Comments on: Sun’s magnetic field still in a funk during September

By: Standard Electrical Dictionary - T | Offshore Electrician

Standard Electrical Dictionary - T | Offshore Electrician — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:07:06 +0000

[...] Sun’s magnetic field still in a funk during September « Watts Up … [...]

By: New essay claims- “Not to Worry: Solar Magnetic Activity for Cycle 24 Is Increasing” « An Honest Climate Debate

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:22:18 +0000

[...] far, SC24 solar magnetic activity has been in a relative funk. See my post on this very issue from last [...]

By: New essay claims- “Not to Worry: Solar Magnetic Activity for Cycle 24 Is Increasing” « Watts Up With That?

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:01:48 +0000

[...] 31 10 2008 So far, solar magnetic activity has been in a relative funk. See my post on this very issue from last [...]

By: Glenn

Glenn — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 04:42:56 +0000

From the “Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institute”, 1908:

“Mr. Langley expressed the hope that careful study of the radiation of the sun might eventually lead to the discovery of means of forecasting climatic conditions for some time in advance. It is believed that the present volume will aid materially to show how far that hope may be justified, for it contains careful and comparable measurements of the solar radiation, extending over several years. Those indicate that the sun’s radiation alters in its intensity from time to time, and that those alterations are sufficient to affect the temperature of the earth very appreciably.”

http://books.google.com/books?id=FcIRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=Langley,+%22The+Temperature+of+the+Moon&source=web&ots=_MWX2zdg61&sig=QzykQ4v7AuN99VOntIfYkDK3qb8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PPR2,M1

By: Robert Bateman

Robert Bateman — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 01:11:43 +0000

Mt. Wilson: 2008, Friday the 17th of October, 2008, 15:27 ut, Seeing 2.5, J. Boyden
No sunspots seen today.
Uccle: Image Continuum 2, no spots visible but numbered.
Royal Observatory of Belgium Drawing: No spots drawn 8:00 ut
IPS: No spots visible on Calgoora White Light Image
But we have noaa reporting sunspot # yesterday to be 24.
Yesterday was no different than today: Spots reported not visible on projections but on ccd images and Magnetograms and H-Alpha.
Are they that desperate?
Seems like it.

By: Robert Bateman

Robert Bateman — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:44:45 +0000

I have checked all the other observatories I can find, Mt. Wilson, Calgoora, Uccle and the last sunspot sighted was by Mt. Wilson on Oct. 12th. Catania I suspect is playing Hubble imager with sunspots, coming up with data that is skewing the real picture. I have watched Calgoora since this last spot 1005 appeared, and it faded off on the 12th just as Mt. Wilson last recorded it. I object to Catania polluting the pool of sunspot data just because they can. The Sept. 11th spot and one other spotted by Catania falls also under this category of CCD sunpot, and should be reviewed and the record corrected.
If Catania and other wish to further the knowledge of sunpots at minim using advanced imagers, that’s fine, but don’t do it at the expense of historical records that need to be maintained of the highest possible integrity.

By: nobwainer

nobwainer — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 04:01:06 +0000

Thanks Leif.

By: Leif Svalgaard

Leif Svalgaard — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:03:57 +0000

nobwainer (18:16:02) :
can you explain Leif how a SC24 spot can be in the southern hemisphere
Spots from any cycle can be in both hemispheres.

is it just simply that the leading spot has a different polarity to a leading spot that might exist in the northern hemisphere right now?
Yes the two hemispheres have opposite polarities for the leading spots. Also, the high latitude is a clue.
———
As far as I can see, the SC23 area has now produced a sunspeck on SOHO MDI.

By: Robert Bateman

Robert Bateman — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:54:36 +0000

I’m not finding anybody’s images of sunspots except good old Catania. From looking at their image this morning, and doing a projection myself, they are imaging the Sun at very high resolution. I couldn’t pick up thos spots in a 6″ APO for crying out loud.
I call what Catania is up to image historgram stretching. That’s great if you are looking for faint galaxies to count in distant clusters, but this is ridiculous.

By: nobwainer

nobwainer — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:16:02 +0000

can you explain Leif how a SC24 spot can be in the southern hemisphere….is it just simply that the leading spot has a different polarity to a leading spot that might exist in the northern hemisphere right now?

By: Leif Svalgaard

Leif Svalgaard — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:58:43 +0000

nobwainer (16:48:06) :
solarcycle24.com is reporting SC24 spot in southern hemisphere…is that correct?
Yes, and there is also a growing SC23 area near central meridian. No spot yet.

By: nobwainer

nobwainer — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:48:06 +0000

solarcycle24.com is reporting SC24 spot in southern hemisphere…is that correct?

