Solar properties (sunpy.sun)

sunpy.sun contains constants, parameters and models of the Sun.

sunpy.sun.constants Module

This module provides fundamental solar physical constants. The following constants are available:

Name	Value	Unit	Description
mass	1.98847542e+30	kg	Solar mass
radius	695700000	m	Nominal solar radius
luminosity	3.828e+26	W	Nominal solar luminosity
mean distance	1.49597871e+11	m	Astronomical Unit
perihelion distance	1.471e+11	m	Perihelion Distance
aphelion distance	1.521e+11	m	Aphelion Distance
age	4.6e+09	year	Age of the Sun
solar flux unit	1e-22	W m**-2 Hz**-1	Solar flux unit
visual magnitude	-26.75		Apparent visual magnitude
average angular size	959.63	arcsec	Semidiameter
surface area	6.087e+18	m**2	Surface area
average density	1409	kg m**-3	Mean density
surface gravity	274	m s**-2	Surface gravity
moment of inertia	5.7e+54	kg m**-2	Moment of inertia
volume	1.4122e+27	m**3	Volume
escape velocity	617700	m s**-1	Escape velocity at surface
oblateness	8.01	marcsec	oblateness
metallicity	0.0122		Metallicity
sunspot cycle	11.4	year	Average duration of sunspot cycle
average intensity	20090000	W m**-2 sr**-1	Mean Intensity
effective temperature	5778	K	Effective black-body temperature
mass conversion rate	4.3e+09	kg s**-1	Mass conversion rate
center density	162200	kg m**-3	Center density
center temperature	15710000	K	Center temperature
absolute magnitude	4.83		Absolute magnitude
mean energy production	0.0001937	J kg**-1	mean energy production
ellipticity	5e-05		ellipticity
GM	132712000	km**3 s**-2	standard gravitational parameter
W_0	84.176	deg	longitude of the prime meridian (epoch J2000.0)
sidereal rotation rate	14.1844	deg day**-1	sidereal rotation rate
first Carrington rotation (JD TT)	2398167.4	day	first Carrington rotation (JD TT)
mean synodic period	27.2752612	day	mean synodic period
alpha_0	286.13	deg	right ascension (RA) of the north pole (epoch J2000.0)
delta_0	63.87	deg	declination of the north pole (epoch J2000.0)

Functions

get(key)	Retrieve a constant by key.
find([sub])	Return list of constants keys containing a given string.
print_all()	Provides a table of the complete list of constants.

Variables

spectral_classification	Spectral classification
au	Astronomical Unit
mass	Solar mass
equatorial_radius	Nominal solar radius
volume	Volume
surface_area	Surface area
average_density	Mean density
equatorial_surface_gravity	Surface gravity
effective_temperature	Effective black-body temperature
luminosity	Nominal solar luminosity
mass_conversion_rate	Mass conversion rate
escape_velocity	Escape velocity at surface
sfu	Solar flux unit
average_angular_size	Semidiameter
sidereal_rotation_rate	sidereal rotation rate
first_carrington_rotation	Time of the start of the first Carrington rotation
mean_synodic_period	mean synodic period

sunpy.sun.models Module

Solar Physical Models

This module contains standard models of the Sun from various sources.

All data is saved in astropy.table.QTable with an added attribute:

• source : names the source of the data

Object

interiorastropy.table.QTable

The standard model of the solar interior.

evolutionastropy.table.QTable

The evolution as a function of time of the Sun.

References

• Adapted from Turck-Chieze et al. (1988) with composition: X = 0.7046, Y = 0.2757, Z = 0.0197

Variables

interior	A class to represent tables of heterogeneous data.
evolution	A class to represent tables of heterogeneous data.