Voyager is at the edge :

[William Gaatjes]

NASA space science has discovered something about solar flares with the SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), launched in February 2010).


http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/19sep_secretlives/

Sept. 19, 2011: One hundred and fifty two years ago, a man in England named Richard Carrington discovered solar flares.
Sunspots sketched by R. Carrington on Sept. 1, 1859. © R. Astronomical Society. [more]

It happened at 11:18 AM on the cloudless morning of Thursday, September 1st, 1859. Just as usual on every sunny day, the 33-year-old solar astronomer was busy in his private observatory, projecting an image of the sun onto a screen and sketching what he saw. On that particular morning, he traced the outlines of an enormous group of sunspots. Suddenly, before his eyes, two brilliant beads of white light appeared over the sunspots; they were so bright he could barely stand to look at the screen.

Carrington cried out, but by the time a witness arrived minutes later, the first solar flare anyone had ever seen was fading away.

It would not be the last. Since then, astronomers have recorded thousands of strong flares using instruments ranging from the simplest telescopes in backyard observatories to the most complex spectrometers on advanced spacecraft. Possibly no other phenomenon in astronomy has been studied as much.

After all that scrutiny, you might suppose that everything about solar flares would be known. Far from it. Researchers recently announced that solar flares have been keeping a secret.

“We’ve just learned that some flares are many times stronger than previously thought,” says University of Colorado physicist Tom Woods who led the research team. “Solar flares were already the biggest explosions in the solar system—and this discovery makes them even bigger.”
Click to view a ScienceCast video about the late phase of solar flares. [Youtube]

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), launched in February 2010, made the finding: About 1 in 7 flares experience an “aftershock.” About ninety minutes after the flare dies down, it springs to life again, producing an extra surge of extreme ultraviolet radiation.

“We call it the ‘late phase flare,’” says Woods. “The energy in the late phase can exceed the energy of the primary flare by as much as a factor of four.”

What causes the late phase? Solar flares happen when the magnetic fields of sunspots erupt—a process called “magnetic reconnection.” The late phase is thought to result when some of the sunspot’s magnetic loops re-form. A diagram prepared by team member Rachel Hock of the University of Colorado shows how it works.

The extra energy from the late phase can have a big effect on Earth. Extreme ultraviolet wavelengths are particularly good at heating and ionizing Earth’s upper atmosphere. When our planet’s atmosphere is heated by extreme UV radiation, it puffs up, accelerating the decay of low-orbiting satellites. Furthermore, the ionizing action of extreme UV can bend radio signals and disrupt the normal operation of GPS.

SDO was able to make the discovery because of its unique ability to monitor the sun’s extreme UV output in high resolution nearly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With that kind of scrutiny, it’s tough to keep a secret--even one as old as this.

The original research of Woods et al may be found in the Oct. 1, 2011, issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Link to youtube movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_krMthM_rI

 

[C1]

Yes, one of the observations about global warming that comes up often now is that the other planets seem to be warming as well (or at least caps are melting). The belief is that this is resulting because of increased output (various frequencies) from the sun. There is also the theory about the electric universe. Mainly that the solar system cycles thru an arm of the galaxy from time to time and that such arms involve electric currents which react with the sun to affect its activity/output (eg, affect the solar wind).

 

[DrPizza]

Yes, one of the observations about global warming that comes up often now is that the other planets seem to be warming as well (or at least caps are melting). The belief is that this is resulting because of increased output (various frequencies) from the sun. There is also the theory about the electric universe. Mainly that the solar system cycles thru an arm of the galaxy from time to time and that such arms involve electric currents which react with the sun to affect its activity/output (eg, affect the solar wind).

The original paper that pointed out this increase in heating also determined that it was not sufficient to explain the majority of the warming on earth. Unfortunately, the latter half of that sentence is generally left out of discussions by people who make the claim that global warming is exclusively due to an increase in solar radiation.

 

[William Gaatjes]

The original paper that pointed out this increase in heating also determined that it was not sufficient to explain the majority of the warming on earth. Unfortunately, the latter half of that sentence is generally left out of discussions by people who make the claim that global warming is exclusively due to an increase in solar radiation.

It seems that there is some correlation between an increase of CO2 and an increase in temperature ? But was there also an increase of humidity ? That is my question and i find it an important one. Although i do not believe that CO2 is the greenhouse gas and THE deciding factor, i do think there might be a role for CO2 in the following hypothesis that popped up in my head this morning while reading your post :

From the research of Henrik Svensmark et al, it seems that cosmic rays do effect the amount of cloud forming on the earth. And it seems that when the sun is less active and our solar system is traveling through a cosmic ray rich part of the milky way, there is an increase of cloud formation. Especially at lower altitudes where clouds can trap heat and raise humidity. At least, that is what i understand of it, so please correct me when i am wrong. And it seems that from research at CERN that the theory of Henrik Svensmark et al is correct.

