We don't know much about solar magnetic flux ropes. We know they affect space weather, but thanks to climate experts we already "know" they can't possibly, ever in a million years, affect Earth's weather. Even though we've only just been able to see them and have no long term data on them, we have Global Circulation Climate models (which don't include these solar factors), so we have 95% certainty that none of the particles, fields or radiation changes have much impact on Earth. They might fritz satellites, electronics and communications, but Earth's atmosphere has no electrical component (wink), and the models "work" (kinda, sorta, apart from "the pause", the arctic, the ocean, the antarctic, and the holocene) without any of this fuzzy solar stuff. Got that? Repeat after me. The Sun does not affect Earth's climate. (Good boys and girls. You are fit for a government grant.)
© Chang LiuFine details of a magnetic flux rope captured by the New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory for Solar Active Region 11817 on 2013 August 11. The structure is further demonstrated by the 3-D magnetic modeling based the observations of Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board Solar Dynamic Observatory.
Science Daily: Scientists at NJIT's Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) have captured the first high-resolution images of the flaring magnetic structures known as solar flux ropes at their point of origin in the Sun's chromosphere.David's solar notch delay theory, which predicts cooling, by the way, is doing very well. We'll be discussing an update and more news on his theory that TSI is a leading indicator (but not a direct cause) of temperature changes on Earth in up and coming posts. Energetic particles, solar winds, changes in radiation and magnetic fields, are all candidates for the force (or forces) that influence Earth's climate, but are delayed by half a full solar cycle (of ~22 years) from changes in the TSI.
Flux ropes are bundles of magnetic fields that together rotate and twist around a common axis, driven by motions in the photosphere, a high-density layer of the Sun's atmosphere below the solar corona and chromosphere.
Previous problems with Fourier transform approximations have been fixed, and a delay is indeed implied by the notch. Sorry about the big gap in publications on it, there is something scientifically big going on (separate from the ND solar theory) behind the scenes and he prefers to work with a low profile rather than in the "blood sport" distraction that publicity brings. Thanks to all the people who support our ground breaking research. Donations to this blog keep us both going. To the team who make independent science and independent science commentary possible — We're very grateful, we can't do this without you.
We will be entering the fray again soon. I have a series of posts lined up. Thanks for your patience.
The Press release: New solar telescope peers deep into the sun to track the origins of space weather
...a few years ago.
The basic principle was that electric currents on the solar surface could induced electrical currents into the Earth's oceans via the coupling of the Earth and Suns magnetic fields. This would warm the Earth's oceans. OK yes, it is known that this happens but the currents themselves are very rarely measured -and I have no data.
I realised this effect would be maximised if/when the coronal (or Spitzer) resistivity equalled the resistivity of the oceans (or thereabouts). Of course the Spitzer resistivity is actually a constant and in fact six orders of magnitude too low. Having worked this out I did a quick search on the internet looking for words like "solar", "resistivity" and especially "six orders of magnitude". Bingo! It turns out that research from about ten years ago demonstrated that the coronal resistivity associated with lateral flare currents was six orders of magnitude higher than the Spitzer resistivity. This means that the warming of the oceans due to these currents is higher during periods of increased solar activity.
It gets better. Landschidt thought that the oceans were buffering heat from the peaks of solar cycles through the troughs and suggested that to accomplish the observed lack of warming through the peaks and lack of cooling through the troughs this heat must be contained in the top several hundred meters of the oceans (I forget now but think he said 700 metres). It turns out the oceans skin depth as regards these induced currents is about 300 metres so about 90% of this extra warming energy is contained within the first 600 metres.
Better still. This effect would go some way towards explaining the various prolonged solar minima (but please note I am unable to quantify it). In particular the strength of the coupling is linearly proportional to the strength of the solar and geo magnetic field strengths. A reduction in the solar field strength as seems to be happening now (Livingston and Penn) would result in less warming of the planet and move us into Maunder or Dalton type conditions. A collapse in the Earth's magnetic field such as happens during magnetic reversals would result in an Ice Age (OK glaciation) which does happen.
Now the theory is utterly simple and explains just about everything climate wise. Everything fits like pieces in a jigsaw. The problem is I have no data. The data may exist. I do not know. If I had a yacht and some simple equipment I could sail out to sea and measure the currents directly. I do not. I suspect the frequency components of the induced currents may be shifted up the frequency scale due to the relatively smaller size of flares to the solar disk....