From Science @ NASA.gov Researchers using NASA’s fleet of five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a form of space weather that packs the punch of an earthquake and plays a key role in sparking bright Northern Lights. They call it “the spacequake.”
A spacequake is a temblor in Earth’s magnetic field. It is felt most strongly in Earth orbit, but is not exclusive to space. The effects can reach all the way down to the surface of Earth itself.
“Magnetic reverberations have been detected at ground stations all around the globe, much like seismic detectors measure a large earthquake,” says THEMIS principal investigator Vassilis Angelopoulos of UCLA.
It’s an apt analogy because “the total energy in a spacequake can rival that of a magnitude 5 or 6 earthquake,” according to Evgeny Panov of the Space Research Institute in Austria. Panov is first author of a paper reporting the results in the April 2010 issue of Geophysical Research Letters (GRL).
In 2007, THEMIS discovered the precursors of spacequakes. The action begins in Earth’s magnetic tail, which is stretched out like a windsock by the million mph solar wind. Sometimes the tail can become so stretched and tension-filled, it snaps back like an over-torqued rubber band. Solar wind plasma trapped in the tail hurtles toward Earth. On more than one occasion, the five THEMIS spacecraft were in the line of fire when these “plasma jets” swept by. Clearly, the jets were going to hit Earth. But what would happen then? The fleet moved closer to the planet to find out.
“Now we know,” says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. “Plasma jets trigger spacequakes.”
According to THEMIS, the jets crash into the geomagnetic field some 30,000 km above Earth’s equator. The impact sets off a rebounding process, in which the incoming plasma actually bounces up and down on the reverberating magnetic field. Researchers call it “repetitive flow rebuffing.” It’s akin to a tennis ball bouncing up and down on a carpeted floor. The first bounce is a big one, followed by bounces of decreasing amplitude as energy is dissipated in the carpet.
“We’ve long suspected that something like this was happening,” says Sibeck. “By observing the process in situ, however, THEMIS has discovered something new and surprising.”
The surprise is plasma vortices, huge whirls of magnetized gas as wide as Earth itself, spinning on the verge of the quaking magnetic field.
“When plasma jets hit the inner magnetosphere, vortices with opposite sense of rotation appear and reappear on either side of the plasma jet,” explains Rumi Nakamura of the Space Research Institute in Austria, a co-author of the study. “We believe the vortices can generate substantial electrical currents in the near-Earth environment.”
Acting together, vortices and spacequakes could have a noticeable effect on Earth. The tails of vortices may funnel particles into Earth’s atmosphere, sparking auroras and making waves of ionization that disturb radio communications and GPS. By tugging on surface magnetic fields, spacequakes generate currents in the very ground we walk on. Ground current surges can have profound consequences, in extreme cases bringing down power grids over a wide area.
After THEMIS discovered the jets and quakes, Joachim Birn of the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico conducted a computer simulation of the rebounding process. Lo and behold, vortices appeared in good accord with THEMIS measurements. Moreover, the simulations suggest that the rebounding process can be seen from Earth’s surface in the form of ripples and whirls in auroral displays. Ground stations report just such a phenomenon.
“It’s a complicated process, but it all fits together,” says Sibeck.
The work isn’t finished. “We still have a lot to learn,” he adds. “How big can spacequakes become? How many vortices can swirl around Earth at once–and how do they interact with one another?”
Stay tuned for answers from THEMIS.
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tallbloke says:
July 29, 2010 at 6:55 am
the dynamo generating the elctric current supplies some of that current to the field coils, generating the magnetic fields…
which is how cosmic dynamos (including the solar) work… You are catching on.
How would you refresh a field coil which had lost the ability to get a current going Leif? By stroking it with a permanent magnet or by jolting it with current from the battery?
Since the magnetic field is frozen in, it can’t really die, so no problem there. There can be no battery in a highly conducting plasma, because separated charges will immediately find each other again, apart from the problem of separating the charges in the first place.
Leif Svalgaard says:
July 29, 2010 at 7:56 am
tallbloke says:
How would you refresh a field coil which had lost the ability to get a current going Leif? By stroking it with a permanent magnet or by jolting it with current from the battery?
There can be no battery in a highly conducting plasma, because separated charges will immediately find each other again, apart from the problem of separating the charges in the first place.