Now where to fit in the increase of CO2 ?

I have come to understand that clouds form easier when there is seed material. It seems also that our skies are filled with dust and tiny microorganisms. Cyanobacteria consume CO2 and use photo synthesis.
Cyanobacteria are probably one of the oldest bacteria family existing. Wiki uses numbers of 3.5 billion years old. That is 500 to 1000 million years after the suspected finished formation of the earth these bacteria started doing their wonderful thing on the planet.And Cyanobacteria can form spores too. Spores. I do not know if this is the case for cyanobacteria. But spores from some species have been found to end up at very high altitudes in the atmosphere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria


Spores could form great seed material for cloud forming.
Thus it is a complex system.

The hypothesis is then :

• More CO2 could produce perhaps more spores.
  
• More spores means more seed material to form clouds.
  
• A cosmic rays active part of the milky way could explain in increase of cosmic rays.
  
• Reduced activity of the sun ( I think it is meant here that the magnetic field of the sun and the solar wind is less strong).
  
• Increased cloud formation and increased humidity. Low altitude clouds trap IR heat and the temperature on earth rises. And the humidity rises as well.

EDIT :
Almost forgot :

I received this link about the earth seen from inside the ISS traveling in orbit around the earth( International space station).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74mhQyuyELQ

 

[William Gaatjes]

The interesting part about the cyanobacteria -spores CO2 theory is that there is a significant delay between each step.

When there is more CO2, it takes some time before the amount of cyanobacteria have increased in numbers enough to produce enough spores to make a difference. And it is also the case that in nature life never works alone.

• Increase of CO2.
  
• Several years later an increase of Cyanobacteria and perhaps there is some quorum sensing involved before the bacteria start producing spores as a colony. This would be a delay.
  
• Then massive build up of clouds.
  
• Temperature rises and humidity.
  
• Since there are now more cyanobacteria, there are probably also more phages and possible predators that live by consuming cyanobacteria and cyanobacteria spores. These predators and viruses would increase in numbers as well.
  
• This would cause a reduction of the amount of bacteria and of the spores. Another delay.
  
• This would cause a massive reduction of clouds.
  
• After that, humidity lowers and the temperature lowers drastically.

I do have to mention it is far from complete. To many "what if" and i do not fully understand the effects of high altitude clouds and low altitude clouds. Clouds (or just the earth atmosphere) that block the sunlight and infrared radiation from the sunlight in the direction of sun to earth but let IR radiation from earth pass into space. A sort of IR rectifier. Heat can be send into space(sun) from earth but not from space(sun) to the earth. Then the land and the seas on the earth would get gradually colder.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I thought it would be nice to add the song of the sun.

The surface of the sun vibrates. The surface can be seen as a lot of small sections that move up and down. The SOHO this has been recorded on a part of the sun.

Good sound quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2eQPOo95l0

Small explanation with sound in low quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGwDdTZBAEY


Explanation about soho and latest findings.
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/

 

[William Gaatjes]

I assume there are already a lot of posts about it, i am just adding it here for fun. The aurora above the USA on the night of 24 october 2011 to 25 october 2011 .
http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=25&month=10&year=2011

A picture from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's F18 polar orbiter (satellite).

This was the cause of the aurora.

THE INSTIGATING EXPLOSION: The CME that hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 24th left the sun almost two days earlier. It was propelled in our direction by an unstable magnetic filament, which erupted around 0100 UT on Oct. 22nd. This movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory shows the cloud expanding toward Earth in the first hours after the explosion:

Traveling faster than two million mph, the cloud took about 41 hours to cross the sun-Earth divide. The CME was so geoeffective because it contained a knot of south-pointing magnetic fields. These fields partially cancelled Earth's north-pointing magnetic field at the equator, allowing solar wind plasma to penetrate deeply into Earth's magnetosphere. The rest, as they say in Alabama, is history.

 

[firewolfsm]

Goddammit, why didn't I hear about this? I have always wanted to see the aurora and never got a chance.

 

[Sunny129]

yeah, folks reported seeing the nothern lights as far south as Alabama...of course the map makes it clear that the aurora never made it that far south, but a light source that spans an appreciable portion of the sky can be seen several hundred miles away (laterally) when its 100-150km in altitude.

