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solar wind/jovian wind?


granpa

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Escape velocity of earth (surface): 11.2x103m/s

 

According to: http://www.springerlink.com/content/k557703p23h777g4/

 

There was a sudden increase in the particle flow speed to: x103m/s

 

Due to an increased coupling effect from the solar wind. So even if that speed was increased it'd be due to the coupling so any "wind" from it would probably be classed as part of the solar wind itself.

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well now that I think about it, even the earth should produce such a wind from its ionosphere. the speed of ions in the ionosphere must be far greater than the escape velocity of the earth.

 

The mean velocity of nitrogen (as mentioned in another post) at room temperature (298K) is 474 m/s.

The escape velocity of earth (at the surface) is 11000 m/s, which is more than an order of magnitude higher.

 

So, the velocity of your average molecule is much lower than the escape velocity. And that is independent of the pressure up there... it's just dependent on the temperature and molecular weight. See the other post for the formula.

 

But particles can escape, this is true. I described the mean velocity, so obviously there exist particles with a higher velocity, and also with a lower velocity. I'm not sure how the (statistical) distribution of the velocity around that mean is.

 

Also, in the ionosphere, we're dealing with ions, not molecules, which will have an interaction with the earth's magnetic field. Again, I am not sure of the effect.

 

I don't think that there exists an "earth wind" which is powered by earth. If anything, then high speed "space particles" (ions or photons) might hit some molecules or ions in our upper atmosphere, and knock them into space...

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Jupiter's atmosphere extends about 5,000 km above the 1 bar "surface" (~71,500 km at the equator). Assume the upper atmosphere is rotating at Jupiter's sidereal period, one rotation per 9.925 hours. At 76,500 km, this translates to 13.5 km/sec. Jupiter's upper atmosphere reaches temperatures of ~1200 kelvin. For protons (ionized hydrogen), this translates to a vrms of 5.5 km/sec. Adding this to the rotational velocity yields 19 km/sec, which is far less than 58 km/sec, Jovian escape velocity at 76,500 km.

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and how hot is jupiters ionosphere?

 

Well, after googling jupiter/ionosphere the first hit is a lengthy, but interesting treatise by R. V. Yelle of Arizona University and S. Miller of University College of London. They seem to think the upper temperature limit of the ionosphere is the 1200 K mentioned by D H and that there is a large gradient through it, possibly as much as 800 k. This compares to 2200+ K that the Earth's ionosphere maxes out at. Why haven't we lost all of our atmosphere on Earth to space yet?

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470 m/s in the ionosphere? I dont think so.

 

Well... I did provide a nice link to the other post, in which I provided a formula to calculate the mean velocity of a molecule (carrying zero charge) as a function of its molar mass and the temperature... I also wrote down several other issues that play a role here.

 

You're welcome. No need to thank me. No need to agree. But you could at least have taken the time to write a slightly more eloquent reply than this. Sorry for grumpiness, I haven't had enough coffee yet.

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