Mathematics – Probability
Scientific paper
Apr 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994adspr..14..175s&link_type=abstract
Advances in Space Research, vol. 14, no. 4, p. (4)175
Mathematics
Probability
Ionized Gases, Kinetic Theory, Plasma Heating, Solar Corona, Solar Gravitation, Solar Transition Region, Gravitational Effects, Rarefied Gas Dynamics, Solar Temperature
Scientific paper
The observed inversions of kinetic temperature in all known planetary thermospheres and the solar corona have similarities which appear to be a natural and unavoidable consequence of the manner in which a real gas stratifies its properties in a gravitational field. The classical kinetic theory of a gas bound by a gravitational field has severe limitations when the gas becomes too rarefied, and it incorrectly predicts that the field should induce no vertical gradients of kinetic temperature in an atmosphere. Correcting the classical theory to apply to rarefied gases implies a contrary conclusion, a kinetic temperature which increases with altitude at the average rate mg/3k in the transition region of a neutral atmosphere. The correction rests upon the experimentally supported postulate that in a sufficiently rarefied atmosphere, in which the mean free path exceeds about one-tenth percent of its scale height, the distribution of speed of the particles varies with altitude according to a modified Boltzmann probability distribution in which the kinetic energy of the individual particles replaces their average kinetic energy or temperature in the latter distribution.
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