 

[pw38]

Aurora Alabamis

 

[William Gaatjes]

Magnetic reconnection research is on going. That is a good thing because this is assumed to be the force behind CME and other energetic processes in space. I think Hannes Alfven would have been really been happy to read about this.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-10-scientists-mysterious-magnetic-earth.html

With the click of a computer mouse, a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) sends 10,000 volts of electricity into a chamber filled with hydrogen gas. The charge heats the gas to 100,000 degrees Celsius.

In an instant -- one-thousandth of a second, to be precise -- a process called "magnetic reconnection," a powerful force that can light up the skies, takes place in a device roughly the size of a sport utility vehicle.

PPPL researchers have run this and similar carefully controlled experiments -- called "shots" -- more than 100,000 times since 1995, and amassed volumes of data and numerous scientific papers. The shots recreate one of the most common but least understood phenomena in the universe -- one that gives rise to the northern lights, solar flares and geomagnetic storms, and that can disrupt cell phone service, black out power grids and damage orbiting satellites.

Researchers at PPPL have brought this basic process down to earth in miniature to be studied under laboratory conditions in the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX), the leading project of its kind in the world in terms of the quantity and quality of the data it has collected.

"Here we can actually recreate reconnection," said Masaaki Yamada, a PPPL physicist and principal investigator for MRX, "This is not theory or a computer simulation." Hantao Ji, principal research physicist at PPPL for MRX, concurred: "This provides a chance to see what's really going on in reconnection."

The experiments seek to unravel the secrets of magnetic reconnection and ultimately provide benefits including improved prediction of solar outbursts and dangerous geomagnetic storms; increased understanding of the formation of the sun and stars; and greater control of the nuclear fusion reactions that PPPL researchers are studying as a clean fuel for generating electric power.

Magnetic reconnection takes place when magnetic lines of force -- or field lines -- break apart and reconnect with a violent burst of energy that, in huge bodies such as the sun and stars, has the explosive power of millions of tons of TNT. This occurs when superheated and electrically charged gases called plasmas converge. Plasmas consist of electrons and ions -- atoms that have been stripped of one or more electrons -- and are the basic elements of the sun and stars.


Enlarge

William Slavin (center), head of PPPL's safety division, gives graduate students a tour of the MRX device, which resembles a large steel barrel attached to arrays of tubes and wires. The device allows PPPL researchers to recreate the magnetic reconnection process in a controlled setting. Credit: Elle Starkman
PPPL's study of the reconnection phenomenon is made possible by the MRX device, which resembles a large steel barrel attached to arrays of tubes and wires. Inside are two doughnut-shaped coil systems called "flux cores" that produce plasmas whose magnetic field lines reconnect while tiny probes measure the results. The MRX device can discharge 30,000 kilowatts of power for one-thousandth of a second, or enough energy to briefly power 25,000 homes.


PPPL, which is managed by Princeton University, launched the MRX project 16 years ago under the direction of Yamada to increase understanding of the role that magnetic reconnection plays in the disruption of plasma, which can force nuclear fusion reactors to shut down. Improved knowledge of magnetic reconnection would advance the development of fusion as a clean source of energy for generating electricity, which is the core mission of the laboratory.

The experiment soon caught the eye of the astrophysical community, which also saw benefits for its own field of study. Astrophysicists from Princeton and other institutions are closely watching the efforts by PPPL scientists to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding magnetic reconnection.

"Plasma processes, such as reconnection, influence the behavior of astronomical objects of all sizes, from solar flares to ionized gas jets that travel through galaxies," said Stewart Prager, director of PPPL. "One of the goals of PPPL is to understand the plasma universe, and MRX is making enormous contributions to that mission."

Studying the triggers of solar outbursts

A key puzzle that MRX researchers are trying to solve is why magnetic reconnection takes place in the sun many thousands of times faster than theorists have been able to understand. This mystery hinders forecasting of volatile "space weather," which is an important factor in the development of future space exploration missions. "You can't predict solar storms when you don't understand reconnection," noted Princeton astrophysicist James Stone.

Solar storms occur when reconnection causes huge plasmas to erupt from the sun and slam into the Earth's magnetosphere -- the magnetic field that surrounds the planet -- with a potentially damaging impact. One such eruption stirred up a geomagnetic disturbance that blacked out the city of Montreal and most of the Canadian province of Quebec for nearly 12 hours in 1989.

Solar outbursts occur in 11-year cycles with a new cycle now starting and expected to reach a peak -- or "solar maximum" -- in 2013. However, scientists currently are unable to forecast the precise day or month of these eruptions.

