This is why we mayfind ourselves releasing these emotions ofsadness and grief without knowing why.