Sent in by William – a link to an MSN story on the Sun’s magnetic flip halfway through our current solar cycle. The last one was in 2013 – this one is due in 2024. Doesn’t make a lot of difference to any of us down here but a good read. It has its source at https://www.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/the-suns-magnetic-field-is-about-to-flip/ … It happens every 11 years. Its magnetic poles reverse – or flip. Why that occurs is not precisely clear – but research will get there. On this occasion the Parker Solar Probe will be able to watch it happen – as well as the ESA Solar Orbiter. You can find out further info at https://spaceweather.com …
The Sun is currently in an active mode with a huge sun spot cluster directly facing the earth. Lots of other things are going on also – see for example https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2024/02/12/el-nino-fading-good-chance-of-la-nina-to-follow-says-atmospheric-physicist/ … El Nino, it is said, is about to fade away. It may have peaked in December of 2023. Hardly has it got started and the alarmist getting excited by a mild winter, than it will disappear – as unobtrusively as it arrived. The problem the El Nino had was that it overlapped with the effects of submarine Tonga Volcano – which sent huge quantities of water and vapour up into earth’s atmosphere. This water has been descending in mid to late 2023 – and is still now a common weather pattern. Rain. Lots of it. To get an idea of the impact of the Tonga volcano go to https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/tonga-eruption-blasted-unprecedenterd-amount-of-water-into-stratosphere/ … and with El Nino butt up to the volcano it has come across as a damp squib in some ways, although rain and snow in California are common occurrences during an El Nino year. It coincides with a mild and more pleasant winter in the NW and British Columbia. Difficult to say what was most significant – the El Nino, so beloved of alarmists, or the submarine volcanic explosion.
William also sent in another link – https://www.yahoo.com/news/watch-giant-loop-plasma-dance-150001154.html … solar activity on film – giant loops of plasma.Tasll Bloke’s story is derived from https://phys.org/news/2024-02-el-nio-strength-fueling-hot.html … which is pro global warming, climate change. Did El Nino reach the coast of South America of did it remain stuck in the central Pacific. Don’t see a lot about that. Did it rain in Australia?
See also https://www.livescience.com/space/the-sun/watch-the-1st-x-class-solar-flare-of-2024-erupt-from-the-sun-in-explosive-fashion … with more expected later this week and next week. All coming to a peak as William’s link suggests.
Speaking of William. he also sent in a link to Snowball Earth and a research paper that suggested it was caused by an asteroid impact. He recommended reading Gabrielle Walker, ‘Snowball Earth: The story of a maverick scientist and his theory of the global catastrophe that spawned life as we know it‘ … Bloomsbury Publishng :2003. The new study is in the current issue of Science Advances – and says the idea of an asteroid impact has largely been ignored. As we know it would. Too many impacts are getting mainstream very worried.