MRX researchers are gradually zeroing in on the process behind the mysterious mechanism of reconnection that triggers the storms. Laboratory findings show that the electric current embedded into plasmas suddenly dissipates when these superhot gases converge, enabling reconnection to take place. Further experiments have confirmed that part of the reason for the abrupt dissipation is that the ions and electrons inside the plasmas have different velocities. The electrons thus behave differently from the ions -- as measured by a phenomenon called the "Hall effect" that is typically associated with magnetized electrons and unmagnetized ions in a plasma.

Such discoveries are redefining traditional notions of how reconnection works.

"The MRX is uncovering new physics that is modifying the theories that we thought had explained reconnection," said astrophysicist Russell Kulsrud, a Princeton professor emeritus. Through the experiment, PPPL scientists have "made many detailed measurements and (are) discovering many new things that we don't understand," Kulsrud added.

MRX findings will help guide a four-satellite exploration of reconnection that NASA scientists plan to launch in 2014. The spacecraft will sweep through the magnetosphere on a multiyear mission to study the regions where reconnection takes place.

"We hope to provide a database that will suggest what kind of data-taking is most efficient," Yamada said.

Knowledge of space weather will be vital to the safety of crews of possible future missions to Mars. The astronauts could be exposed to high levels of radiation if solar storms were to break out during flight, so the ability to pinpoint the timing of reconnection events that could lead to such storms is crucial, Yamada noted.

Gaining insights into bright skies, young stars and fusion energy

Through their work on the MRX experiment, PPPL researchers also aim to gain a better understanding of the forces behind issues ranging from the makeup of the skies and stars to clean energy development.

Magnetic reconnection underlies the northern lights, the brilliant auroras that light the night sky near the north and south poles. Auroras occur when relatively low-energy plasmas that stream from the sun connect with the magnetosphere and produce heated particles that give rise to the light shows. These plasma flows from the sun are known as "solar wind."

Magnetic reconnection is also suspected to be behind the extraordinary bursts of radiation that have emerged from the center of the Crab nebula -- the remains of an exploded star -- some 6,500 light years from Earth. Scientists trace the bursts to electrons that have accelerated to the highest level of energy ever observed in a fixed celestial body.

"You need something like reconnection to explain these very high-energy particles," said astrophysicist Jonathan Arons of the University of California-Berkeley.

Perhaps the most basic issue related to magnetic reconnection is its role in the creation of stars, which begin as clouds of charged particles that collapse under gravity. Accompanying this process is the reconnection of magnetic field lines that are present in the original cloud and must separate out for the star to be born. This activity happens much faster than current theory indicates, so MRX experiments "are constructed to find out the physics of what's actually going on," Princeton's Kulsrud noted.

Closer to home, reconnection creates a disruption in plasmas during nuclear fusion experiments such as those under way at PPPL. This disruption can force fusion reactors to shut down.

While the impact of magnetic reconnection on fusion research was the inspiration for the launch of MRX, the nature of the project -- scaling down massive phenomena into a laboratory setting -- is yielding insights beyond PPPL.

"If you're in space you observe what happens," said University of Maryland physicist James Drake. "In the lab you can vary the plasma conditions, which provides a new avenue for exploring the process."

The ability to conduct controlled magnetic reconnection experiments is the key to the MRX project, which is funded by several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research and NASA.

"The important part is that we can create with control, and then study the reconnection process," said PPPL's Yamada. "In nature you cannot."

http://mrx.pppl.gov/Physics/physics.html

Magnetic reconnection (henceforth called "reconnection") refers to the breaking and reconnecting of oppositely directed magnetic field lines in a plasma. In the process, magnetic field energy is converted to plasma kinetic and thermal energy.

Reconnection is at the heart of many spectacular events in our solar system. For example, solar flares which occur near sunspots are believed to be powered by magnetic reconnection. Solar magnetic activity, including flares, can eject high energy charged particles into space. When the particles reach Earth, they can disrupt power grids and communications systems and threaten spacecraft and satellites. A related phenomenon is the aurora seen near the polar regions of Earth as well as on other magnetized planets. The Earth's own magnetic field is constantly perturbed by the impinging field from the sun (called the solar wind). During strong bursts (such as those caused by extraordinary solar flares) reconnection can be induced in the near-Earth magnetotail (a narrow magnetic field structure located on the night side many Earth-radii away). The tenuous plasma in that region is then accelerated down magnetic field lines into the polar regions, striking Earth's atmosphere and exciting nitrogen and oxygen atoms as well as other atoms present in our atmosphere. The immediate de-excitation of these atoms then emit the wonderful and often intricate display of light we know as the aurora or northern (and southern) lights.

