Related papers: R{\'e}flexions sur la puissance motrice du Soleil
The source of the non-thermal energy required for the heating of the upper solar atmosphere to temperatures in excess of a million degrees and the acceleration of the solar wind to hundreds of kilometres per second is still unclear. One…
Solar flares are powerful radiations occuring in the Sun's atmosphere. They are powered by magnetic reconnection, a phemonenon that can convert magnetic energy into other forms of energy such as heat and kinetic energy, and it is believed…
This invention deals with the broad general concept for focussing light. A mini-optics tracking and focussing system is presented for solar power conversion that ranges from an individual's portable system to solar conversion of electrical…
With growing interest in multi source energy harvesting including integrated microchips we propose a comparison of radio frequency (RF) and solar energy sources in a typical city. Harvesting devices for RF and solar energy will be competing…
Cool stars like our Sun are surrounded by a million degree hot outer atmosphere, the corona. Since more than 60 years the physical nature of the processes heating the corona to temperatures well in excess of those on the stellar surface…
It is clear that the solar corona is being heated and that coronal magnetic fields undergo reconnection all the time. Here we attempt to show that these two facts are in fact related - i.e. coronal reconnection generates heat. This attempt…
The global transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy production is a major challenge. We present an innovative solution by utilizing smartphone light sensors to measure direct normal solar irradiance, the primary component of…
A theory of cosmic ray production within the solar system (not extra-galactic) is presented. The sun's time variable magnetic flux linkage makes the sun (as well, perhaps, as Jupiter) a natural, all-purpose, betatron storage ring, with…
Solar energy remained an enigma for nearly a century. For a while astronomers and physicists believed that the source of the Sun's energy was gravitational contraction, but the theory turned out to be untenable. Inspired by the new science…
Physicists have long known that the Sun's magnetic fields make its corona much hotter than the surface of the star itself. But how -- and why -- those fields transport and deposit their energy is still a mystery, as Philip G Judge explains
We introduce a new class of mesoscopic heat engines consisting of a tunnel junction coupled to a linear thermal bath. Work is produced by transporting electrons up against a voltage bias like in ordinary thermoelectrics but heat is…
Solar flares are driven by the release of magnetic energy from reconnection events in the solar corona, whereafter energy is transported to the chromosphere, heating the plasma and causing the characteristic radiative losses. In the…
The Sun's outer atmosphere is heated to temperatures of millions of degrees, and solar plasma flows out into interplanetary space at supersonic speeds. This paper reviews our current understanding of these interrelated problems: coronal…
Plasma in the Sun's hot corona expands into the heliosphere as a supersonic and highly magnetized solar wind. This paper provides an overview of our current understanding of how the corona is heated and how the solar wind is accelerated.…
The Sun's corona, heated to temperatures exceeding one million Kelvin despite lying above the cooler photosphere, has puzzled astrophysicists since its discovery in the 1940s. Prevailing theories, based on acoustic and magnetohydrodynamic…
Axions generated thermally in the solar core can convert nearly directly to X-rays as they pass through the solar atmosphere via interaction with the magnetic field. The result of this conversion process would be a diffuse…
Several phenomena connected with the magnetic field of the Sun (the cool sunspots, the hot corona, solar flares, the solar wind) are collectively known as solar activity. This paper discusses how one uses the MHD equations to understand how…
Energy is a vital resource and hence there is a continuous strive to improve upon existing technologies and to find new ones that address that basic need. The conversion of thermal energy is the primary method of generating electrical…
Although it is widely accepted that photospheric motions provide the energy source and that the magnetic field must play a key role in the process, the detailed mechanisms responsible for heating the Sun's corona and accelerating the solar…
Changes in the atmospheric composition alter the magnitude and partitioning between the downward propagating solar and atmospheric longwave radiative fluxes heating the Earth's surface. These changes are computed by radiative transfer codes…