Solar 'Current of Fire' Speeds Up

[neilwilkes]

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2010 ... list111734

Can anyone else see the similarity here to Hans Alfven's circuit?
The obvious mistake is the upper "Conveyor Belt" of what even NASA are now describing as "Magnetized Plasma" (so naturally there has to be a current flow......) has it's secondary current flow - sorry, that should be "conveyor belt" - going in the wrong direction whereas they have the southern hemisphere secondary current flow in the correct direction.

Interesting, what!

[StefanR]

March 12, 2010: What in the world is the sun up to now?

In today's issue of Science, NASA solar physicist David Hathaway reports that the top of the sun's Great Conveyor Belt has been running at record-high speeds for the past five years.
"I believe this could explain the unusually deep solar minimum we've been experiencing," says Hathaway. "The high speed of the conveyor belt challenges existing models of the solar cycle and it has forced us back to the drawing board for new ideas."
The Great Conveyor Belt is a massive circulating current of fire (hot plasma) within the sun. It has two branches, north and south, each taking about 40 years to complete one circuit. Researchers believe the turning of the belt controls the sunspot cycle.

The speed-up was surprising on two levels.

First, it coincided with the deepest solar minimum in nearly 100 years, contradicting models that say a fast-moving belt should boost sunspot production. The basic idea is that the belt sweeps up magnetic fields from the sun's surface and drags them down to the sun's inner dynamo. There the fields are amplified to form the underpinnings of new sunspots. A fast-moving belt should accelerate this process.
So where have all the sunspots been? The solar minimum of 2008-2009 was unusually deep and now the sun appears to be on the verge of a weak solar cycle.
Instead of boosting sunspots, Hathaway believes that a fast-moving Conveyor Belt can instead suppress them "by counteracting magnetic diffusion at the sun's equator." He describes the process in detail in Science ("Variations in the Sun's Meridional Flow over a Solar Cycle," 12 March 2010, v327, 1350-1352).
The second surprise has to do with the bottom of the Conveyor Belt.
SOHO can only clock the motions of the visible top layer. The bottom is hidden by ~200,000 kilometers of overlying plasma. Nevertheless, an estimate of its speed can be made by tracking sunspots.
"Sunspots are supposedly rooted to the bottom of the belt," says Hathaway. "So the motion of sunspots tells us how fast the belt is moving down there."
He's done that—plotted sunspot speeds vs. time since 1996—and the results don't make sense. "While the top of the conveyor belt has been moving at record-high speed, the bottom seems to be moving at record-low speed. Another contradiction."

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2010 ... ?list14818

[neilwilkes]

I saw this too - mods, can you delete the other post of mine on this to round it all up please??
http://www.thunderbolts.info/forum/phpB ... f=3&t=3086

It is interesting to notice the similarity between his "conveyor belts" and the secondary current flow in Hans Alfven's solar circuit drawing with the sole thing looking different to me is that the "conveyor belt" model has the flow direction incorrect on one of the halves compared to Alfven.
We seem to be edging closer & closer to an Electric model gaining credence. After all, how can you have circulating currents of Hot Plasma in a magnetic field with no current flow!

[Topics merged- Moderator]

[jjohnson]

While I believe that solar scientists are a lot closer to an electric interpretation of the Sun than their theoretical astrophysics brethren, more in line with our Electric Model, they are still being a little coy with their terminology. Not sure why this is, but it probably has something to do with not rockin' the boat with the higher-ups, or, equally likely, the sources of funding.

Instead of a current of electricity, they chose to say a 'current of fire (hot plasma)' - sort of parenthetically dipping their toes into it. Since plasmas consist in part or wholly of charged particles, and these charges are moving through the magnetic fields present in ans on and around the Sun, they're winking their eyes because they and we and anyone else whose read Schaum's Outlines, Electromagnetics or a similar intorductory text understands that this means electric currents. The closed currents, aka branch circuits by my electrician, are called 'conveyor belts' becasue they are, well, conducting electricity! The fluidic references to rivers and winds and all that are veiled cover for what we recognize as plasma circuits and phenomena, in that fourth state of matter.

Jim