91福利

Professor Benjamin Chandran

(Department of Physics, University of New Hampshire, USA)

Abstract:

The solar wind plays a central role in numerous space-physics phenomena, including space weather and the propagation of energetic particles through the interplanetary medium. It also provides a laboratory for studying physical processes such as plasma turbulence and magnetic reconnection that are of broad importance throughout astrophysics. In the roughly five decades since the solar wind's discovery, spacecraft measurements and theoretical investigations have led to significant advances in our understanding of the solar wind. Despite this progress, the solar wind's origin remains a mystery and one of the more compelling problems in space physics today. In this talk I will provide a brief overview of the solar wind's properties and the main areas of active research on this problem. I will also describe in some detail a promising theory for how the solar wind originates --- that the solar atmosphere is heated and accelerated away from the Sun by the dissipation of waves and turbulence.