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Is there a difference between solar wind and solar radiation or are they just different ways of describing the same thing?

chaonomy
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    They are not the same thing. Stack Exchange dictates that questions should have some degree of research and I think that just by looking for both definitions in Wikipedia you would have a better idea and probably a more elaborate question. Solar Wind and Solar Radiation in this case. – Eduardo Serra Dec 17 '13 at 21:41
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    Note, you can answer your own question with the information that Eduardo Serra pointed you to. – Michael Dec 19 '13 at 05:25

2 Answers2

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Okay we can state it as follow:

  1. Solar Radiation:
    It is the radiation from the sun which includes all wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation coming from the sun.

  2. Solar Wind

    The solar wind is a stream of charged particles (a plasma) released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons.

    And I can simplify it as like it is something like when you stand in front of an operating fan and this fan is rotating to spread the air all over the place, so this will make an air wind around it, this is the wind you can sense. Back to sun, Solar wind is just like that it is the sun rotating particles produced out of the sun energy around the sun shaped by the sun's rotating magnetic field.

  3. Solar Flare

    A solar flare is a sudden brightening observed over the Sun's surface or the solar limb, which is interpreted as a large energy release of up to 6 × 1025 joules of energy.

    And for more clarification, it is an event happen from the sun due too a high charged accelerated particles, this event could have some damages on the earth like the big flare happens every 11 years.

HDE 226868
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Ahmed Hamdy
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From Wikipedia's article on solar winds:

The solar wind is a stream of charged particles (a plasma) released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV.

Solar radiation would be everything in general, including solar wind. Everything else is electromagnetic radiation (Radio, Microwave, Infra-red, Visible, Ultraviolet, X-ray, Gamma Ray)

Eduardo Serra
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Michael
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  • Astronomers do not include solar wind, ie particles, in solar radiation or radiant energy in general. However, other fields may. For instance, a medical radiation researcher may use the term radiant energy for both gamma-rays, beta and alpha rays coming from a radioactive material. – eshaya Jun 16 '15 at 01:37