Uh huh. I think we’re going to find it’s all quite a lot more dynamic than previously thought, but as I said, I see no point in us getting into a debate about it, because…. well, because.
“The plasma universe consists of swirling streams of electrons and ions flowing in filaments. Where pairs of these spaghettilike structures interact, the particle gain kinetic energy and at narrow ‘pinch’ regions produce the entire range of galaxy types as well as the full spectrum of cosmic electromagnetic radiation. Thus galaxies must lie ‘like pearl beads on a necklace’ along filaments, much as they are observed to do on a large scale. The bulk of the filaments are invisible from a distance, much like the Birkeland currents that circle the Earth but are invisible from its surface. In space, these currents are called Birkeland Currents, in honor of the 19th century physicist who suggested their existence. In the laboratory, they are called Bennett-pinches, Z-pinches, or ‘Zed’ pinches. In 1934 W. H. Bennett discovered that streams of electrons flowing in the axial or Z-direction, self pinch from the magnetic field they generate around themselves.”
http://plasmauniverse.info/elec_currents.html
Leif Svalgaard says: July 29, 2010 at 3:36 am
………………………
With due respect, both statements are nonsense.
– you can magnetise or demagnetise peace of iron from some distance by applying a magnetic pulse from an electric coil from some distance. Magnetic field always goes for the path of the highest permeability, and that is strait down.
– Declinations and Inclinations are recorded all the way back to 1590, and on bases of those main intensity is calculated.
Between 1650-1700 more than 4000 recordings were made on numerous locations, covering most of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, from Iceland to the Malacca Straits.
Here is the map.
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/DO.gif
Don’t believe everything you read in the ‘new scientists’, talk to your friends at
Institute fur Geophysik, Zurich
What I am perusing is the reasons for an excellent correlation,
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/NFC1.htm
not credibility, if true credibility will take care of itself . If my reasoning is at fault, than I am more than happy to pass the baton to someone else who may be inspired and more capable to find out what is actually going on.
In contrast, by using nonsensical arguments you are doing disservice to your hard earned reputation.
“space quakes occur every day on average, so no climate effects would be expected as also there is not enough energy in them.”
What we have is a charged planetary body, and above that clouds forming a charged layer, and further out the upper atmosphere, etc.
With electrical energy coming in, perhaps there is a natural capacitor effect at work here, where electricity follows a path in, builds in the capacitor, and releases.
“In both everyday electronics and advanced plasma research the capacitor is important for its ability to rapidly store and release electrical energy. Some of the highest energy experiments in the world are performed using large rooms full of charged capacitors to produce intense discharges.”
solrey says: July 28, 2010 at 8:55 am
…………………
Quote:
“When a magnetic storm is underway the Earth’s atmosphere expands because of heating, and increases the atmospheric drag on satellites at altitudes below about 1000 km. The orbit of the satellite can be changed and sometimes expensive manoeuvres must be made to compensate. Other effects on satellites are caused by radiation hits which can interfere with onboard computers. The prediction of magnetic activity, as a monitor of conditions at satellite altitude, is therefore of great interest to satellite operators. This is another example of the Earth’s magnetic field being a hazard in the modern world.”
A faked video by GISS. Wow. After all the fraud put out by GISS why should I think this is anything but more science fiction?
I already knew GISS was in the science fiction business, but I didn’t know they made sci-fi movies too. Cool.
electricity is generated by the movement of a loop of wire, or disc of copper between the poles of a magnet.”
Then, what is it a magnet. Why is it, curiously, made from Fe, Co, Ni,.what do these elements share in common? Changing II-III valences, which make possible redox reactions and life, why….because those jumping electrons….ELECTRICITY!
There was a time…in the beginning of time itself, when from One it emerged the Two, yang and ying (Dad and Mom, ya know), and wonder what happened: Electricity!
…..and the CERN guys now want a new 5o kms.long toy for making unnatural mariages between protons! LOL!
