I know. This sounds like a plot of a 1950’s scifi movie. But it is real. From my view, our localized corner of the solar system is now different than it used to be and changes in the magnetic interactions are evident everywhere. First we have the interplanetary magnetic field that took an abrupt dive in October 2005 and has not recovered since and remains at very low level:
click for a larger image
Then we have the recent discovery that the ionosphere has dropped in altitude to unexpected and unexplained low levels.
We have a solar cycle 24 (driven by the solar magnetic dynamo) which can’t seem to get out of the starting gate, being a year late with forecasts for activity from it being revised again and again.
And finally we have this, this discovery that Earth’s magnetic field can be ripped open and our atmosphere laid bare to the solar wind, much like Mars.
Magnetism is underrated in the grand scheme of things, in my opinion. We’d do well to pay more attention to magnetic trends in our corner of the universe and what effects it has on Earthly climate. – Anthony
From NASA News (h/t to Geoff Sharp)
Dec. 16, 2008: NASA’s five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth’s magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to “load up” the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.
“At first I didn’t believe it,” says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. “This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction.”
The magnetosphere is a bubble of magnetism that surrounds Earth and protects us from solar wind. Exploring the bubble is a key goal of the THEMIS mission, launched in February 2007. The big discovery came on June 3, 2007, when the five probes serendipitously flew through the breach just as it was opening. Onboard sensors recorded a torrent of solar wind particles streaming into the magnetosphere, signaling an event of unexpected size and importance.
Right: One of the THEMIS probes exploring the space around Earth, an artist’s concept. [more]
“The opening was huge—four times wider than Earth itself,” says Wenhui Li, a space physicist at the University of New Hampshire who has been analyzing the data. Li’s colleague Jimmy Raeder, also of New Hampshire, says “1027 particles per second were flowing into the magnetosphere—that’s a 1 followed by 27 zeros. This kind of influx is an order of magnitude greater than what we thought was possible.”
The event began with little warning when a gentle gust of solar wind delivered a bundle of magnetic fields from the Sun to Earth. Like an octopus wrapping its tentacles around a big clam, solar magnetic fields draped themselves around the magnetosphere and cracked it open. The cracking was accomplished by means of a process called “magnetic reconnection.” High above Earth’s poles, solar and terrestrial magnetic fields linked up (reconnected) to form conduits for solar wind. Conduits over the Arctic and Antarctic quickly expanded; within minutes they overlapped over Earth’s equator to create the biggest magnetic breach ever recorded by Earth-orbiting spacecraft.
Above: A computer model of solar wind flowing around Earth’s magnetic field on June 3, 2007. Background colors represent solar wind density; red is high density, blue is low. Solid black lines trace the outer boundaries of Earth’s magnetic field. Note the layer of relatively dense material beneath the tips of the white arrows; that is solar wind entering Earth’s magnetic field through the breach. Credit: Jimmy Raeder/UNH. [larger image]
The size of the breach took researchers by surprise. “We’ve seen things like this before,” says Raeder, “but never on such a large scale. The entire day-side of the magnetosphere was open to the solar wind.”
The circumstances were even more surprising. Space physicists have long believed that holes in Earth’s magnetosphere open only in response to solar magnetic fields that point south. The great breach of June 2007, however, opened in response to a solar magnetic field that pointed north.
“To the lay person, this may sound like a quibble, but to a space physicist, it is almost seismic,” says Sibeck. “When I tell my colleagues, most react with skepticism, as if I’m trying to convince them that the sun rises in the west.”
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Here is why they can’t believe their ears: The solar wind presses against Earth’s magnetosphere almost directly above the equator where our planet’s magnetic field points north. Suppose a bundle of solar magnetism comes along, and it points north, too. The two fields should reinforce one another, strengthening Earth’s magnetic defenses and slamming the door shut on the solar wind. In the language of space physics, a north-pointing solar magnetic field is called a “northern IMF” and it is synonymous with shields up!
“So, you can imagine our surprise when a northern IMF came along and shields went down instead,” says Sibeck. “This completely overturns our understanding of things.”
Northern IMF events don’t actually trigger geomagnetic storms, notes Raeder, but they do set the stage for storms by loading the magnetosphere with plasma. A loaded magnetosphere is primed for auroras, power outages, and other disturbances that can result when, say, a CME (coronal mass ejection) hits.
The years ahead could be especially lively. Raeder explains: “We’re entering Solar Cycle 24. For reasons not fully understood, CMEs in even-numbered solar cycles (like 24) tend to hit Earth with a leading edge that is magnetized north. Such a CME should open a breach and load the magnetosphere with plasma just before the storm gets underway. It’s the perfect sequence for a really big event.”
