Earths magnetic field letting in solar winds

Scott Free

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May 9, 2007
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Leaks Found in Earth's Protective Magnetic Field


Scientists have found two large leaks in Earth's magnetosphere, the region around our planet that shields us from severe solar storms.



The leaks are defying many of scientists' previous ideas on how the interaction between Earth's magnetosphere and solar wind occurs: The leaks are in an unexpected location, let in solar particles in faster than expected and the whole interaction works in a manner that is completely the opposite of what scientists had thought.



The findings have implications for how solar storms affect the our planet. Serious storms, which involved charged particles spewing from the sun, can disable satellites and even disrupt power grids on Earth.


The new observations "overturn the way that we understand how the sun's magnetic field interacts with the Earth's magnetic field," said David Sibeck of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., during a press conference today at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.



The bottom line: When the next peak of solar activity comes, in about 4 years, electrical systems on Earth and satellites in space may be more vulnerable.


How it works


Earth's magnetic field carves out a cavity in the sun's onrushing field. The Earth's magnetosphere is thus "buffeted like a wind sock in gale force winds, fluttering back and forth in the" solar wind, Sibeck explained.


Both the sun's magnetic field and the Earth's magnetic field can be oriented northward or southward (Earth's magnetic field is often described as a giant bar magnet in space). The sun's magnetic field shifts its orientation frequently, sometimes becoming aligned with the Earth, sometime becoming anti-aligned.


Scientists had thought that more solar particles entered Earth's magnetosphere when the sun's field was oriented southward (anti-aligned to the Earth's), but the opposite turned out to be the case, the new research shows.


The work was sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation and based on observations by NASA's THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) satellite.


How many and where


Essentially, the Earth's magnetic shield is at its strongest when scientists had thought it would be at its weakest.


When the fields aren't aligned, "the shield is up and very few particles come in," said physicist Jimmy Raeder of the University of New Hampshire in Durham.


Conversely, when the fields are aligned, it creates "a huge breach, and there's lots and lots of particles coming in," Raeder added, at the news conference.


As it orbited Earth, THEMIS's five spacecraft were able to estimate the thickness of the band of solar particles coming when the fields were aligned — it turned out to be about 20 times the number that got in when the fields were anti-aligned.


THEMIS was able to make these measurements as it moved through the band, with two spacecraft on different borders of the band; the band turned out to be one Earth radius thick, or about 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers). Measurements of the thickness taken later showed that the band was also rapidly growing.


"So this really changes our understanding of solar wind-magnetosphere coupling," said physicist Marit Oieroset of the University of California, Berkeley, also at the press conference.


And while the interaction of anti-aligned particles occurs at Earth's equator, those of aligned particles occur at higher latitudes both north and south of the equator. The interaction is "appending blobs of plasma onto the Earth's magnetic field," which is an easy way to get the solar particles in, said Sibeck, a THEMIS project scientist.


Next solar cycle


This finding not only has implications for scientists' understanding of the interaction between the sun and Earth's magnetosphere, but for predicting the effects to Earth during the next peak in the solar cycle.


The Sun operates on an 11-year cycle, alternating between active and quiet periods. We are currently in a quiet period, with few sunspots on the sun's surface and fewer solar flares, though the next cycle of activity has begun. It is expected to peak around 2012, bringing lots of sunspots, flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). CMEs can interact with the Earth's magnetosphere, causing problems for satellites, communications, and power grids.


This upcoming active period now looks like it will be more intense than the previous one, which peaked around 2006, some scientists think. The reason is the changes in the sun's alignment.
During the last peak, solar fields hitting the Earth were first anti-aligned then aligned. Anti-aligned fields can energize particles, but in this case, the energy came before the particles themselves, which doesn't create much of a fuss in terms of geomagnetic storms and disruptions.
But the next cycle will see aligned, then anti-aligned fields, in theory amplifying the effects of the storms as they hit.


Raeder likens the difference to igniting a gas stove one of two ways: In the first way, the gas is turned on and the stove is lit and you get a flame. In the other way, you let the gas run for awhile, so that when you add the gas you get a much bigger boom.


"It should be that we're in for a tough time in the next 11 years," Sibeck said

Source


OH sure, like we don't have enough to worry about.

Hmmmm.... Carbon must be causing this too. :roll:
 

darkbeaver

the universe is electric
Jan 26, 2006
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3. Electric current from the Sun powers auroras.
On March 23, 2007 an auroral substorm erupted over Alaska and Canada, producing vivid auroras for more than two hours. Substorms are sudden bursts of energy in Earth's atmosphere that turn the undulating curtains of the Northern Lights into hyperactive light shows lasting from minutes to hours. Estimates of the total energy of the two-hour event were put at five hundred thousand billion (5 x 1014) Joules. That's approximately equivalent to the energy of a magnitude 5.5 earthquake.