In plasma physics, it is well known that magnetic field lines are "frozen-in" to an infinitely conductive plasma. Since charged plasma particles are confined to circular orbits around magnetic field lines, this means that infinitely conductive plasmas will not diffuse across field lines and mix. Conversely, two distinct field lines will remain separate since they cannot penetrate the intervening plasma. In most cases, solar and magnetospheric plasmas can be described very accurately with such a theory since they are both very conductive. However, straightforward application of the theory would remove the possibility of ejected solar plasma penetrating the magnetosphere since the plasmas would not be allowed to mix. Nevertheless, based on observations and known technological disruptions, we know that they must mix, but how?

The answer resides in the fact that when plasmas carrying oppositely directed magnetic field lines are brought together, a strong current sheet is established, in the presence of which even a vanishingly small amount of resistivity in a small volume can become important, allowing plasma diffusion and, thus, magnetic reconnection to occur.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Magnetic reconnection Part 2.

http://www.physorg.com/news92924819.html

This sketch illustrate the different scales relevant to the ‘magnetic reconnection’ process. The Earth’s magnetic field creates a buffer zone, the magnetosphere, between our planet’s atmosphere and the particles released during these eruptions. The Sun also releases a steadier flow of charged particles called the solar wind. On the large-scale, any heading this way buffet the magnetosphere, and are deflected by it. Plasma physicists describe this behaviour with a theory called ‘magneto-hydrodynamics’ (MHD). On smaller scales, however, the picture becomes rather more complicated. The particles can actually flow across the magnetic field lines. First to misbehave are the ions (positively charged particles). These break away from simple MHD on scales of less than a few hundred kilometres. On even smaller scales, less than 10 kilometres, the electrons (negatively charged particles) begin playing by other rules, too. Credits: ESA

Plasma physicists have made an unprecedented measurement in their study of the Earth's magnetic field. Thanks to ESA's Cluster satellites they detected an electric field thought to be a key element in the process of 'magnetic reconnection'.

Thanks to these measurements, obtained by the eight PEACE electron sensors onboard the four spacecraft, scientists now have their first insight into magnetic reconnection's detailed behaviour.
Magnetic reconnection is a process that can occur almost anywhere that a magnetic field is found. In a reconnection event, the magnetic field lines are squeezed together somehow and spontaneously reconfigure themselves. This releases energy. When it occurs near the surface of the Sun, such an event powers giant solar flares that can release thousands of millions of tonnes of electrically charged particles into space.

The Earth's magnetic field creates a buffer zone, the magnetosphere, between our planet's atmosphere and the particles released during these eruptions. The Sun also releases a steadier flow of charged particles called the solar wind. On the large-scale, any heading this way buffet the magnetosphere, and are deflected by it. Plasma physicists describe this behaviour with a theory called 'magneto-hydrodynamics' (MHD).

On smaller scales, however, the picture becomes rather more complicated. The particles can actually flow across the magnetic field lines.This makes the mathematics of the behaviour more difficult. First to misbehave are the ions (positively charged particles). These break away from simple MHD on scales of less than a few hundred kilometres. On even smaller scales, less than 10 kilometres, the electrons (negatively charged particles) begin playing by other rules, too.

The new Cluster measurements reveal the electric field on the scale of a few hundred kilometres. "This is the first ever measurement of this term," says Paul Henderson, from University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UK, who led the investigation.

On 17 August 2003, Cluster was flying high above the night-time hemisphere of the Earth with an average separation of 200 kilometres between spacecraft. Data from several instruments shows that at 18:00 CET, a reconnection event took place and swept across the spacecraft.

Using data from Cluster's Plasma Electron and Current Experiment (PEACE) Henderson and collaborators calculated the pressure of electrons at each spacecraft and then calculated the difference between them and the variation with time. Using these quantities they calculated the electric field present near a reconnection site.

"This is an impossible calculation to make without four spacecraft," says Henderson. Now that the scientists can calculate the electric field in such a way, they have a new window into the process of magnetic reconnection.

Magnetic reconnection within Earth's magnetosphere regularly takes place on the night-time side of our planet, where the flow of the solar wind stretches out the magnetic field into a long tail. When the field reconnects in this region, it triggers jets of energetic particles that can cause auroral lights but can also damage satellites.

This new Cluster result takes scientists a step closer to seeing the precise details of magnetic reconnection. "When you think that the magnetosphere stretches over a million kilometres through space, we are actually looking at a minuscule part of it," says Henderson.

