SOLAR WINDS AND AURORA EXAM
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Sunspots - Correct Answers -Dark spots appearing on the photosphere that are less
cool and bright compared to surrounding plasma. They are kept cool and separate by
magnetic field lines. They often occur in pairs, being the start and end points for loops of
field lines
Solar prominences - Correct Answers -Giant loops of magnetic field lines that come out
of sunspots and trap gas in the sun's chromosphere and corona
Solar activity - Correct Answers -Also called solar weather, features of the Sun's surface
changing with time
Coronal holes - Correct Answers -Regions of the corona that barely show up in X-ray
images project into space allowing particles spiraling along them to escape the sun
altogether. These particles streaming outward from the corona are the source of: solar
wind
Coronal mass ejections - Correct Answers -Highly energetic charged particles traveling
outward from the sun in huge bubbles from flares and other storms
Sunspot cycle - Correct Answers -Notable observed pattern in which the average
number of sunspots gradually rise and fall. Lasts about 11 years
Solar storms - Correct Answers -The magnetic fields winding through sunspots and
prominences sometimes undergo dramatic and sudden change, producing short lived
but intense "storms" on the sun
Solar flares - Correct Answers -The most dramatic kind of solar storm which emits
bursts of ultraviolet light and X rays along with charged particles moving nearly at the
speed of light. Happens when twisted magnetic field lines "break" allowing all of the
energy that they trapped to be released in all directions
The general explanation is that strong magnetic fields carry energy upward from the
churning solar surface to the chromosphere and corona. Specifically, the rising and
falling of gas in the convection zone probably shakes tightly wound magnetic field lines
beneath the solar surface, transmitting energy upward until it is ultimately deposited as
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Sunspots - Correct Answers -Dark spots appearing on the photosphere that are less
cool and bright compared to surrounding plasma. They are kept cool and separate by
magnetic field lines. They often occur in pairs, being the start and end points for loops of
field lines
Solar prominences - Correct Answers -Giant loops of magnetic field lines that come out
of sunspots and trap gas in the sun's chromosphere and corona
Solar activity - Correct Answers -Also called solar weather, features of the Sun's surface
changing with time
Coronal holes - Correct Answers -Regions of the corona that barely show up in X-ray
images project into space allowing particles spiraling along them to escape the sun
altogether. These particles streaming outward from the corona are the source of: solar
wind
Coronal mass ejections - Correct Answers -Highly energetic charged particles traveling
outward from the sun in huge bubbles from flares and other storms
Sunspot cycle - Correct Answers -Notable observed pattern in which the average
number of sunspots gradually rise and fall. Lasts about 11 years
Solar storms - Correct Answers -The magnetic fields winding through sunspots and
prominences sometimes undergo dramatic and sudden change, producing short lived
but intense "storms" on the sun
Solar flares - Correct Answers -The most dramatic kind of solar storm which emits
bursts of ultraviolet light and X rays along with charged particles moving nearly at the
speed of light. Happens when twisted magnetic field lines "break" allowing all of the
energy that they trapped to be released in all directions
The general explanation is that strong magnetic fields carry energy upward from the
churning solar surface to the chromosphere and corona. Specifically, the rising and
falling of gas in the convection zone probably shakes tightly wound magnetic field lines
beneath the solar surface, transmitting energy upward until it is ultimately deposited as