Where does all that energy come from? THEMIS may have found an answer: "The satellites have found evidence for magnetic ropes connecting Earth's upper atmosphere directly to the Sun," says Dave Sibeck, project scientist for the mission at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "We believe that solar wind particles flow in along these ropes, providing energy for geomagnetic storms and auroras."

This report was written within days of the 140th anniversary of the birth of the Norwegian-born physicist Kristian Birkeland. Birkeland correctly hypothesized and demonstrated experimentally in the early 20th century that electric current from the Sun powers the earth's auroras. The 'magnetic ropes' connecting the Sun and the Earth are more correctly named after him- 'Birkeland currents.' The solar wind is not a mechanical 'wind' of particles, it is an electric current from the Sun that takes the form of twisted filament pairs and plasma sheets.

"We have much more to learn about all these things," says Angelopoulos. "I can't wait to see what comes next." Reading Birkeland's century-old works would be a good start for NASA scientists. Terry Pratchett's wry remark applies to science, "Most of what you get taught is lies. It has to be. Sometimes if you get the truth all at once, you can't understand it."

"It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds."
— Kristian Birkeland

http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=66b0jzyh&pf=YES
 

darkbeaver

the universe is electric
Jan 26, 2006
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NASA Spacecraft Make New Discoveries about Northern Lights
12.11.2007

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Where does all that energy come from? THEMIS may have found an answer:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The satellites have found evidence for magnetic ropes connecting Earth's upper atmosphere directly to the Sun," says Dave Sibeck, project scientist for the mission at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "We believe that solar wind particles flow in along these ropes, providing energy for geomagnetic storms and auroras."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] A "magnetic rope" is a twisted bundle of magnetic fields organized much like the twisted hemp of a mariner's rope. Spacecraft have detected hints of these ropes before, but a single spacecraft is insufficient to map their 3D structure. THEMIS's five satellites were able to perform the feat.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Right: A magnetic map of a magnetospheric rope observed in cross-section by the THEMIS satellites on May 20, 2007. [Larger image][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"THEMIS encountered its first magnetic rope on May 20, 2007," says Sibeck. "It was very large, about as wide as Earth, and located approximately 40,000 miles above Earth's surface in a region called the magnetopause." The magnetopause is where the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field meet and push against one another like sumo wrestlers locked in combat. There, the rope formed and unraveled in just a few minutes, providing a brief but significant conduit for solar wind energy. Other ropes quickly followed: "They seem to occur all the time," says Sibeck.[/FONT]




[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] They just can't say Birkland electric currents because then most of them would be looking for work. Instead they'll employ retarded analogys like rope. How in **** do you push current down a length of rope.DB
[/FONT]
 

darkbeaver

the universe is electric
Jan 26, 2006
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picture of the day archivesubject index

In this illustration by European Space Agency artists, we see the Earth lying within the magnetosphere,
rendered in blue and surrounded by the solar wind. The white rectangle on the left identifies the area where
ESA’s Cluster and China/ESA Double Star’s satellites discovered “density holes.” The brown dots represent
the solar wind and ions “back-streaming against the solar wind flow,” along the interplanetary
magnetic field lines (in black). Credit: ESA


Jul 04, 2006
“Fizzy Bubbles” or Plasma Layers?
Evidence continues to mount that the space surrounding Earth is rife with electrical activity. Where mainstream astronomers see “superhot gases” that “pop” and “fizz,” proponents of the Electric Universe see plasma double layers doing what they are observed to do in plasma experiments.
The European Space Agency recently observed anomalous “bubbles” that seemed to grow and pop around Earth. According to the Space.com report, “Astronomers found the activity up where Earth's magnetic field meets a constant stream of particles flowing out from the Sun.”

The researchers announcing the discovery spoke of “superhot gases” associated with the “bubbles.” They envisioned a “bow shock” formed as the result of the solar wind colliding with Earth’s magnetic field. The “temperature” in the gas bubbles is 18,000,000 Fahrenheit, a hundred times hotter than the temperature of the surrounding “hot gas.”

The researchers were following the only line of reasoning allowed by their training, which discusses “gases” in space in the mechanical language of wind and water behavior. Their theoretical framework excludes the possibility of any electrical interaction between the earth and the circuitry of the solar system. Astrophysicists work with a form of plasma theory called magnetohydrodynamics, which was first proposed by — and later repudiated by — Hannes Alfven, who investigated actual plasma behavior i
“Fizzy Bubbles” or Plasma Layers?
 

hermanntrude

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Jun 23, 2006
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Newfoundland!
I dont have any evidence to back this up, i'll admit, but i suspect the only reason we've never seen this before is we didn't have precise enough instruments. I figure this has probably happened at every solar peak in history.
 

darkbeaver

the universe is electric
Jan 26, 2006
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I dont have any evidence to back this up, i'll admit, but i suspect the only reason we've never seen this before is we didn't have precise enough instruments. I figure this has probably happened at every solar peak in history.

It never stops happening. It was predicted a hundred years ago or more, thousands of papers have been published since that time but gravity rules in the hallowed halls and that's the way she goes.;-)