And that's exactly what plasma scientists want – the microphysics.

Source: European Space Agency

 

[William Gaatjes]

In plasma physics, it is well known that magnetic field lines are "frozen-in" to an infinitely conductive plasma. Since charged plasma particles are confined to circular orbits around magnetic field lines, this means that infinitely conductive plasmas will not diffuse across field lines and mix. Conversely, two distinct field lines will remain separate since they cannot penetrate the intervening plasma. In most cases, solar and magnetospheric plasmas can be described very accurately with such a theory since they are both very conductive. However, straightforward application of the theory would remove the possibility of ejected solar plasma penetrating the magnetosphere since the plasmas would not be allowed to mix. Nevertheless, based on observations and known technological disruptions, we know that they must mix, but how?

The answer resides in the fact that when plasmas carrying oppositely directed magnetic field lines are brought together, a strong current sheet is established, in the presence of which even a vanishingly small amount of resistivity in a small volume can become important, allowing plasma diffusion and, thus, magnetic reconnection to occur.

When i read about all this, it makes me think about magnetic field lines and super conductivity in a super conductor.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Can anybody help what it was called when electrons flow more freely in a certain direction when perpendicular to the flow rate a magnetic field and perpendicular to the magnetic field and current flow an electric field is applied ? I have difficulty finding it.

 

[wahdangun]

The interesting part about the cyanobacteria -spores CO2 theory is that there is a significant delay between each step.

When there is more CO2, it takes some time before the amount of cyanobacteria have increased in numbers enough to produce enough spores to make a difference. And it is also the case that in nature life never works alone.

• Increase of CO2.
  
• Several years later an increase of Cyanobacteria and perhaps there is some quorum sensing involved before the bacteria start producing spores as a colony. This would be a delay.
  
• Then massive build up of clouds.
  
• Temperature rises and humidity.
  
• Since there are now more cyanobacteria, there are probably also more phages and possible predators that live by consuming cyanobacteria and cyanobacteria spores. These predators and viruses would increase in numbers as well.
  
• This would cause a reduction of the amount of bacteria and of the spores. Another delay.
  
• This would cause a massive reduction of clouds.
  
• After that, humidity lowers and the temperature lowers drastically.

I do have to mention it is far from complete. To many "what if" and i do not fully understand the effects of high altitude clouds and low altitude clouds. Clouds (or just the earth atmosphere) that block the sunlight and infrared radiation from the sunlight in the direction of sun to earth but let IR radiation from earth pass into space. A sort of IR rectifier. Heat can be send into space(sun) from earth but not from space(sun) to the earth. Then the land and the seas on the earth would get gradually colder.

I think you forget one thing, if there are too many cyanobacteria in the ocean it will cause death zone.

and actually more cloud not a bad thing, because cloud can reflect sunlight just like a mirror.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I think you forget one thing, if there are too many cyanobacteria in the ocean it will cause death zone.

Very possible, i have no view at the moment of how these bacteria will live together with other bacteria and other forms of life.
Highly speculative :
But it would in the end be like a nuclear winter. No life because of death zones, extreme cold. And after that temperature rise again. As if the planet is being sterilized from higher forms of life, only to start over again. Higher forms of life that can move around quickly are from a bacterial perspective ideal transport vessels to get around.

and actually more cloud not a bad thing, because cloud can reflect sunlight just like a mirror.

Indeed, the temperatures would perhaps drop rapidly. It makes me wonder if the rate of change is just as important and not just the change itself alone.

 

[wahdangun]

Very possible, i have no view at the moment of how these bacteria will live together with other bacteria and other forms of life.
Highly speculative :
But it would in the end be like a nuclear winter. No life because of death zones, extreme cold. And after that temperature rise again. As if the planet is being sterilized from higher forms of life, only to start over again. Higher forms of life that can move around quickly are from a bacterial perspective ideal transport vessels to get around.



Indeed, the temperatures would perhaps drop rapidly. It makes me wonder if the rate of change is just as important and not just the change itself alone.

no, i mean, if there are to many cyanobacteria, when they died they decomposed body will suck oxygen, and make the oxygen level to drop and killing other organism and it will sucking more oxygen and eventually no other organism will be live in there except maybe anaerobe bacteria

 

[William Gaatjes]

http://spaceweather.com/

Since a few days , the sun has some huge sunspots, collectively called AR1339.
From end to end , the size is about 100,000 km from end to end ( the earth has an average diameter of about 12,000km). It is even visible during sunset.

