Solar Wind

How fast are solar winds detected by spacecraft above Earth's atmosphere?

450 km/second (1 million miles/hour)

What protects us from solar winds?

Earth's atmospheric and magnetic fields

What is the solar wind?

is a stream of energetic, electrically charged particles that flows outward from the Sun at all times

What allows the solar winds to escape?

magnetic fields are weak at coronal holes

How is a solar wind different from a Earth wind?

much, hotter, thinner, and faster

What are coronal holes?

regions in the Sun's corona where gases have a much lower density than neighboring areas and solar winds originate

When is solar wind most intense?

When solar activity is at maximum

What do strong blasts of solar winds produce?

brilliant auroras

When do the largest solar winds occur?

coronal mass ejections