ACE Studies Solar "Sneezes"
News story originally written on December 14, 1998
Scientists working with the
Advanced Composition Explorer
(ACE) have been able to measure the temperature of tiny solar "sneezes".
The sneezes are smaller than solar flares and are called impulsive solar
flares.
The Solar Energetic Particle Ionic Charge Analyzer (SEPICA)
measures the
electrical charge on atoms. At really high temperatures, electrons can be
stripped from atoms. The higher the temperature is, the more electrons
will be stripped. SEPICA can use the atoms' electrical charge to
calculate the temperature of the
flare that produced them.
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