Science & Technology
Cosmic rays are a significant form of space weather. They get accelerated toward the Earth by distant supernova explosions and other violent events and are capable of seeding clouds, triggering lightning and penetrating commercial airplanes.
According to the measurements conducted by the Spaceweather.com team, flying back and forth across the continental USA only once, can absorb an amount of ionizing cosmic radiation equivalent to 2 or 5 dental X-rays. More to the point, the cosmic rays can affect mountain climbers, high-altitude drones and astronauts onboard the International Space Station in the same manner.
To measure the radiation, the students have been launching helium balloons into the stratosphere, as a part of the monitoring project. The obtained results showed an excellent match with measurements conducted in polar latitudes.
In general, the polar latitudes are highly suitable for performing such measurements, because the cosmic radiation is concentrated there due to Earth's magnetic field configuration. However, it turns out that cosmic rays are not intensifying only over the poles of our planet, but also over lower latitudes, where the magnetic field is stronger and shields against deep space radiation more efficiently, as well. An example for this is the measurement project carried over California.
The gamma and X-ray measurement results in the plot above are marked in red for the University of Oulu Cosmic Ray Station while gray markers are used for the data collected over California. The obvious agreement between the two datasets shows the increased activity of cosmic rays is also present over lower latitudes of our planet.
Solar storms are responsible for modulating the radiation. When the solar activity is high, the storms and CMEs tend to sweep cosmic rays aside from their Earth-directed pattern. However, when the solar activity is at its low end, an extra dose can reach our planet.
The conclusion arising from this behavior is that the current heightened cosmic ray intensity is most likely due to a decline in the solar cycle, as we are heading toward another solar minimum. The space weather forecasters expect the solar activity to drop significantly over the next couple of years, and the cosmic ray intensity should rise correspondingly.
The cosmic ray research of Earth to Sky Calculus is 100% crowd-funded. For more information, visit SpaceWeather.com.
Comment: There is plenty of evidence that an increase in cosmic radiation not only affects the planet in the form of major earth changes, but the also affects the humans residing on it. See:
- Is Solar and Cosmic Radiation Playing Havoc With Life on Planet Earth?
- Solar-system-wide 'climate' change: More galactic cosmic rays are reaching Earth than normal
Reader Comments
[Link]
Valentina Zarkova proposes a DOUBLE DYNAMO for Sol.
“We found magnetic wave components appearing in pairs, originating in two different layers in the Sun’s interior. They both have a frequency of approximately 11 years, although this frequency is slightly different, and they are offset in time. Over the cycle, the waves fluctuate between the northern and southern hemispheres of the Sun. Combining both waves together and comparing to real data for the current solar cycle, we found that our predictions showed an accuracy of 97%,” said Zharkova.
I theorize the sun was a giant red sun that imploded to Sol creating the two distinct electrical dymamos.
The bigger picture of what is happening with GCR's (Galactic Cosmic Rays) is best seen when viewing the Oulu, Moscow, or any other long time-span readout covering many solar cycles.
The last Solar Minimum showed greater strength of GCR's than any before it, relatively stronger GCR's during Solar Maximum, and is now looking like it will break new records in the coming Solar Cycle Minimum.
Earth is going to take a beating if this keeps going where it's currently headed.
[Link]
"The latest balloon flight over California on February 5 observed the highest value yet. The gathered data shows that cosmic rays in the mid-latitude stratosphere are currently 10% higher than one year ago."
Dare to brave the radiation with regular flights?
[Link]