Tim Cullen: Illumination from the Geochemical Society

This is the first of two guest posts from Tim Cullen on the fascinating subject of photon production in planetary atmospheres:

The concept of a “fluorescing atmosphere” is generally dismissed as cranky [or just plain crazy] by most pundits and commentators.

Therefore, I am extremely grateful to Professor Mark A. Smith and Hiroshi Imanaka for publishing a truly remarkable paper on the Geochemical Society website that clearly illustrates that photons are produced in the atmosphere.

The blue emissions are indicative of atomic hydrogen [but there are other atmospheric atomic gases that emit blue photon – such as helium] and are produced in many ways [including]:
a) Electrons colliding with atomic gas particles.
b) Solar photon colliding with atomic gas particles.
c) Atomic gas particles recombining to form molecules.

Though less is directly known regarding the haze layers, lying predominantly below the direct reach of Cassini, much is now known regarding the atmosphere above the haze.

Using the Ion-Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) on Cassini, we now know that even in the ionosphere, there is a rich and complex organic chemistry unparalleled in any known atmosphere (Waite, 2005; Waite, 2009).

Giorgieva et al: Global warming and solar activity

Here’s a new paper from Giorgieva et al which finds strong correlation between the ‘ak’ index of geomagnetic activity and global temperature change since the 1860′s. This suggests a bigger role for the Sun in climate change than is admitted by the IPCC. H/T the Hockeyschtick via  ’Oldbrew’.

Abstract.

Solar activity, together with human activity, is considered a possible factor for
the global warming observed in the last century. However, in the last decades solar activity
has remained more or less constant while surface air temperature has continued to increase,
which is interpreted as an evidence that in this period human activity is the main factor for
global warming.We show that the index commonly used for quantifying long-term changes
in solar activity, the sunspot number, accounts for only one part of solar activity and using
this index leads to the underestimation of the role of solar activity in the global warming
in the recent decades. A more suitable index is the geomagnetic activity which reflects all
solar activity, and it is highly correlated to global temperature variations in the whole period
for which we have data.

The mystery of the vanishing cheap power source

20 years ago, I met two bright British engineers who had developed a superb piece of engineering technology. The setup was in two units about the size of steel lorry containers. One contained a fairly stock steam turbine and generator set, capable of producing around a Megawatt. The other unit contained their invention. It consisted of a chain-link conveyor belt made from high quality chrome-vanadium steel, which ran through a chamber from which air was excluded. In this chamber, waste materials such as old car tyres were heated to very high temperatures without burning, due to the lack of oxygen.

Through the process of pyrolysis, the tyres would be reduced to their constituents, and the volatile combustible gases were transferred to a second chamber where they were combusted under very carefully controlled conditions. This enabled the combustion process to be very efficient.  The heat generated by the combustion was then run round the first chamber, generating the heat needed to perform the pyrolysis process on the following tyres, and from there to a heat exchanger where steam was developed to power the turbine, and spin the generating set to produce electricity.

Panstarrs: More Evidence for Cometary Induction of CME’s

A Coronal Mass Ejection erupts as comet Pannstarrs passes overhead
-NASA Stereo Behind-

My thanks to Michele Casati for drawing my attention to this video from NASA showing a double coronal mass ejection as comet Panstarrs passes overhead. This is more evidence for a link between sungrazing comets and CME’s last discussed here in late 2011.

NASA: Solar Wind Energy Source Discovered

Hat tip to Paul Vaughan [and A C Osborn on comments], who spotted this interesting new article at NASA’s website:

March 8, 2013: Using data from an aging NASA spacecraft, researchers have found signs of an energy source in the solar wind that has caught the attention of fusion researchers. NASA will be able to test the theory later this decade when it sends a new probe into the sun for a closer look.

The discovery was made by a group of astronomers trying to solve a decades-old mystery: What heats and accelerates the solar wind?

The solar wind is a hot and fast flow of magnetized gas that streams away from the sun’s upper atmosphere.  It is made of hydrogen and helium ions with a sprinkling of heavier elements.  Researchers liken it to the steam from a pot of water boiling on a stove; the sun is literally boiling itself away.

“But,” says Adam Szabo of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, “solar wind does something that steam in your kitchen never does.  As steam rises from a pot, it slows and cools.  As solar wind leaves the sun, it accelerates, tripling in speed as it passes through the corona. Furthermore, something inside the solar wind continues to add heat even as it blows into the cold of space.”

