Solar Storm Energy And Pie Graphs

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Solar Storm Energy and Pie Graphs
The pie charts below show approximately how various forms of energy
are involved in a solar flare. Flares occur when stored magnetic energy is
suddenly released. The chart on the left shows how much of this magnetic
energy is available for creating a flare (purple) and how much is lost (blue). The
chart on the right shows how much of the available magnetic flare energy goes
into four different phenomena: Light green represents forms of radiation such as
visible light and x-rays. Blue represents (kinetic) energy in ejected clouds of gas
called Coronal Mass Ejections. Purple represents flare energy that goes into
heating local gases to millions of degrees Centigrade, and white is the portion of
the flare energy that is lost to working against gravity.
Graph of stored magnetic energy
Graph of solar flare energy forms
Problem 1 - About what percentages of each of the four forms of energy are
represented in the right-hand chart?
Problem 2 - About what percentage of the original, stored magnetic energy is
available for flares?
Problem 3 - About what fraction of the original magnetic energy ends up as solar
flare radiation, assuming all forms of energy can be interchanged with each
other?
Problem 4 - About what fraction of the original magnetic energy ends up in CME
ejection?
Problem 5 - A typical large flare has enough total energy to meet the world-wide
power demands of human civilization for 10,000 years. How many years would be
equivalent to A) causing the flare to shine and B) ejecting a CME?
Space Math

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