Paper detail

The solar chromosphere as induction disk and the inverse Joule-Thomson effect

The connection between nuclear fusion in the Sun's core and solar irradiance is obscured among other things by uncertainty over the mechanism of coronal heating. Data for solar wind density and velocity, sunspot number, and EUV flux suggest that electromagnetic energy from the Sun's convection zone is converted by induction through the chromosphere into thermal energy. The helium and hydrogen mixture exhaled by the Sun is then heated by the inverse Joule-Thomson effect when it expands via the corona into space. The almost complete shutdown of the solar wind on 10-11 May 1999 demonstrated that its velocity is a more faithful indicator of solar activity than are sunspots as it reflects short-term variations in coronal heating rather than quasicyclical fluctuations in the Sun's magnetism. Its reconstruction from the cosmic ray flux using isotopes spanning over 800,000 yr should therefore benefit the analysis and long-term forecasting of Earth and space weather.