Extend this unit's free-energy and timescale tools to new field strengths, GOES classes, and transit-time scenarios.
Recompute the free-energy estimate using a weaker active-region field of 2000 G (rather than this unit's 2800 G) at the same representative volume used in the lab. Compute the factor by which the free energy changes and confirm it matches the B^2 scaling in E_free=(B^2/2 mu0)V.
NOAA classifies a flare as X9.3 if its peak 1-8 Angstrom flux is 9.3 x 10^-4 W/m^2. Compute the peak flux corresponding to an X1.8 flare and a C4.5 flare, and compute the ratio of the X1.8 flare's flux to the C4.5 flare's flux.
If the real CME transit time had instead been exactly 24 hours (rather than this unit's ~36 hours), recompute the ratio between this transit time and the light travel time (1 AU/c, computed in the lab), and state whether the flare-radiation-to-CME-arrival lag would be longer or shorter than in the real event.
Using the real observed transit time (~36 hours) and the 1 AU Sun-Earth distance, compute the implied average CME speed over its full transit, and compare this "effective" speed to the CME's initial LASCO-measured speed (1571 km/s). State what this comparison implies about the CME's average deceleration during transit.
Submit a complete derivation with equations, units, labeled quantities, and a short narrative interpretation for each problem. Show every step; a correct final number without a visible derivation receives partial credit at most, and quoting a lecture number without adapting it to this problem's specific inputs receives no credit for that step.
OpenStax Astronomy 2e (local extracted reference copy: references/openstax-astronomy-2e-extracted.txt) covers the Sun in Chapter 15 ("The Sun: A Garden-Variety Star"): 15.1 The Structure and Composition of the Sun, 15.2 The Solar Cycle, and 15.3 Solar Activity above the Photosphere. Chapter 15’s section numbering was cross-checked directly against its own embedded figure numbering this session (Figures 15.1 through 15.24 all appear under their matching section headers with no offset), so this citation is verified against the local extracted text rather than extrapolated by analogy from a prior course. OpenStax’s treatment throughout Chapter 15 is descriptive and qualitative; nearly every quantitative derivation in this course (the hydrostatic solar-atmosphere/scale-height argument, the sunspot magnetic-pressure balance, the Parker solar-wind critical-point argument and its numerical transonic solution, flare free-energy budgets, the Chapman-Ferraro magnetopause standoff distance, and the Dessler-Parker-Sckopke ring-current/Dst relation) goes well beyond OpenStax Astronomy 2e’s introductory level; each lecture states explicitly where this course extends beyond the assigned reading.
materials/ASTR370/data/ where referenced above.