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The universe is made up of space plasma. Plasma is the fourth state of matter
(solid, liquid, gas and plasma). A plasma is a gas that is so hot that some or all its
constituents are split up into electrons and ions, Which can move independently of
each other. Because they made up of charged particle; plasma can be strongly
influenced by electrostatic and electromagnetic forces which can led to very
complicated and interesting behavior.
Space physics is the study of plasma as they occur naturally in earths upper
atmosphere. Today near earth space has become a laboratory in which we study
plasma physics.
It includes both solar and earth physics research which explores a diverse range of
plasma physical phenomena encountered at first hand in solar system.
We can explain space physical phenomena like,
1) Sunspot
2) Solar flare
3) Coronal mass ejection
4) Solar wind
5) Magnetosphere
6) Radiation belt
7) Auroras
8) Ionosphere of earth
Using physical principle of plasma physics.
Therefore space physics mainly includes,
1) Solar physics
2) Earth space physics
Solar physics
Solar physics is the study about suns composition, structure, sources of energy,
how they radiate, how magnetic field created and transported throughout the
space .
Composition of sun
Sun is a yellow dwarf star which is nothing but a gigantic plasma ball, which is
powered by its self-sustaining thermonuclear fusion process (combination of two
or more light nuclei to form single heavier nuclei with release of plenty of energy).
1) Its radius is 109 times that of earth.
2) The internal temperature is 1.5*10^7 K
3) In photosphere it is 5772 K
4) Plasma density inside the sun is 150g/cm^3
Creation of magnetic field in sun
Because of the broad importance of magnetic field in large scale plasma dynamics,
developing a first principle understanding of the physical mechanism that control
the generation and dissipation of magnetic field is an essential goal.
The Aurora
The light over the northen and southern pole sky is called Auroras.
Aurora borealis (northen light)
Aurora Australis (southern light)
These are produced due to two reason, i) due to polar cusp region (day side)
ii) due to magnetic burst in tail region (night
side)
as the cusp region has very less magnetic field , charged particles from
magnetosheath region enters direcly towards pole which interacts with oxygen,
nitrogen atom making them excited and emission of visible light .
similarly in tail region , two tail lobes of opposite field lines reconnect to burst out
a huge amount of charged particles towards earth causing these to move towards
earth pole forming night side Aurora.
Ionosphere
It is the upper atmosphere of earth. This ionosphere is caused by photoionization.
Hence when solar ultraviolet radiation incident on the upper layer of atmosphere
it causes ionization of constituent gases i.e. this ionosphere is in plasma state. This
ionospheric plasma plays an important role in the propagation of round the curved
sphere of the earth and allow us in long distance radio communication.
In Ionosphere electron density gradually increases with height hence the velocity
of wave gradually increases with height.
From the figure
here the wavefront AB is incident on ionosphere
,A of the wavefront move the region of higher
density so the velocity of this part is more than
that of region B. This means the upper portion
moves more than the lower portion toward the
ground. The radio signal will naver come back by
absence of this plasma.