While attempting to understand why the solar corona is so much hotter than Sol's surface, NASA scientists have also confirmed the origins of the global warming phenomenon on Earth.
It has long been known that the temperature at the Sun's surface is around 6000 Celsius, while the outer most layer, the corona, is a staggering
2,000,000 Celsius. At those temps, SPF gazillion isn't going to prevent skin damage.
The smart guys at the National Space and Aeronautics Administration have proposed two explanations:
ScienceDaily (Jun. 2, 2008) —
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"It has become clear in recent years that coronal heating is a highly dynamic process, but inconsistencies between observations and theoretical models have been a major source of heartburn. We have now discovered two possible solutions to this dilemma: energy is released impulsively with the right mix of particle acceleration and direct heating, or energy is released gradually very close to the solar surface," says James Klimchuk, an astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center's Solar Physics Laboratory in Greenbelt, Md.
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X-rays and ultraviolet radiation from the solar corona affect Earth and its atmosphere. For satellites, this can be a real drag--literally. As Earth's atmosphere gets hotter, it expands and becomes denser at high altitudes. When this happens, satellites experience more drag, which changes their orbits...
So there you have it. Jolly old Sol actually heats the Earth's atmosphere with X-rays and ultraviolet radiation. Huh! Who
woulda thunk it? And upon closer reading, it may also be a major cause of heartburn.
The life of Indigo Red is full of adventure. Tune in next time for the
Further Adventures of Indigo Red.Labels: corona, global cooling, global warming, NASA, Sol, solar flares, ultraviolet, x-ray
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