Science Forums 2

[Eric]

The following issue you may well be aware of. Some months ago I was looking at what my astronomy books say about solar wind. They refer to Eugene Parker's 50's theory as a prediction for it and the explanation. From another forum, I know that your not keen on wikipedia, but its quite interesting to look at the solar wind entry there. His work was criticised at the time but then solar wind evidence turned up. Now apparently, Eugene Parker's theory is thought to be insufficient to fully explain observations -

'In the late 1990s the Ultraviolet Coronal Spectrometer (UVCS) instrument on board the SOHO spacecraft observed the acceleration region of the fast solar wind emanating from the poles of the sun, and found that the wind accelerates much faster than can be accounted for by thermodynamic expansion alone. ' wikipedia

So this seems to indicate an inadequacy (assuming the criticism's made of Eugene Parker's theory at the time don't hold up anyway). This leads on to a question I have about whether there is data that solar wind speed averages increase with distance from the sun.

One of my astronomy books seems to suggest this - but not clearly enough. But this would support gravitational repulsion.