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Wed, 27 Oct 2021
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Cosmic rays reaching atmosphere increase 12% in 3 years - highest levels ever recorded

We're back from the Arctic, and we have some new results to share. In January 2020, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus and Spaceweather.com traveled to Abisko, Sweden, to launch a pair of cosmic ray balloons. We'd been there before, launching three identical balloons in March 2017. Putting all the data together, 2017+2020, we find that radiation has increased +12% in the past 3 years:
Cosmic Rays at Altitude
© SpaceWeather
The graph shows radiation dose rate (uGy/hr) vs. altitude (feet) all the way from ground level to the stratosphere. Radiation appears to be increasing at nearly all altitudes-even in the range 25,000 ft to 40,000 ft where airplanes fly. Polar flight crews and passengers are therefore absorbing ~12% more cosmic radiation than they did only a few years ago.
cosmic ray 2019
Something ironic is happening in Earth's atmosphere. Solar activity is low-very low. Yet atmospheric radiation is heading in the opposite direction. Cosmic rays percolating through the air around us are at a 5 year high.


Comment: It's not 'ironic'! Geez, talk about anthropocentric projection.

It's what one would expect, provided one has a correct understanding of astrophysics, which takes into account elements of Electric Universe theory. The Sun normally buffers cosmic rays from penetrating the Earth's atmosphere, as it does all planets in our solar system, because the heliosphere (the sheath or 'bubble' around the system caused by the solar wind) keeps them out. But because it's so quiet the solar wind has weakened to allow more cosmic rays 'through' into our system. In parallel, and to a smaller extent, the weakened solar wind weakens Earth's magnetic shield, again allowing more cosmic rays than 'normal' to penetrate to the lower atmosphere.


Take a look at these data gathered by cosmic ray balloons launched by Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus almost weekly since March 2015.

Radiation levels have been increasing almost non-stop since the monitoring program began, with recent flights registering the highest levels of all.

What's happening? The answer is "Solar Minimum"-the low point of the 11-year solar cycle. During Solar Minimum (underway now) the sun's magnetic field weakens and allows energetic particles from deep space to penetrate the Solar System. As solar activity goes down, cosmic rays go up; yin-yang.


Comment: Yes, although cosmic ray flux was unusually high during the last 'solar maximum' too.


Comment: Cosmic rays have long been considered - in obscure academic studies that sadly never got much publicity - to regulate the rhythms of ALL life on Earth.

See also: Solar activity just reached a new space age low


Solar Flares

Solar activity just reached a new space age low

1677 painting by Abraham Hondius,
© Museum of London
1677 painting by Abraham Hondius, "The Frozen Thames, looking Eastwards towards Old London Bridge."

During periods of low solar activity,
such as the deep solar minimum we're in now, the Sun will often be devoid of sunspots-a great barometer for the depth and longevity of solar minima.

The below graph shows how many days during a specific year that the earth-facing side of the Sun has been spotless:

sunspots graph
© www.spaceweatherlive.com

Comment: See also:


Snowflake

Multiple feet of fresh snow recorded across Colorado's high country

Snowboarding on fresh powder at Keystone Mountain Resort
© Keystone Mountain Resort
Snowboarding on fresh powder at Keystone Mountain Resort
Snow was possible along the Front Range on Sunday, mainly in the afternoon and evening, when the Denver area could see 1-3 inches. But the heaviest snow was expected to remain in the mountains. Another round of the storm was dumping snow over the southern and central mountains, from Vail to Aspen.

But even before the snow Sunday, the snowfall totals since Thursday were pretty high across the mountains. Near Rabbit Ears Pass, more than 43 inches
had fallen as of Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service's snowfall reporting location.


Below is the full list of snowfall totals from around Colorado, via the NWS locations . The totals below are all listed in inches.

1 NNE Rabbit Ears Pass: 43.4
1 NW Climax: 33.6
5 SSW Blue River: 32.2
1 NNW Berthoud Pass: 30.8
4 SE Mount Zirkel: 30.8

Cloud Precipitation

Heavy hailstorm leaves blanket of ice in several districts of Rajasthan, India, damages crops

ice hail
Nagaur district in Rajasthan witnessed unusual weather conditions as the area was hit by heavy rains and hailstorms causing it to be covered in a blanket of ice on Thursday.

Several areas of Nagaur, including villages of Chhapri, Maulasar, Keechak, were hit by heavy hailstorm that caused roads and roofs of houses to be completely covered in sheets of ice making it look like snow.

The hailstorm has caused significant damage to crops in the region. Reportedly, several animals and birds have also sustained injuries.


Cloud Precipitation

At least 24 people killed by landslide after heavy rain in DR Congo

Artisanal mining in the DRC.
© Julien Harneis
Artisanal mining in the DRC.
At least 24 people have died after a landslide buried a mine in Ituri province, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).