A nice gif movie about a huge magnetic filament(The sun is about 109 times bigger then the earth) on the north pole of the sun. Created(recorded) with the SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) from NASA.

 

[William Gaatjes]

no, i mean, if there are to many cyanobacteria, when they died they decomposed body will suck oxygen, and make the oxygen level to drop and killing other organism and it will sucking more oxygen and eventually no other organism will be live in there except maybe anaerobe bacteria

That is indeed interesting. When the cyanobacteria die, it seems a lot of oxygen is consumed. I wonder what the detailed mechanism is.

 

[William Gaatjes]

When thinking of CO2 and the cyanobacteria.
Sifting through links, this is interesting :

http://textbookofbacteriology.net/environment.html

The Oxygen Cycle

Basically, O2 is derived from the photolysis of H2O during plant (oxygenic) photosynthesis. Two major groups of microorganisms are involved in this process, the eucaryotic algae, and the procaryotic cyanobacteria (formerly known as "blue-green algae"). The cyanobacteria and algae are the source of much of the O2 in the earth's atmosphere. Of course, plants account for some O2 production as well, but the microbes predominate in marine habitats which cover the majority of the planet.

Since most aerobic organisms need the O2 that results from plant photosynthesis, this establishes a relationship between plant photosynthesis and aerobic respiration, two prominent types of metabolism on earth. Photosynthesis produces O2 needed for aerobic respiration. Respiration produces CO2 needed for autotrophic growth.

CO2 + H2O-----------------> CH2O (organic material) + O2 plant (oxygenic) photosynthesis

CH2O + O2-----------------> CO2 + H2O aerobic respiration

Since these photosynthetic microbes are also autotrophic (meaning they convert CO2 to organic material during growth) they have a similar impact on the carbon cycle

 

[William Gaatjes]

Looking around on spaceweather.com, i found a nice picture of the sun.
There is a (plasma) filament which follows magnetic field lines discovered by SDO from NASA that is more then 700,000km long. It is huge and if it would erupt, could become interesting for science.
I think this is the same filament as in post 43 of this thread.

According to spaceweather.com, this filament may create a hyder flare. I had to look up what it was myself :
http://www.ips.gov.au/Educational/2/4/1

Hyder Flares

1. What is a Hyder flare?

Flares are intense brightenings that occur in the solar chromosphere. Flares are generally observed from Earth using narrow band filters, typically with a bandwidth of less than 0.1 nm, and often centred on the Hydrogen-Alpha wavelength of 656.3 nm. (Flares also have counterparts, that is, sudden outbursts, in the radio and X-ray spectrum).

Most flares occur around active regions associated with sunspot groups. However, occasionally a flare (sudden brightening) is observed well away from an active region or sunspot group. These flares are invariably associated with the sudden disappearance of a large (thick, long, 'bushy') dark solar filament, and are termed Hyder flares.

2. Why are Hyder flares so named?

Max Waldmeier wrote a paper in 1938 which described the phenomenon of suddenly disappearing filaments (disparition brusque), and mentioned that these can be associated with flare-like brightenings, but it was left to Charles Hyder to postulate the first comprehensive mechanism for the such flares.

Following on work from his doctoral thesis with the University of Colorado in Boulder (1964), Hyder published two papers in the second volume of the journal Solar Physics (1967) in which the mechanism by which Hyder flares might occur was discussed in detail. Hyder was then on the staff of the (US) Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories at the Sacramento Peak Observatory in New Mexico.

It was these papers in Solar Physics by which Hyder's name became associated with the flares in question, even though he was by no means the first to observe them.

3. What are the characteristics of Hyder flares?

As previously mentioned, the name Hyder flare is given to a flare that occurs away from an active region or sunspot group and that is associated with the sudden disappearance of a dark filament. The appearance of these flares can range from a string of bright knots on one or both sides of the filament (or rather, the position previously occupied by the filament, sometimes called the filament channel), to a single or double ribbon flare. The ribbons are parallel to the filament channel. If only one ribbon is present, it will lie to one side of the channel, whereas if two parallel ribbons occur, one ribbon will lie on one side of the filament channel, and the other ribbon will lie on the opposite side.

One interesting characteristic of Hyder flares is that they usually develop or rise to maximum brightness much more slowly than do the more common flares associated with active regions. The larger Hyder flares may take 30 to 60 minutes to rise to a peak intensity, and then they may last for several hours. Although they may attain a large area, they usually have a relatively low intensity. Thus, classifications for a large Hyder flare may read 2F, 2N or possibly even 3F. This contrasts to an active region flare in which 3F is very rare. An active region flare that attains sufficient area to put it into the importance class 3, will invariably have either a Normal or more usually a Brilliant brightness classification.

