This is unusual. A live media teleconference on the sun. Even more unusual is this statement:
The sun’s current state could result in changing conditions in the solar system.
As you may recall, I posted an entry about the Ulysses mission back on June 16th and the findings of a lowered magnetic field in the sun, from the JPL press release then:
Ulysses ends its career after revealing that the magnetic field emanating from the sun’s poles is much weaker than previously observed. This could mean the upcoming solar maximum period will be less intense than in recent history.
We live in interesting times.
Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
MEDIA ADVISORY : M08-176
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/sep/HQ_M08176_Ulysses_teleconference.html
NASA To Discuss Conditions On And Surrounding The Sun
WASHINGTON — NASA will hold a media teleconference Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 12:30 p.m. EDT, to discuss data from the joint NASA and European Space Agency Ulysses mission that reveals the sun’s solar wind is at a 50-year low. The sun’s current state could result in changing conditions in the solar system.
Ulysses was the first mission to survey the space environment above and below the poles of the sun. The reams of data Ulysses returned have changed forever the way scientists view our star and its effects. The venerable spacecraft has lasted more than 17 years – almost four times its expected mission lifetime.
The panelists are:
— Ed Smith, NASA Ulysses project scientist and magnetic field instrument investigator, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
— Dave McComas, Ulysses solar wind instrument principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio
— Karine Issautier, Ulysses radio wave lead investigator, Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France
— Nancy Crooker, Research Professor, Boston University, Boston, Mass.
Reporters should call 866-617-1526 and use the pass code “sun” to participate in the teleconference. International media should call 1-210-795-0624.
To access visuals that will the accompany presentations, go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/ulysses-20080923.html
Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:
– end –
h/t to John Sumpton
“…data from the joint NASA and European Space Agency Ulysses mission that reveals the sun’s solar wind is at a 50-year low.”
Will they discuss how this will effect the output of T. Boone’s wind turbines? Will the solar wind be disruptive of solar panel arrays?
“The sun’s current state could result in changing conditions in the solar system.”
The word “could” is often use as a disclaimer. Scientists have to be very cautious about possibly confirming that the Sun has an effect on the Solar System, which, of course, includes planet Earth. Admission of such a fact would place certain scientists in a defensive position.
Attempts at humor aside, this conference may provide the “solar stake” to drive into the heart of the AGW “vampire.”
Crosspatch,
…is how the Sun moving through areas with different amounts of “dark matter” might affect the fusion reactions that generate the Sun’s energy. I believe it has been discovered recently that atomic decay seems to vary with our distance from the Sun for reasons not exactly understood.
Dark matter and other (conveniently) invisible things are good for filling holes in the hydrogen fusion reactor the sun is supposed to be. You should speak with Oliver Manuel and a host of other astronomers and astrophysicist about an “iron core sun”.
Personally, I don’t know what to think, but what they said seems very plausible.
Roy Tucker (11:49:16) :
The second edition, retitled as “The Chilling Stars, 2nd Edition: A Cosmic View of Climate Change” out, see http://www.amazon.com/Chilling-Stars-2nd-Cosmic-Climate/dp/1840468661 Has anyone read it? How much does it differ from the first edition? How much does it raise Leif’s blood pressure? 🙂
BTW, Leif, thanks for keeping our feet on the ground here, but do you have to use the superglue?
Anthony:
Blog Stats: 3,999,830 hits. 170 shy of the 4,000,000th.
Hathaway is not on the panel !!!!!
Trevor Pugh you should read around the blogs a bit more. You will come to realise that SciAme is no longer a respected sci mag. It has become a good read but only as a comic. When I was studying for my degrees some 25 years ago it was almost mandatory reading, but not any more I’m afraid. You can quote all you like from them but it will gather no respect in the blogesphere.
Since the “climate crisis” hasn’t really lived up to expectation … perhaps NASA’s prepping us for the dreaded “Solar crisis”. No doubt it will involve an instant, massive influx of money from hysterical taxpayers.
It doesn’t have to be “dark matter”. It could just be clouds of hydrogen or something like that that ol’ Sol sweeps up as we orbit the Milky Way. This is an old theory. Not sure how you would prove or disprove it.
“Crosspatch, the glacial/interglacial cycles are controlled by the earth’s orbital parameters.”
Fine and dandy, for the last 5 million years, but what about before that, when the planet was far hotter? Why didn’t orbital parameters matter then? Don’t bother with a lecture on Milankovich forces, although I am not sure I spelled it right, I am aware of them and do not dispute them. I just think that they are not all powerful, obviously.
NASA will not attempt to make any solar-climate connection in this press conference, I can just about guarantee that. It will probably just be about the sun and the solar system, with little reference to possible effects on earth’s climate.
Dee,
My source at NASA tells me NASA also intends to announce the cancellation of the follow-up mission at this time. 🙁
Cancelled no doubt because the first mission didn’t provide enough evidence supporting AGW. We just can’t have these kinds of question-raising studies if they are going to call AGW into question. ;^)
Mark (12:04:51) :
So were we measuring solar wind over 50 years ago or is it the lowest in 50 years?
Both, but right now the solar wind is just were it was 100 years ago, so the Sun is not doing something strange.
Scott (12:09:31) :
What was used to measure solar wind in the 1950s and before?
