Solar Blasts Slam Into Earth

[bananas]

Source: Wall Street Journal

Two blasts of energy from the sun hit the Earth's magnetic field Friday and could disrupt one or more electrical grids, global-positioning systems or other satellite-communications systems, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.

The blasts touched Earth's magnetic field in the form of fast-moving "solar wind" and is blowing by the Earth, Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, said in an interview.

Mr. Kunches said it is too early to know what the effects of the blasts will be. "If it's a really big storm, it still could be active night, but this kind of disturbance level won't be sustained for long," he said.

But Mr. Kunches added, "It seems that the magnetic field is getting hit harder than we thought it would."

<snip>

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903454504576490641577134256.html

---

It's currently at Kp 8 http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/kp.html

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. The sun is getting ready to doze for a long time, possibly mimicking the Maunder

Minimum of 1645 and 1715.

http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/00current.htm

A recent press release states that the Sun's activity will slow to an unprecedented decline in the next ten years. The prediction is based on "...three independent studies of the sun's insides, surface, and upper atmosphere..." According to the article, the drop in output could initiate climate effects comparable to the Maunder Minimum between 1645 and 1715.

[Blue State Bandit]

6. But, according to the authors of the link to the source, the prediction is suspect...

...because the science is wrong.

They use 3 reference points to make the prediction, which the "Thunder Bolts" theory disputes. They believe cosmology got it all wrong, and have some amazing, easily reproducible science to back them up. And some of it, absurdly simple to understand for a like freshman engineer or reasonably well educated individual..

I've read some of their stuff. It makes allot of sense, if you know anything about electrical engineering or plasma physics that is.

Any engineers here should check out this theory, and let us know what you think.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. You just did it, I feel for you. INCOMING!!!!! n/t

[Blue State Bandit]

8. Did what?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. You said that the EU theory makes a lot of sense.... you'd better hide. n/t

[Blue State Bandit]

10. From what? Is Murdoch's minions gonna come for me?

You a little too fluent in EU to be safe you self.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. I have foil on all my exterior walls, chicken wire on the trusses. I'm good. n/t

[Blue State Bandit]

12. I hope you have it properly grounded there Lightning Magnet.

You posted the link, I just said I read there work. I didn't say I was convinced.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

14. Yeah well, I rather investigate the effects of charged particles in space which is what

99.999999 percent of the universe is, rather than conjuring up dark energy, dark matter, neutron stars spinning at 3600 rpm, and all the other mythical creatures we have had to conjure up to make the numbers fit.

[Broderick]

20. +1

[saras]

13. Actually, I think the "either-or" aspects of both theories are wrong

...and given a couple of generations of scientists, electrical forces will likely be widely accepted as one of the sets of forces contributing to the observable behavior of the Sun.

More specifically...
"The Electric Universe theory proposes that stars are primarily electrical phenomena"
I think it's far too early to argue "primary" - it's enough to demonstrate that these forces are observable

"and not strictly based on gravitational compression somehow balanced by internal thermonuclear energy."
'strictly' seems like a waffle word, hiding the distinction between 'here is new data to add' and 'everybody else before me was wrong'.

"Stars are electromagnetic in nature"
Already well known to be partially true in practice - the debate is about the relative size of various effects.

"responding to the laws of plasma physics and electric circuits"
Yes, fairly obvious. It is plasma, it exists in this universe, therefore it obeys the laws of plasma physics, whether we know those laws or not.

"and not those of gas dynamics or electrostatics."
Almost certainly not true, in either sense. The laws of gas dynamics and electrostatics are obeyed - the Sun makes no special exception for them. And much that is known about the sun is explainable quite accurately using them. A lot isn't, and a lot more isn't known yet.