Finding that “something” has been a goal of researchers for decades.  In the 1970s and 80s, observations by two German/US Helios spacecraft set the stage for early theories, which usually included some mixture of plasma instabilities, magnetohydrodynamic waves, and turbulent heating.  Narrowing down the possibilities was a challenge. The answer, it turns out, has been hiding in a dataset from one of NASA’s oldest active spacecraft, a solar probe named Wind.

Nils-Axel Morner: Solar Wind, Earth’s Rotation and Changes in Terrestrial Climate

My thanks to Nils-Axel Morner for sending me a copy of his new paper ‘Solar Wind, Earth’s Rotation and Changes in Terrestrial Climate’ published yesterday in Physical Review & Research Inernational. This is a great paper, full of interest, drawing together disparate dynamic phenomena into a comprehensible whole. Niklas is fully up to date with the latest research from Nicola Scafetta and the talkshop, incorporating planetary motion into the scheme encompassing the wider ‘frame of reference’ in which terrestrial climate change occurs. This is what will enable the new climate science to move beyond the constricted and constipated thinking of the current climate science mainstream.

 

Comet C2013 ‘Siding Spring’: Could hit or miss Mars in October

Hat tip to Michele Casati for this news from spaceobs.org. A cometary impact on Mars could potentially leave a 500km wide crater this October! A near miss will be just as interesting in terms of the way the coma is affected by Mars’ magnetosphere. The ‘Electric Universe’ and plasma science people will be busy making predictions I should think.

Author: Leonid Elenin

Chris Smith / NASA

As I wrote previously, the recently discovered comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will make a extremal close approach to Mars on 19 October 2014. A collision scenario isn’t ruled out either. Today, at the ISON-NM observatory, new astrometric measurements were received for this comet. Based on the existing measurements, more accurate orbital elements were calculated. The results of the second calculation for the close approach show that the comet might pass just 41,000 km (0.000276 a.u.) from the planet’s centre, that is less than 37,000 km from its surface!

Tim Cullen: Planetary Rotation Part 3 – Mars, Earth and Venus

In the final part of his study on planetary-atmospheric co-rotation, Tim Cullen extends his heuristic formula to the inner planets, with surprising results.

Planetary Rotation – Mars, Earth and Venus
Tim Cullen – MalagaBay – January 2013

 

The second part of this post calculated a generalised view of the relationship between the “Corotational Radius” and the ”Corotational Period” of the planets in the Solar System.

This third [and final] instalment examines whether these generalised formulae have any predictive ability when applied to the Terrestrial Planets with atmospheres.

Precise measurement of the rotational periods of Mars, Earth and Venus allows the generalised formula to be used to predict an atmospheric “corotation radius” for each planet with an atmosphere.

Tatiana Barlyaeva: External forcing on air-surface temperature: Geographical distribution of sensitive climate zones

H/T to Michele Casati who flagged up this paper on suggestions. I don’t have time to read it all through but it looks interesting, and hopefully people with knowledge of wavelet analysis might take a look and report their views. Looks to me like Joanna Haigh might start re-educating herself with papers like this.

Tim Cullen: Planetary Rotation – Atmospheric Corotation

Tim Cullen continues his investigation of the secret life of the solar system, and makes a very interesting discovery. To find his previous articles, use this search.

Planetary Rotation – Atmospheric Corotation
Tim Cullen – MalagaBay – January 2013

Atmospheric Corotation is one of those “dark corners” of science where mainstream scientists “fear to tread”. Physics and the Earth sciences seem to [currently] avoid the subject “like the plague”.

Generally, atmospheric corotation is relegated to the fringes of Astronomy and Astrophysics:

Corotation – Joint rotation of the atmosphere and a planet.

http://www.spaceweather.eu/en/glossary

Atmospheric corotation is a very real, everyday phenomenon.

Atmospheric corotation is probably the most [unknowingly] talked about subject on Earth because local variations in atmospheric corotation drive weather systems around the globe.

The spheroid Earth rotates around its axis every day and this causes the surface of the Earth to rotate at a speed of 1,674.4 kilometres per hour at the equator.

However, we do not experience wind speeds of 1,674.4 kilometres per hour at the equator because the atmosphere of the Earth [basically] corotates with the planet.