Jan 06 2009
Spare a Sextant?
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| From National Geographic News |
You find the most important news in the most unexpected places, sometimes.
Totally without the fanfare that such an announcement should be getting, I found this buried in my feeds from National Geographic:
An unexpected, thick layer of solar particles inside Earth’s magnetic field suggests there are huge breaches in our planet’s solar defenses, scientists said.
These breaches indicate that during the next period of high solar activity, due to start in 2012, Earth will experience some of the worst solar storms seen in decades.
…But the winds also trigger storms that can interfere with satellites’ power sources, endanger spacewalkers, and even knock out power grids on Earth.
“The sequence we’re expecting … is just right to put particles in and energize them to create the biggest geomagnetic storms, the brightest auroras, the biggest disturbances in Earth’s radiation belts,” said David Sibeck, a space-weather expert at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
“So if all of this is true, it should be that we’re in for a tough time in the next 11 years.”
The article goes on to discuss the sorts of electronic devastation this situation is likely to produce. And again, I gotta ask; why isn’t anyone talking about this? Or am I just late to the party?
But in the meantime… buddy, can you spare a sextant? Cause my GPS is suddenly looking a bit shaky…
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Because we can’t fix this, and the politicians want us to believe that if we just stop polluting we can curb or stop global warming!
This is occurring because of the shifts in the poles. We are going to completely loose our electromagnetic field for a thousand years or so, increasing solar radiation, jacking up the temp of the planet, all of which will increase cancers of all kinds, not to mention all kinds of other diseases.
This is the main cause of global warming, and scientists have known this for at least 30 years that I’ve been aware. The flip-flop of the poles AND global warming, followed by an ice age, has been the pattern every 45-70 thousand years for as far back as we can gather data. But the politicians, especially Al Gore, don’t want you to know that because if you think it’s just a matter of changing our habits, which they ‘re in favor of, then you vote for them.
Unfortunately, this is a natural process we can’t stop. This planet was never stable, is never going to be stable, and our time was never meant to be permanent here.
Try checking http://spaceweather.com/
regularly to get tuned into the solar cycles. The maximum years in the 11 and 22 year cycles can be a happy time for those of us who use ham frequencies to communicate with friends around the world. Yes, we are likely to have some stronger flares. But, the effects of these are transitory.
Did you see the huge moon setting over Marin this morning?
I’m afraid I’m going to have to agree and disagree with Dana. There are many reasons to curb emissions and to change our current fossil-fuel based economy other than just global warming. So keep banging that drum, Laureen.
On the other hand, Dana is correct that a substantial fraction of the changes we are currently seeing in climate can be statistically charged to the very well documented, repeated occurrence of pole flipping. Pole flipping is a bitch. We’re already seeing very strong evidence of this in the weakening of the magnetic field all over the planet. And do not get me started on the PITA which is the complete lack of solar flare activity for the past year. Urgh. Propagation on the SSB is a serious issue.
I had a big argument with my FIL about this magnetic issue recently, BTW. As long as the GPS holds out, I say chuck your magnetic compass and use only true headings since you can’t really rely on local magnetic readings. We passed through one of these documented, recent “magnetic anomalies” and by god if the magnetic compass didn’t just working screamingly bad for about 200 miles. Of course, when the whole thing goes tits up, we’re going to be stuck with the sextant and dead reckoning for a thousand years or so. Welcome to the past.