Diffusive Mass Fractionation Effects Across The Isotopes of Noble Gases and Magnesium in the Solar Wind and in Solar Flares .

O. K. Manuel and D. E. Ragland,

Chemistry Dept.,

 University of Missouri, Rolla, MO 65401

Isotopic analyses of Mg in the solar wind [Bochsler et al., 1995] and in solar flares [Selesnick et al., 1993] indicate changes by the same intra-solar diffusion processes found to enrich light elements and light isotopes of noble gases at the solar surface [Meteoritics 18, 209 (1983); J. Geophys. Res. 91, D473 (1986)]. Solar wind Mg cannot be made by fractionation of terrestrial Mg; it is much closer to a fractionated form of Mg observed in an inclusion of the Allende meteorite [Geophys. Res. Lett. 4, 299 (1977)]. Solar flares disrupt diffusion and produce excess ²⁵Mg or dredge it up from below the solar surface. These results confirm intra-solar diffusion and show that the solar surface does not represent the bulk Sun.