Sibeck agrees. “This could result in stronger geomagnetic storms than we have seen in many years.”
For more information about the THEMIS mission, visit http://nasa.gov/themis
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So TIME magazine is getting ready for next years denial LOL
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1866862,00.html
It’s the sun, stupid?
Funny that. I thought it was the earth’s magnetic field that had the big hole in it. But let’s not let the facts get in the way shall we?
Why numpties have to bring AGW into this I don’t know.
High above Earth’s poles, solar and terrestrial magnetic fields linked up (reconnected) to form conduits for solar wind. Conduits over the Arctic and Antarctic quickly expanded; within minutes they overlapped over Earth’s equator to create the biggest magnetic breach ever recorded by Earth-orbiting spacecraft.
I read a lot of very funny comments here, I really liked them 🙂 but I am looking for a pint of(popular-)science as well. Does it mean, from what I quoted, that auroras might have been seen on the equator?
…eeuh.. so are we doomed now..? what will be the consequences?
Experimental scientists are delighted when they find something unexpected. But modellers are dismayed because it undermines their credibility.
Dennis Ward
“Why numpties have to bring AGW into this I don’t know.”
The data posted here could indicate the beginnings of a new Ice Age. Or not.
Look up the history of what happened during the Maunder Minimum (1645-1710). If we are entering into a new Ice Age, then we can expect drastically shortened growing seasons and widespread famine. For 100 years.
Unfortunately, the cult of AGW threatens to bankrupt the industrialized nations and would make them (us) even more unprepared.
People commenting here watch too many Holywood movies!
Commenting on NASA news release, one prominent scientist noted “You will soon note that the polarity of the breach is positive in the USA since we drive on the right side of the road, while the polarity is negative over the UK. The newest positive breach has formed over China, and a very large negative one is forming over India. This is just more clear evidence that our magnetic vehicles are causing harm to the earth’s magnetic field on a scale that is off the charts”.
He further explained, “Naturally, these magnetic disturbances extend millions of miles out into space and have linked up with the sun’s magnetic field, causing an unprecedented collapse of the ionosphere and a decrease in solar activity” Asked about the impact on climate change, the scientist responded, “The changes are happening so fast it is outstripping our ability to model it – this should scare you. One thing for certain is that it has to be stopped, because the positive feedbacks are going to amplify the effects, and we are now seeing evidence that this is already happening on a global scale. I fear we are nearing a tipping point on this issue. Unfortunately, there are not a large number of scientists working on the problem at this time, though I feel sentiment is changing in Washington, now that we have demonstrated the gravity of the situation”. On a positive note, the scientist concluded that there was already enough global warming “in the pipeline” to combat ANY extended solar minima, and suggested that one solution should the phenomenon “mask” any of the warming currently modeled, would be to simply reverse the direction of our roads and highways. “this would also aid our sagging infrastructure and create new jobs” he said.
I’ve been a registered skeptic since the days of the great Antarctic Ozone Hole (or maybe even earlier). Why did we assume then that this was something odd, unusual, man-made and disastrous? Why do we assume now that this is something odd and disastrous?
Guys, we don’t know. And don’t know means don’t know. We set up space probes to investigate magnetic fields, solar winds and other natural phenomena and then when we find something that we thought (hoped?) didn’t exist we start doing a Chicken Licken.
If you had used words like ‘ozone hole’ or ‘space probe’ or ‘solar wind’ or ‘computer model’ to my dear old granpaw (who passed on in 1963), you might as well have been speaking Tagalog to him — and the same would have gone for 99.9% of the human race, probably including 99.8% of scientists.
1. Get a grip. It’s probably happened a million times before.
2. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.
3. In 100 years we’ll all be dead anyway.
4. One more reason for us not to swallow the AGW scam quite so enthusiastically!
Earth’s magnetic field reversal – it seems (correct me if I’m wrong), the general thinking is that when the earth’s magnetic field does it’s polar switch, the whole global field has to collapse for some period of time then revive itself which, at that point, it will be reversed. I guess I’m missing something but I don’t understand why it *must* collapse before it re-orients.
The magnetic north pole has been known to drift around all the time in a small area and I presume the south pole drifts in the same but antipodal way (it stays on the opposite side of the globe). Since, if I recall correctly, the earth’s magnetic field is caused by the rotation of the inner iron core, why can’t the poles just drift over time, gradually shifting their positions to their opposite locations but during that time, keep their relative strength?
Just a thought to ponder…
Reguards,
Jeff K
Hello Guys,
Just been listening to a discussion on the radio about historical interest in mars.