Planets´position during the february 27, 2010 8.9 richter earthquake in Concepcion, Chile:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/35016350/Chilean-Earthquake-Planets
Earthquakes? Sure, there’s even a connection between the sun and earthquakes:
“While analysing seismic activity of the Earth it is not difficult to notice the connection with solar activity. The considered line has essential negative correlation with the line of solar activity. The maximal earthquakes are observed during the minimum of solar activity or during the periods close to a minimum, and, on the contrary, in maxima of solar activity seismicity of the Earth accepts the least values.”
http://www.planetary.brown.edu/m42/m42_67.pdf
“Volcanic activity on the Earth is described by special annual indices available since 1500. These indices have been compared with annual sunspot numbers. Volcanic activity displays no 11-yr periodicity. Using 21-yr running averages a striking similarity between these two time series is clearly seen. Volcanic activity is generally lower in periods of prolonged maxima of solar activity and higher in periods of prolonged solar minima. There is also a similarity between the spectra of these two series in the long-period range. Main peaks are located in the same periods in both series (200-215 yr, 100-105 yr, 80-90 yr). The influence of volcanic activity on the climate is indubitable. Annual means of surface air temperature display similar long-term periodicity as the volcanic activity.”
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003ESASP.535..393S
…always the sun.
vukcevic says:
July 29, 2010 at 1:42 pm
you can magnetise or demagnetise peace of iron from some distance by applying a magnetic pulse from an electric coil from some distance. Magnetic field always goes for the path of the highest permeability, and that is strait down.
Not if you place a copper plate between the two. A competent engineer would know about the ‘skin depth’: An electromagnetic wave entering a conducting medium is damped and reduced in amplitude by a factor 1/e in a distance depending on the frequency and the conductivity. For the Earth and spacequakes that distance is a few hundred kilometers, a far cry from the 2900 km down to the core, so no effect.
Declinations and Inclinations are recorded all the way back to 1590, and on bases of those main intensity is calculated.
No, again the competent engineer would know that you cannot calculate the intensity from the two angles.
Perhaps you should read Gubbins’ paper on this:
Science 12 May 2006: Vol. 312. no. 5775, pp. 900 – 902
Fall in Earth’s Magnetic Field Is Erratic
David Gubbins,* Adrian L. Jones, Christopher C. Finlay
Earth’s magnetic field has decayed by about 5% per century since measurements began in 1840. Directional measurements predate those of intensity by more than 250 years, and we combined the global model of directions with paleomagnetic intensity measurements to estimate the fall in strength for this earlier period (1590 to 1840 A.D.). We found that magnetic field strength was nearly constant throughout this time, in contrast to the later period. Extrapolating to the core surface showed that the fall in strength originated in patches of reverse magnetic flux in the Southern Hemisphere. These patches were detectable by directional data alone; the pre-1840 model showed little or no evidence of them, supporting the conclusion of a steady dipole up to 1840.
May I suggest you have an attitude problem. Washing your mouth out with soap is a time-honored remedy.
Enneagram says:
July 29, 2010 at 5:13 pm
because those jumping electrons….ELECTRICITY!
Failure of basic science education. There is no electricity involved in the modern quantum mechanical description of magnetism, see e.g. http://www.answers.com/topic/magnetism-1#Quantum-mechanical_origin_of_magnetism
The basic principle is the quantum-mechanical property that particles with identical properties cannot be distinguished.
Leif Svalgaard says: July 29, 2010 at 8:04 pm
………………………………
1. depends on its frequency. Period of a solar storm is measured in hours, not microseconds.
ULF energy transfer in the solar wind – magnetosphere – ionosphere – solid Earth system
Are you saying that authors (below) are fools?
R. Kessel, F. Freund, G. Duma (1) Lab for Solar and Space Physics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 [ramona.l.kessel@nasa.gov, 301-286-1771 fax],
(2) Department of Physics, San Jose State University and Ecosystem Science and Technology, NASA Ames Research Center, MS 242-4, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000, (3) Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, Department of Geophysics, Hohe Warte 38, A-1190 Vienna, Austria
http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU06/01705/EGU06-J-01705.pdf
2. You are talking apples and pears. You are talking ‘dipole’ , I am talking Arctic. There are two poles in the NH , at relatively low latitude (60N, 95W & 64 N, 110E).
As an expert in the GMF you should know that any place within the Arctic circle has field which is resultant of these two. Balance between two has closely followed solar activity. In your enthusiasm to negate any reality which does not come from Leif.com, you do not bother even to read or look at any of the links (when did you look at one last time?).