In general, there's no more reason to think that we almost know everything than there was at any other point in the history of science.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

15. You missed the good part.

http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=ah63dzac

[Ghost Dog]

18. Ah. Such as:

Simple observation shows the ordered granulation of the photosphere does not behave as expected of turbulent convection in hot hydrogen. The pioneer of the discharge model of the Sun, Ralph Juergens, wrote in 1979, “The idea of turbulent convection delivering endless loads of energy upward from the unseen depths of the Sun conflicts not only with the ordered structure of the photosphere but also with the observable integrity of individual granules. The nodules of plasma appear, endure for some minutes, then fade away... Minnaert once published an analysis of photospheric behavior in terms of the Reynolds number. He found the critical value to lie near 103. The actual Reynolds number of the photosphere, as calculated from observable characteristics of the plasma, turned out to be in excess of 1011, which is to say, at least 100 million times greater than the critical value. Clearly, then, any convective motion in the photosphere should be violently turbulent and highly disordered, as Minnaert indeed pointed out. Practically in his next breath, however, Minnaert asserted that ‘The variable forms of the granules and their short lifetimes are evidence of nonstationary convection.’ Such an abrupt about-face is startling. Apparently Minnaert, himself, was disquieted; he immediately set out to minimize his non sequitur by suggesting ways and means for disregarding the classical theory of turbulence to make things come out right for the photosphere.” —Ralph E. Juergens

Sunspots are dark instead of bright, which is prima facie evidence that heat is not trying to escape from within. And the Sun’s corona is millions of degrees hotter than the photosphere. These simple observations point to the energy source of the Sun being external. Add to this the dominant influence of magnetic fields on the Sun’s external behavior and we arrive at the necessity for an electrical energy supply. It is the “subtle radiation traversing space which the star picks up,” and which Eddington immediately dismissed because his gravitational model required energy to be generated at the core of the star to bloat it to the observed size.

“In seeking a source of energy other than contraction the first question is whether the energy to be radiated in future is now hidden in the star or whether it is being picked up continuously from outside. Suggestions have been made that the impact of meteoric matter provides the heat, or that there is some subtle radiation traversing space which the star picks up. Strong objection may be urged against these hypotheses individually; but it is unnecessary to consider them in detail because they have arisen through a misunderstanding of the nature of the problem. No source of energy is of any avail unless it liberates energy in the deep interior of the star.” —A. Eddington, The Internal Constitution of the Stars.

Eddington’s legacy to stellar physics has been a return to Ptolemaic science where endless ‘epicycles’ are added to theory in an attempt to save appearances.

It is now almost a century since the thermonuclear theory of stars was formulated. It is an urban myth. Science has many urban myths that have a life of their own. Such myths are difficult to dispel when eminent scientists promote them, educators parrot them, the media dramatizes them, and students are discouraged from dissent.

“It is a strange thought, but I believe a correct one, that twenty or thirty pages of ideas and information would be capable of turning the present-day world upside down, or even destroying it. I have often tried to conceive of what those pages might contain, but of course I am a prisoner of the present-day world, just as all of you are. We cannot think outside the particular patterns that our brains are conditioned to, or, to be more accurate, we can only think a very little way outside, and then only if we are very original.” —Fred Hoyle, Of Men and Galaxies

[Blue State Bandit]

16. It's in the ether. It could come down to a "chicken or the egg" argument.

Is it heat that creates the electrical discharge, or the discharge that creates the heat.

[gratuitous]

2. And where is the House? On recess!

Goddam Republicans, off playing golf while the United States is under bombardment by the sun. They could at the very least launch Newt Gingrich into space to block some of this solar wind.

[abelenkpe]

3. lol! awesome. nt

[DocMac]

4. That was sooo funny.

We need humor or risk becoming the TURTLE.

[pennylane100]

5. Remember when people wanted to put Bill O'Reilley in a rocket and send him tot the sun.

It was the theme of a really funny blog many years ago., Well they did not want him there and he is on his way back to us.

[bananas]

17. Aurora should be visible for northern half of US, may last for 3 days

Posted in the science forum: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=228x81915

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/pipermail/gse-aa/2011-August/000106.html

The effects of the solar events of the past 3 days are have been
arriving at Earth and should provide aurora viewing for the next 3
days for the northern tier states in the US, north of England,
southern Scandinavia. The skies should be dark enough at midnight
south of 60 degrees N Latitude to see this aurora. In the US, the
aurora should be visible over most of the northern hald of the nation,
if the present activity continues. Watch the short term aurora
forecast panel at http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast .

[sofa king]

22. Aurora Watch seems to have crashed.

http://www.skynews.ca/pages/aurora.html

But if it comes back, this is the page I've been fishing for a couple of years now, hoping to see the rare glimpse of an aurora in Virginia.

[slackmaster]

19. Did we survive it?

What planet is this?

[bikebloke]

21. I thought I felt a bump.