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Originally Posted by dgruss23
I really haven't followed this thread so please forgive me if my question is something that has already been discussed.
What - in this thread - is meant by a "weak radial electric field"? A quick summary is fine.
The reason I ask is I'm trying to understand the context in which we would be fried after sunrise each day. The Earth's magnetic field protects us from large amounts of radiation generated by the solar magnetic cycle. I'm just looking for some clarification as to what the nature of this weak field is that would be capable of penetrating the normal protection offered by the Earth's magnetosphere.
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Hi dgruss,
this article and
this article both explain the nature of the weak electric field centered on the Sun, on both pages there is an an illustration of the characteristic of a glow discharge (adapted from J.D. Cobine, Gaseous Conductors). In the EU model the planets (and comets) occupy the "positive column" region, one of the features of a postive column is a weak radial electric field. In these webpages it is explained that the weak E-field is responsible for cometary activity because comets have a strong radial component to their orbits.
Hope this helps,
Cheers.