Abstract
In this chapter we shall deal with the sun only as far as its effects on the solar system and its evolution are concerned; the sun as a star and its interior structure are more suitably treated in an astrophysical context. The solar radiation had a crucial role in the past in determining the evolution of the primeval nebula and, more recently, the structure of planetary atmospheres, and the origin and evolution of life; its spectrum and its time variation are discussed in Sec. 13.1. An intense flow of charged particles is heated and emitted at supersonic speed by the corona, with a mechanism which is still partly unknown; however, the fluid dynamical model of the solar wind is reasonably satisfactory. This wind pervades the whole solar system and interacts in different ways with the planets and their magnetic fields.
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Further Readings
J.C. Brandt, Introduction to the Solar Wind, Freeman (1970) is an old, but still excellent book.
E.N. Parker, Dynamical Theory of the Solar Wind, Space Science Rev. 4, 666–708 (1965) is a very good review on the solar wind
see also M. Kuperus and J.A. Ionsons, On the Theory of Coronal Heating Mechanisms, Ann. Rev. Astron. Ap. 19, 7–40 (1981).
The transfer of angular momentum from the sun to the solar wind, not adequately discussed here, is important for the evolution of the solar nebula; the general theory was developed by E.J. Weber and L. Davis, Jr., The Angular Momentum of the Solar Wind, Ap. J. 148, 217 (1967).
On the “changing sun” see the papers by J.A. Eddy, in particular J.A. Eddy (editor), The New Solar Physics, Westview Press (1978).
Some material of the last Section is taken from C.F. Kennel, Magnetospheres of the planets, Space Sci. Rev. 14, 511 (1973).
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© 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Bertotti, B., Farinella, P. (1990). The Sun and the Solar Wind. In: Physics of the Earth and the Solar System. Geophysics and Astrophysics Monographs, vol 31. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1916-7_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1916-7_13
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