Abstract
The Sun not only emits radiation in the whole electromagnetic spectrum but also sends in the interplanetary medium plasmas of different natures (energy, continuous, or episodic flows, etc.) which contribute to its (small) mass loss. The escaping material when properly oriented may impact on the Earth magnetic environment with cascading effects on the Earth atmosphere. The continuous flow known as the solar wind is actually made of two categories, slow and fast winds. We discuss their properties, sources, and the mechanisms at work through the two types of models (fluid and particles). We describe the sporadic mass losses for the three main typical events: flares, prominence ejection, and coronal mass ejection. We discuss a possible unifying scenario which takes into account these three manifestations of magnetic disruption. We also extend the investigation to the whole heliosphere. Our conclusion proposes a few goals concerning the diagnostic and the understanding of the plasmas ejected by the Sun, along with the space missions which could provide some answers.
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Acknowledgements
I deeply thank the two organizers, Coralie Neiner and Jean-Pierre Rozelot, for inviting me to give this talk and for transforming the present document from a mere draft into a (I hope!) readable paper. I also thank the colleagues who kindly provided me their original figures.
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Vial, JC. (2013). Nature and Variability of Plasmas Ejected by the Sun. In: Rozelot, JP., Neiner, C. (eds) The Environments of the Sun and the Stars. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 857. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30648-8_2
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