Here we are:
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/LFC1.htm
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/NFC1.htm
No dipole, just the Arctic! You may even learn something new if you read it.
Your obfuscations do not do any favours to the readers.
Fascinating work Vuk, can we do a feature on it on my blog?
Leif, if the dynamologists are right, the bootstrapping of the solar dynamo is operating with electrical power from the solar nuclear furnace in the form of electron flows, which generate the magnetic field in the ‘field coils’ which through the solar rotation then induce the currents which create the heliomagnetic field.
Is that about it?
@Amino Acids in Meteorites says:
“July 27, 2010 at 11:06 pm
I’ve wondered if a mind like Faraday’s became versed in weather and the sun would find obvious electrical relationships that would explain warming and cooling on earth, and weather events, patterns, etc.”
Kepler forecasted warming and cooling on earth by the heliocentric positions of the planets, and it still works now!
That China quake;
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/us2010vacp/
was less than a day after a massive solar prominance:
http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=13&month=04&year=2010
and a sharp shock in the solar wind speed on the 11th April;
http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/last_events_20100417_1220/index.html
vukcevic says:
July 30, 2010 at 12:01 am
Are you saying that authors (below) are fools?
As I said, the skin depth is a few hundred kilometers for frequency of hours, so does not reach the core.
No dipole, just the Arctic! You may even learn something new if you read it.
We know even less about the variation of the intensity in the Arctic 1590-1900. Have you forgotten that the topic was if the ‘hits’ would decrease the Earth’s field?
Your obfuscations do not do any favours to the readers
Time for that mouthwash, I reckon.
tallbloke says:
July 30, 2010 at 1:01 am
Leif, if the dynamologists are right, the bootstrapping of the solar dynamo is operating with electrical power from the solar nuclear furnace in the form of electron flows, which generate the magnetic field in the ‘field coils’ which through the solar rotation then induce the currents which create the heliomagnetic field.
No, not at all.
The cloud from which the Sun formed was already permeated by a magnetic field, so the new Sun was born with a field. Differential rotation and other circulation of the neutral plasma wind up the field lines and amplify the field creating solar activity. There is no electrical ‘power’ involved as the electrons cannot flow away from the protons [electric attraction is enormous]. There are no large-scale currents as there cannot be an electric field in a plasma [it shorts immediately].
Ulric Lyons says:
July 30, 2010 at 3:59 am
Kepler forecasted warming and cooling on earth by the heliocentric positions of the planets, and it still works now!
I can ~just~ hear the warmist contingent whining: “Yes, but that’s ~so~ renaissance, …”
As if a scientific truth gets to be outdated.
Leif Svalgaard says:
July 30, 2010 at 5:57 am (Edit)
The cloud from which the Sun formed was already permeated by a magnetic field, so the new Sun was born with a field.
It’s as good a creation myth as any other I suppose.
Leif Svalgaard says: July 30, 2010 at 5:57 am
———————————
As I said you would learn something new if you bother to read:
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/NFC1.htm
This correlation starts 1850 and goes up to 2010.
As number of readers have already comented in one way or the other, you are more interested in scoring points (I assume some kind of ego trip, which you do not need) rather than looking at the facts presented.
Here it is again:
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/NFC1.htm
Ypu shoul read it and come back if you whish but with facts.
Only magnetic field which is clearly understood is the one produced by flow of an electric current within a conductor.
I am often accused of peddling pseudo-science, but since we are in the realm of magnetic fields, at the tail end of this thread, here something about pseudo-magnetism.
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2010/07/29/graphene-under-strain/
Leif Svalgaard says:
July 29, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Enneagram says:
July 29, 2010 at 5:13 pm
because those jumping electrons….ELECTRICITY!
Failure of basic science education
Synthetize some magnetite to know it intimately.
vukcevic says:
July 30, 2010 at 1:32 pm
blah, blah
amazing that you have temperature anomalies for the Arctic in 1850. We don’t have that today to any degree of accuracy…
I already gave a link to the modern understanding of magnetism, no need to repeat that.
The geomagnetic field does not influence the ocean currents in any measurable way. The Lorentz force V x B is much too small. Calculate it yourself and be convinced of that.