The solar wind creates magnetic disturbances in the Earth’s field. Knowing what kind of solar wind creates what disturbance [as we can see since 1961 – when the first measurements of the solar wind were made], we can conclude that a similar disturbance 100 years ago was created by a similar solar wind.
Could it be that the solar wind is at a 100 year low, or maybe a 200 year low?
Definitely at a 100-year low. We don’t know about the 200 years, but other evidence suggests that it was no different than 100 years ago and now.
Scott
Me think, NASA discovered carbon in the sun,
and calculated it’s “carbon-footprint”
…. so politicians can calculate how to tax the sun. LOL
“He showed that over the last 20 years, solar activity has been slowly declining, which should have led to a drop in global temperatures if the theory was correct.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7327393.stm
What subjectively bad logic. And in general, wrong. CO2 hasn’t increased temps in the last 20 years,
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/uah_august2008.png
temps have levelled off. It likely takes a while for the planet to cool. And we may be seeing the start of the cooling show up in global temps in the last couple years.
I hate to be a party pooper, but NASA has a history of telegraphing “important announcements”, that get the media and blogo-sphere buzzing, before disappointing their expectant public with a relatively benign piece of research.
As we know from reading this blog, the current lack of sunspots does not signal any kind of catastrophe (yet), much as some people here might like it to. I’m reminded of the 3 year ocean circulation research that gave certain people the impression that the North Atlantic Drift was “shutting down”. Unfortunately for the researchers, it turned out to be a natural cycle (like so much in Science these days!). It wouldn’t surprise me if NASA were going to spin some fact or other in a catastrophic light, and then propose funding some more research/little space vehicles, to find out what’s really going on.
Ric Werme (13:24:14) :
How much does it raise Leif’s blood pressure? 🙂
Not anymore than the IPCC AR4 🙂
BTW, Leif, thanks for keeping our feet on the ground here, but do you have to use the superglue?
Apparently, since according to Glenn “you’ve demonstrated an abysmal record for practicing poor logic […]” to cover my inadequacies. So, superglue helps.
Anthony:
Blog Stats: 3,999,830 hits. 170 shy of the 4,000,000th.
I’m doing my bit to keep the pot boiling 🙂
NASA Conference to announce Hansen resigning from Lehman Bros. advisory position. Graphics shows inverted hockey stick which was erroneously used in carbon trading scheme for Gore. I am sorry I could not resist.
NASA is publishing a paper, they are having a press conference. They will propose something new, science must move on.
They will not say they were mistaken about anything. Or ever have been. Or ever could be.
A key chart will show that the sun contains by far the bulk of matter in the solar system but solar research gets only a tiny fraction of scientific research funding.
It will be 99% certain that funding for studying the sun must be increased by billions of dollars. And they will just happen to have a plan for the new observation programs.
The plan will probably emphasize priority for a shuttle replacement or rejuvenation of the decaying shuttle program. Exactly how that will improve observations of the sun will not be obvious. Indeed, that part it may be classified.
Leif – I really enjoy and learn from your posting here. You’re a patient man.
philw1776 (14:35:24) :
Leif – I really enjoy and learn from your posting here. You’re a patient man.
Thank you for your kind words. A good counterweight to the abuse that comes my way at times.
but right now the solar wind is just were it was 100 years ago, so the Sun is not doing something strange
100 years ago earth was cooler. so low solar wind ~1900 = cooler. low solar wind ~2008 = cooler; is this not what we’ve seen over the last decade? Temps peaking and dropping in conjunction with the peak and fall of solar activity?
I agree, it’s not “doing something strange,” it’s doing what does. Irrespective of whatever causal mechanisms we have or have not discovered, the sun varies and takes our climate with it on the ride.
Remember – this teleconference is about the Ulysses mission
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/ulysses-exits-with-insight-into-our-next-solar-cycle/
This will give a few of the project scientists a chance to discuss some of what has been learned already from the Ulysses data, and some ideas for research using the data in the future.
There are bound to be questions from the press about Solar Cycle 24 and about climate, but I doubt these folks will get into much speculation.
The data from Ulysses may present a significant challenge to some solar forecast models, but that is a subject for another conference entirely.
mark wagner (14:46:42) :
100 years ago earth was cooler. so low solar wind ~1900 = cooler. low solar wind ~2008 = cooler; is this not what we’ve seen over the last decade? Temps peaking and dropping in conjunction with the peak and fall of solar activity?
Except it still has a long way to go [like a degree or so] to get down to where it was. I don’t think it will, because the oceans still hold a lot of heat. and as you know, I don’t think that tiny solar variation packs much heat. [no pun on packing heat].
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John-X (14:58:45) :
The data from Ulysses may present a significant challenge to some solar forecast models, but that is a subject for another conference entirely.
In our solar cycle prediction paper http://www.leif.org/research/Cycle%2024%20Smallest%20100%20years.pdf we end with this further prediction:
“The solar polar fields are important in supplying most of the heliospheric magnetic flux during solar minimum conditions. With weaker polar fields, the interplanetary magnetic fields that the Ulysses space probe will measure during its next polar passes in 2007–2008 are therefore expected to be significantly lower than during the 1994–1995 polar passes.”
This has now come to pass [no pun intended].
Darwin, NASA are too late already. Wall Street and Fannie Mae beat them to it.
I’m looking forward to the AIRS press conference, when they’ve finally finished “checking” their data.