X-ray flares and radio (microwave) bursts associated with the optical Hyder flare, are also generally long lived phenomenon and are classified as the gradual rise and fall type of event (in contrast to the impulsive and complex events associated with large active region flares).

Generally Hyder flares are not associated with energetic particle emission or geomagnetic storms (implying that they may not be associated with a coronal mass ejection). However, this is not always the case, as a large halo CME observed by the LASCO solar coronagraph on board the SOHO spacecraft was most definitely associated with a Hyder flare (2N/M1) observed on 12 September 2000. This same complex also appeared to have produced energetic protons at geosynchronous orbit with energies in excess of 100 MeV, and in substantial numbers at energies of 10 MeV. It is believed that the sudden storm commencement observed at 0450UT 15 September, and the subsequent minor geomagnetic storm was produced by this particular CME.

4. What produces Hyder flares?

Hyder's explanation of the flare type now named after him depended on the observational evidence that (1) often the flare was a parallel ribbon flare with one ribbon each side of the filament channel, and (2) that geomagnetic storms were not associated with these flares. This led to the speculation that the filamentary material was not ejected far into the corona, but in fact fell back to the chromosphere producing the flare.

Stable or quiescent filaments are believed to lie in and along a magnetic trough. It is thought that the sudden disappearance of such a filament is due to a reconfiguration of the field. In essence, the magnetic trough becomes a magnetic ridge (the bottom of the trough elevating in a period of tens of minutes to become the peak of the ridge). In this process, the filamentary material (cooler gas) is thought to be accelerated into the corona. Hyder's explanation is that, in the case of the Hyder flare, some or even most of the filament material, instead of suffering acceleration and ejection, falls down the sides of the magnetic ridge and interacts with the lower chromospheric material producing the flare. If the infall process is symmetrical, then the double parallel ribbon flare will result, if asymmetrical, then only one ribbon results. If the infall is sporadic, or the material insufficient, then only bright knots of flare are produced. Hyder did calculations to show that the kinetic energy of the infalling material should be sufficient to provide the required flare energy release observed.

Of late, the Hyder mechanism has come into question. Some people (notably Zirin) have questioned whether infall occurs, stating that the magnetic reconfiguration must always produce ejection. The respective roles of flares and CME's in solar active processes has also been hotly debated, and this has implications for the exact mechanism of Hyder flares. We certainly have enough observational evidence to show that Hyder flares can be associated with both CME's and energetic particle production. For the moment, the question of Hyder flare production mechanism appears unresolved, and will probably be sidelined until the more significant (and undoubtedly related) issue of CME - flare production mechanism is sorted out.

The bottom line is that at this stage in solar physics we do not really know what produces a flare nor what produces a CME. There are competing theories, but all tend to have deficiencies with respect to matching the observational evidence. We certainly believe that they all depend on the reconfiguration of magnetic fields as their primary energy source, but in the final analysis, we really only believe this because we can conceive of no other solar energy source of sufficient magnitude.

 

[Sunny129]

very interesting read ^

 

[William Gaatjes]

very interesting read ^

It is...
When i was very very young everybody always mentioned that big ball of fire in the sky.
It is in the beginning hard to keep in mind that the sun is not a ball of fire.
But a ball with an outer layer of hot plasma where huge magnetic fields, huge electric fields and huge electric currents rule. An inner layer of various elements from hydrogen being the lightest up to iron (if i recall correctly) where nuclear forces rule. And maybe a very small neutron only core where the most extreme nuclear events happen. Of course not real neutron particles, but still...

 

[Sunny129]

When i was very very young everybody always mentioned that big ball of fire in the sky.
It is in the beginning hard to keep in mind that the sun is not a ball of fire...

what's equally hard to fathom is how much more efficient the process of thermonuclear fusion is at releasing energy than conventional combustion...until you study the chemistry and physics behind both processes anyways.

 

[Biftheunderstudy]

what's equally hard to fathom is how much more efficient the process of thermonuclear fusion is at releasing energy than conventional combustion...until you study the chemistry and physics behind both processes anyways.

And yet, still a couple orders of magnitude less than accretion onto a compact object. Fusion is .07% efficient? Accretion can convert up to 10% the rest mass energy into radiation.

Also, the sun only really does hydrogen -> helium fusion, it's not massive enough for anything else interesting happening.

What is interesting though, is that the surface of the sun is around 6000K, while the corona is more like 1000000K....the magnetic reconnection problem is far from a solved problem.