Ituri province is in the far north east of the country, close to the border with Uganda, which is also experiencing heavy rain that has triggered deadly landslides over the last few days.

In the DR Congo, the landslide in Ituri province struck on 14 December. According to AFP, the provincial minister of mining said days of heavy rainfall was the main cause of the landslide. Rescuer workers are still searching the area and it is feared the death toll could rise.

Heavy rain since October has caused flooding and landslide across the country, affecting over 600,000 people in 12 of the 26 provinces, according to the UN.


Fire

Scientists identify underwater volcano as source of August's huge pumice raft near Tonga

Volcano F Pacific Oceon
© GEOMAR
Stones do not float in water — this is a truism. But there is hardly a rule without exception. In fact, some volcanic eruptions produce a very porous type of rock with a density so low that it does float: Pumice. An unusually large amount of it is currently drifting in the Southwest Pacific towards Australia. When it was first sighted in the waters around the island state of Tonga at the beginning of August, it almost formed a coherent layer on the ocean's surface. The "pumice raft" made it into headlines all over the world.

Various underwater volcanoes were discussed at that time as the potential source. But direct proof for the exact origin of the pumice was missing so far. Researchers at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany), together with colleagues from Canada and Australia, are now publishing evidence in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research that clearly identifies the culprit. It is a so far nameless underwater volcano just 50 kilometres northwest of the Tongan island of Vava'u. "In the international scientific literature, it appears so far only under the number 243091 or as Volcano F," says Dr. Philipp Brandl of GEOMAR, first author of the study.


Snowflake Cold

Icelandic farmer digs out horses buried under deep snow

dig out
This morning, Magnús Ásgeir Elíasson, a farmer from Hvammstangi, had a sudden feeling that he should check on his horses. It was a lucky intuition, as Magnús arrived to his fields to find a large group of his horses stuck in the snow. Thankfully, he had arrived just on time to bring all of them to safety and warmth, he told Vísir.

Apparently, after he finished the morning feeding, something snapped in him. "As I was walking into the house, I felt someone stopping me and saying, 'Go check on the horses.' I then turned around, looked up [onto the mountain] and saw my herd," Magnús explained. His horses were freezing in the snow.


Comment: Iceland blizzard brings 149 mph winds, up to 10 feet of accumulating mountain snow


Arrow Down

Two dead, 50 houses covered in mud as flash flood hits Sigi, Indonesia

floods
Two died and 50 houses were left covered in mud after a flash flood hit several villages in Kulawi subdistrict in Sigi regency, Central Sulawesi, on Thursday evening.

The disaster occurred at 7 p.m. when most residents were at home and while others were holding a Christmas prayer at a church in the area.

The flood was as a result of a landslide from a mountain located in Bolapapu, a village in Kulawi located next to forests. Heavy rain for days caused the landslide, which directly hit the village.

The disaster killed a father and his daughter who were stuck in their house when the flood hit. The mother of the family was able to survive as she was not in the house.


Arrow Down

2 rescued after sinkhole swallows minivan near Ocala, Florida

sikhole
A water main break caused the ground to open up in an Ocala-area neighborhood, causing a minivan to fall in and leaving two people trapped inside until good Samaritans came to the rescue.

Witnesses said the sinkhole that formed on Thursday quickly turned into an emergency for those inside the minivan.

"I went inside again to get her to show my wife, and by that time, the water was up, halfway through the motor, the hood," said area resident Dave Harris.

The concerned neighbor said his wife had just driven through the area before the sinkhole formed.


Cloud Precipitation

Two dead, hundreds of thousands of homes without power as powerful storm hits southwestern France

Floods  in Maubourguet, south western France
© AFP/LAURENT DARD
A man walks through a flooded street following heavy rains that led to the flood of the Adour and Echez rivers on Dec 14, 2019 in Maubourguet, south western France.
Two pensioners have been killed and tens of thousand of homes left without electricity as gale force winds and flooding hit southwestern France.


Comment: Winds reached 160kms/hr! And this wasn't even a named storm; just a sudden plunge in air pressure off France's Atlantic coast.


Eleven departments remained on orange alert weather warnings late Saturday.

A 70-year-old man died in the Pyrenees-Atlantique in the Basque Country on Friday when his vehicle struck a fallen tree.

In Espiens in the Lot-et-Garonne region a 76-year-old man was swept away by rising waters when he went out to fetch his mail on Friday.

Rescuers found his body 24 hours later more than a kilometre from his home.


Comment: This weather event seems to have received little coverage in anglophone media. It was quite something: it raged for almost 48 hours, brought rivers to near-record levels, and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes.

Less than a month ago, by the way, storms in France, Greece and Italy caused 'biblical' destruction.