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The Solar Dynamo

29 August 2013
Electromagnetism

At http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/08/29/a-new-understanding-of-the-solar-d… … the story was sent in by Leif Svalgaard, solar scientist. He is unimpressed by the Electric Universe and consistently rejects various ideas on the solar system workings, such as those of Tall Bloke concerning planetary influences on the Sun. He is therefore coming from a mainstream angle – but at the same time, he is a sceptic, otherwise he wouldn't be active or a Watts Up regular.

Stanford solar scientists have solved one of the few remaining fundamental mysteries of how the Sun works. Magnetic plasma migrates north to south on the surface of the Sun, from the equator to the poles, and then it drops down into the interior of the Sun on its way back to the equator. This is something similar to the ocean conveyor belt system on Earth, warm water migrating from equatorial zones to the poles and then migrating back to the equator in a cooler state deep inside the ocean. Sounds all a bit like Rupert Sheldrake, following a pattern that repeats itself in different life forms – but the Sun and the planets?

The rate and depth beneath the Sun's surface at which this process occurs is critical for predicting the Sun's magnetic and flare activity, they claim. This has remained unknown – until now. Stanford solar scientists now measure solar waves in much the same way that seismologists measure seismic signals beneath the surface of the Earth. There is at no time a recourse to electric signals or electric activity – in the seismology as well as the solar waves. Every 45 seconds for 48 months the solar waves were mapped across the face of the Sun and patterns in the waves emerged. It is claimed returning solar currents occur 100,000km below the surface of the Sun – half as deep as imagined. Hence, the process is much quicker than consensus allowed. Not only that but equator-ward flow is sandwiched between two layers of pole-ward movements.

The paper is at The Astrophysical Journal Letters (online). As always, the comments to the Watts Up piece are worth a scan as some of them are made by scientists in different fields that come from a different perspective.

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