The Sun An Introduction [Paperback]

As in all other fields of astronomy, progress in instrumentation and observational techniques has in recent years brought a wealth of new information about the sun. This introduction presents a complete overview of solar physics, of what we know and would like to know. The increasing number of observations of solar pheno- mena on neighbouring stars makes this book valuable not only for students specializing in solar physics but also for researchers interested in stellar structure and the solar-stellar connection.As in all other fields of astronomy, progress in instrumentation and observational techniques has in recent years brought a wealth of new information about the sun. This introduction presents a complete overview of solar physics, of what we know and would like to know. The increasing number of observations of solar pheno- mena on neighbouring stars makes this book valuable not only for students specializing in solar physics but also for researchers interested in stellar structure and the solar-stellar connection.1. Introduction: The Suns Distance, Mass, Radius, Luminosity ....- 1.1 Distance.- 1.2 Mass.- 1.3 Radius.- 1.4 Luminosity.- 1.5 Spectral Energy Distribution.- 1.5.1 Energy Flux and Intensity.- 1.5.2 The Visible.- 1.5.3 The Infrared.- 1.5.4 The Radio Spectrum.- 1.5.5 The Ultraviolet.- 1.5.6 Extreme Ultraviolet and X-Rays.- 1.5.7 Color Indices.- 1.6 Bibliographical Notes.- 2. Internal Structure.- 2.1 Construction of a Model.- 2.1.1 The Evolutionary Sequence.- 2.1.2 The Standard Model.- 2.2 Age and Pre-Main-Sequence Evolution.- 2.3 Model Ingredients.- 2.3.1 Conservation Laws.- 2.3.2 Energy Transport.- 2.3.3 The Equation of State.- 2.3.4 The Entropy.- 2.3.5 Nuclear Energy Sources.- 2.3.6 The Opacity.- 2.3.7 Boundary Conditions and Method of Solution.- 2.4 Results for a Standard Solar Model.- 2.4.1 General Evolution.- 2.4.2 Neutrinos.- 2.5 Non-Standard Models.- 2.5.1 The Low-Z Model.- 2.5.2 Rapidly Rotating Core.- 2.5.3 Internal Magnetic Field.- 2.5.4 Thelc