By: Leif Svalgaard

Leif Svalgaard — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:18:41 +0000

schnoerkelman (08:41:55) :
For all of you Sun Worshippers out there some very nice pictures here
Number 4 is of special interest. It shows how the facular brightening [one of parts that makes up TSI] comes about by us looking ’sideways’ into the ‘hills’ and seeing the hotter material inside. Somewhat analogous to this: http://arfarfarf.com/photos/2006_burning_man/lava_glowing_br.php

By: Robert Bateman

Robert Bateman — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:36:51 +0000

I’m getting reports on solarcycle24.com of new sunspots in addition to 1005. But I don’t see any visible image showing 1005 any more, and nothing on the new spots by Catania.

By: schnoerkelman

schnoerkelman — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:41:55 +0000

For all of you Sun Worshippers out there some very nice pictures here http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/the_sun.html

By: Leif Svalgaard

Leif Svalgaard — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:31:44 +0000

vukcevic (10:43:54) :
that there is a feedback between the solar wind flow and the main solar magnetic field.
sufficiently vague to mean almost anything. In actual fact, the IS a very strong connection, but it goes the other way: It is the main solar field that generates the solar wind. One can even put a hard number of that: The observations show that the Sun delivers ~600 kW/Wb to power the solar wind. This power from magnetic flux law also governs the winds from other stars.

By: Leif Svalgaard

Leif Svalgaard — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:10:20 +0000

vukcevic (10:43:54) :
Assuming there are such interacting currents. what do they do? What specific effects do they have? And how i sthat related to the solar cycle.

There are actually many dynamos on the Sun. Of different sizes and lifetimes. Some are global, some are local. I will concede that it is unlikely that there are exactly TWO dynamos, I would say thousands are more likely.

By: vukcevic

vukcevic — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:43:54 +0000

Leif Svalgaard (18:08:10) :
vukcevic (11:57:17) : I will assume that the Alfven’s current has certain effect on the solar surface events ( ? ) etc

http://www.plasma-universe.com/index.php/Image:Heliospheric-current-circuit.png
then there is a good chance for rise of a feedback.
Recently I came across this statement:
“This seems to mean that any consideration of the solar magnetic field generation should take into account the heliospheric current circuit as well as the currents flowing inside the Sun. Such a conclusion corroborates our recent result (Israelevich et al. 2000) that there is a feedback between the solar wind flow and the main solar magnetic field.”

http://www.aanda.org/index.php?option=article&access=standard&Itemid=129&url=/articles/aa/full/2001/34/aah2814/aah2814.right.html

I assume the authors are referring to a bidirectional interaction.
As far as existence of a double dynamo is concerned for number of reasons I remain highly sceptical.

By: vukcevic

vukcevic — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:39:58 +0000

Leif Svalgaard (18:08:10) :
vukcevic (11:57:17) : I will assume that the Alfven’s current has certain effect on the solar surface events ( ? ) etc

Thank you Dr. Svalgaard. I accept that there may be number (2 or more) currents, of various orientation and designation, but certainly they must interact via their associated magnetic fields. Whenever there is an interaction there is a chance of a feedback. In my view for a feedback to affect oscillations it is not strength of the feedback signal that is most crucial, it is its direction (+ or -) and susceptibility of the system to oscillation. Required energy is supplied by the source of oscillations and even weakest of the feedback signals will eventually cause a build up (or down) of oscillations with power which is number of orders of magnitude greater the feedback signal itself.
If Heliospheric currents constitute a close electrical circuit (http://www.plasma-universe.com/index.php/Image:Heliospheric-current-circuit.png ) then there is a good chance for rise of a feedback.
Recently I came across this statement:
“This seems to mean that any consideration of the solar magnetic field generation should take into account the heliospheric current circuit as well as the currents flowing inside the Sun. Such a conclusion corroborates our recent result (Israelevich et al. 2000) that there is a feedback between the solar wind flow and the main solar magnetic field.” (http://www.aanda.org/index.php?option=article&access=standard&Itemid=129&url=/articles/aa/full/2001/34/aah2814/aah2814.right.html)
I assume the authors are referring to a bidirectional interaction.
As far as existence of a double dynamo is concerned for number of reasons I remain highly sceptical.

By: SteveSadlov

SteveSadlov — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:32:22 +0000

Not to get all Art Bell, but, there may be some factual basis to how the Maya viewed time, and, how they architected their calendar. While I do not believe 2012 is “the end of the world” I am increasingly open to the possibility that it is a looming mode change (or, a looming set of circumstances owing to a mode change which has already occurred or is occurring). I would further be open to consider the possibility that these changes are semi periodic, or, otherwise constrained, in such as way that over, say, 10000 years, “the ancients” developed a sense of them, and, by the by, learned to somewhat anticipate them.