Sun Fire

The Sun at wavelengths of 171 angstroms. Credits: NASA/STEREO

 

May 25, 2017

The Sun is a mysterious force.

NASA launched the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft on October 25, 2006 from Cape Canaveral. Its mission is to study the solar weather, including coronal mass ejections (CME) and solar flares.

The twin STEREO satellites are in orbit around the Sun with Earth: one ahead of Earth in its orbit and one behind. Scientists hope that data from the spacecraft’s onboard sensors will help them understand how the Solar System formed, including how the solar magnetic field moderates incoming high-speed ions. The STEREO B spacecraft recently suffered a performance glitch and has been out of communication. Project engineers recently re-established contact, but it is doubtful that any new data will be forthcoming.

During periods of high activity, energetic pulses on the Sun eject charged particles in the billions of tons. They are normally slow moving, requiring about 24 hours to reach Earth. Known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CME), an indication of their arrival is an intensification of the aurorae.

Although the Sun is in a relatively quiescent state with few sunspots visible, it occasionally erupts with solar flares that can reach incredible velocities. As a matter of observation, they accelerate rapidly at first but only slowly beyond a few tens of solar radii. What explains this counterintuitive process?

Sunlight reaches Earth in approximately eight minutes. A solar ejection arriving in 30 minutes must be moving at more than a quarter of the speed of light. In the consensus view, such velocities are a profound mystery, yet a gigantic CME was observed on January 17, 2005, that reached our planet in less than half an hour. How do CMEs accelerate to 75,000 kilometers per second or more?

Plasma physicist Tony Peratt wrote: “…electric fields aligned along the magnetic field direction freely accelerate particles. Electrons and ions are accelerated in opposite directions, giving rise to a current along the magnetic field lines.”

Rather than shock fronts or so-called “magnetic reconnection events,” the solar wind receives its impetus from an electric field that emanates from the Sun in all directions. The easiest way for charged particles to accelerate is within such a field. The Sun’s electric field extends for billions of kilometers, ending at the heliospheric boundary.

Solar flares are labeled C, M, or X: light, medium, or powerful. The January 17 CME was rated X3. However, on September 7, 2005, an X17 CME impacted Earth’s magnetosphere, knocking out radio transmissions and overloading power station transformers. A veritable cosmic tornado of positive ions poured into Earth’s electrically charged environment. Is it a coincidence that hurricanes Katrina and Rita occurred on either side of the second largest X-flare ever recorded?

In 1997, Henrik Svensmark and Eigil Fris-Christensen published “Variation of Cosmic Ray Flux and Global Cloud Coverage – a Missing Link in Solar–Climate Relationships” in which they argued for the Sun’s mediating influence on Earth’s climate. Essentially, the greater the number of high-energy ions that enter our magnetic field, the greater will be the cloud cover.

When the Sun enters a quiet phase in its 22 year cycle, more charged particles are able to reach Earth because the solar magnetic field is not strong enough to deflect them. As they encounter our watery atmosphere, they cause clouds to form. Similar to an old-fashioned cloud chamber, when fast moving ions fly through a region of high humidity a track of condensation appears. It was those threads of tiny droplets that were once used to monitor subatomic particles produced by linear accelerators or “atom-smashers”.

In an Electric Universe, the relationship between incoming high-speed protons from CMEs and increased storm activity is not coincidental. Since water is a dipolar molecule, the fact that ions attract water vapor seems indisputable.

Stephen Smith

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