Appearantly, in the late 19th century, after the discovery of canals on mars the belief was the martians were short of water. A great fear developed that they’ed come looking for ours!!
DC
crosspatch (00:52:29) :
“And here we have evidence that CO2 was not only doubled but doubled again and it resulted in only 4C of temperature rise.”
Increased atmospheric CO2 is a result of temperature rise. Temperature rise is not a result of increased atmospheric CO2.
One fundamental fact – all magnetic fields are produced by electric currents.
No ifs and buts.
If a magnetic field appears to get weak, then the current producing it has weakened.
And cosmic radiation, while sounding somewhat esoteric, is nothing by charged particles in motion. Some of us would call those things electric currents.
The Telegraph did give it a bit of coverage.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/3798009/Large-hole-in-magnetic-field-that-protects-Earth-from-suns-rays.html
Mister Jones (23:13:24) :
Yes, in a geologist’s timeframe. Geologists don’t use calendars. Cape Cod is an ephemeral landform created yesterday. Blink and you won’t see London.
And the reversals are far more random than some doomsayers would have you believe. Visit http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/magnetic/timeline.html and make your pown prediction about when the next reversal will happen. It concludes:
This is off-topic, but is important to your wallet.
Climate summit ends in acrimony
A key climate change summit has ended in acrimony after the developed world failed to agree to a new tax on industry to help poorer countries survive the droughts and floods attributed to climate change.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3775063/Climate-summit-ends-in-acrimony.html
A few excerpts:
“The UN talks in Poznan, Poland, that cost £23 million and produced 13,000 tonnes of carbon, were supposed to make progress on cutting world emissions and helping the poor adapt to extreme weather conditions.”
“More than 11,000 delegates took part including “climate change superstars” like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Gore and Bianca Jagger.” (Note: They all have impeccable scientific credentials.)
“The conference, that included a gala dinner serving traditional Polish cuisine, cost more than £23 million.”
“But Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, insisted rich and poor were able to work together, especially after US President-elect Barack Obama signalled his willingness to be part of a global deal.”
to Mike Pickett, thank you for your great comments. 🙂
It doesn’t get said often enough.
I remember something Penn and Teller said—-even they could see that, “it should be ok to say ‘we don’t know'”.
It should be OK to say “we don’t know”.
I wonder what bright spark came up with the idea that they should handle the politics pre-emptively by claiming virtual scientific certainty.
Quote from Gisstemp
“Latest News
2008-12-16: Please see our preliminary discussion of this year’s data.
Starting this month, the data will be held, investigated, and potential problems reported to and resolved with the data provider before making them public. However, as we noted in the “Data Quality Control” section of our 1999 paper: We would welcome feedback from users on any specific data in this record.
A few station data from Canada were reported as potentially incorrect and subsequently removed by NOAA.”
Looks like they will checking the data before they release it from now on.
Pete W
Sam the Skeptic,
All good points. I would also point out that terrible ice ages have happened many times in the past, but that this does not make them any better.
Isn’t this the time in the Star Trek series when Mr. Spock puts everything right by ‘cross-circuiting to ‘B’?
We’ll simply have to use thrusters to rotate our shields …..
I think Leif is correct, this appears to be an attempt to justify the expense of the satellite that just went up. If you frame discoveries (which may or may not be ‘unprecedented’) in this way it looks far better than saying, “Hey, we just spent $300 million to find out that things pretty much are as we expected.”
This way you get a leg up on funding for the next gen satellite you want….
What was the consensus on how the magnetosphere functioned? I wonder how many peer reviewed papers were published on this issue!
crosspatch (00:52:29) :
It notes that during the Cretaceous, atmospheric CO2 levels appear to have averaged about 1700ppm, or about 6 times the pre-industrial level of CO2 in the immediate pre-industrial period. It also notes that global temperatures appear to have averaged about 4C higher than today.
If we can go by the ice core records we have had Co2 above 2000ppm during an ice age….go figure.
http://biocab.org/Carbon_Dioxide_Geological_Timescale.html
Carsten Arnholm, Norway (01:17:46) :
You sure it is not sunset? Or is it the long sunset of the north?
Down in Greece we often get these red sunsets on rainy cloudy days, which usually happen in winter. Once, when the clouds happened to be low and mist like the whole air was red for a few minutes. Magical.
“Magnetism is underrated in the grand scheme of things, in my opinion”
I couldn’t agree any more. I just love when NASA is baffled. There is still much to learn.
Aren’t the earths magnetic poles overdue for a polar shift?
Any correlation between this event and the growing number of tinfoil hat wearers?