Solar Physics Lecture Notes

Solar Physics Lecture Notes

This is an introduction from the first lecture
The sun spins around its rotational axis from west to east
when viewed from above the North Pole.
- Different parts of the sun rotate at different rates and are known as
differential rotation
- Because the earth orbits the sun we observe a rotation period that is
about 2 days longer than the true value. The synodic rotation period
of the visible solar equator as observed
from earth is about 27.6 days while the equatorial photosphere is
intrinsically spinning above the sun axis once every 25.67days
- it is known from sun spots observation that the photosphere rotates
faster at the equator than it does at higher latitudes it reaches 33.4
days at 75 degrees latitude north or south.
- These rotation period can be converted into velocities by dividing
the circumference at the latitude by its period.

The lectures are in PDF format files
http://www.4shared.com/get/BXpDBJc1/solar_physics_L311.html