Charles R. Anderson, Ph.D. is a materials physicist, self-owned, a benevolent and tolerant Objectivist, a husband and father, the owner of a materials analysis laboratory, and a thinking individualist. The critical battle of our day is the conflict between the individual and the state. We must be ever vigilant and constant defenders of the equal sovereign rights of every individual to life, liberty, property, self-ownership, and the personal pursuit of happiness.
Core Essays
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14 December 2009
Solar Wind Flux Is Weakest Since Accurate Measurements Started
The Sun's solar wind provides a protective shield around the Sun from the solar wind of other stars. This million mile-per-hour solar wind is at a minimum compared to all other measurements since accurate measurements have been performed, starting with the Space Age. This plasma of charged particles cannot sweep other charged particles in the solar winds of other stars away once it comes into equilibrium with them in the heliopause. The boundary of the heliopause should be shrinking as the solar wind diminishes, as measured by the satellite Ulysses in its polar orbit about the Sun in 2007. This means that cosmic rays will no longer be shielded from Earth as effectively as they have been in the recent past.
The solar wind pressure and the magnetic field embedded in the solar wind were measured to have decreased by 20%. The field strength at the spacecraft had decreased by 36%. These are much bigger changes than the Sun's common irradiance changes of about 0.11% in amplitude or twice that from highest to lowest intensity. Those who like to claim that the Sun is not the big actor in climate change, seem to believe that the only source of energy deposited by the Sun on the Earth is the direct irradiance. It has been noted recently that cosmic rays nucleate cloud formation very effectively and clouds commonly provide net cooling of the Earth. If the solar wind has dropped by 20%, then the shielding of cosmic rays may have dropped greatly and there may be much more cooling cloud formation on Earth. In addition, there should be some deposition of energy in the Earth's atmosphere due to the interaction of the solar wind magnetic field with the Earth's magnetic field and due to the flux of charged particles themselves. So, the 20% drop in the solar wind may have a large impact on the Earth's climate.
Perhaps contrary to the catastrophic AGW alarmists, it is not the case that man's emissions of CO2 have caused the temperature increases of the late 20th Century, because they claim they do not see natural forces capable of providing the necessary degree of climate change. Perhaps there are natural forces they do not yet understand very well at all.
The first link in the comment above proves to be an interesting blog by an Australian. Here is a quote from one of his comments:
"Put simply, economics is the science of unhampered human action, and it disappears when those conditions are absent. Markets are activities in which freely produced goods and services are willingly exchanged and rely totally on the pre-existence of private property rights. Without those rights, individuals are incapable of bartering, and hence exchanging goods and services.
Capitalism and freedom can never be separated and for Rudd and others to condemn "extreme capitalism" is simply the weasel word for criticising freedom.
Tony Abbott's election is nothing other than a result produced by free people choosing what they want, and not what state sponsored demagoges demand.
We are truly living during interesting times."
Thanks for the comment, Fungus! As for the old man part, well that is sometimes the price of acquiring a greater measure of wisdom, so I am OK with that!
Spot on, old man!
ReplyDeleteYou might like the following sites:
http://geoplasma.spaces.live.com/
http://www.fractaluniverse.org/v2/?page_id=2
We live in interesting times, Charles. Have a great holiday!
The first link in the comment above proves to be an interesting blog by an Australian. Here is a quote from one of his comments:
ReplyDelete"Put simply, economics is the science of unhampered human action, and it disappears when those conditions are absent. Markets are activities in which freely produced goods and services are willingly exchanged and rely totally on the pre-existence of private property rights. Without those rights, individuals are incapable of bartering, and hence exchanging goods and services.
Capitalism and freedom can never be separated and for Rudd and others to condemn "extreme capitalism" is simply the weasel word for criticising freedom.
Tony Abbott's election is nothing other than a result produced by free people choosing what they want, and not what state sponsored demagoges demand.
We are truly living during interesting times."
Thanks for the comment, Fungus! As for the old man part, well that is sometimes the price of acquiring a greater measure of wisdom, so I am OK with that!