Solar wind Solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma consists of mostly electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between 0.5 and 10 keV. Embedded within the solar-wind plasma is the interplanetary magnetic field. The solar wind varies in density, temperature and speed over time and over solar latitude and longitude. Its particles can escape the Sun's gravity because of their high energy resulting from the high temperature of the corona, which in turn is a result of the coronal magnetic field. At a
Plasma acceleration with PWFA, was reported by a research group at Argonne National Laboratory in 1988. The acceleration gradient for a linear plasma wave is: In this equation, formula_2 is the electric field, formula_3 is the speed of light in vacuum, formula_4 is the mass of the electron, formula_5 is the plasma electron density (in particles per metre cubed), and formula_6 is the permittivity of free space. Currently, plasma-based particle accelerators are in the proof of concept phase at the following institutions: Plasma acceleration Plasma acceleration is a technique for accelerating charged particles, such as electrons, positrons, and ions, using the electric