A Giant Breach Found in Earth's Magnetic Field
Mitch Battros - Earth Changes Media
Scientists have found two large leaks in Earth's magnetosphere, the region around our planet that shields us from severe solar storms. The leaks are defying many of scientists' previous ideas on how the interaction between Earth's magnetosphere and solar wind occurs. The leaks are in an unexpected location, let in solar particles in faster than expected and the whole interaction works in a manner that is completely the opposite of what scientists had thought. The findings have implications for how solar storms affect our planet. Serious storms, which involved charged particles spewing from the Sun, can disable satellites, disrupt power grids, and affect weather on Earth.
Sunspots => Solar Flares => Magnetic Field Shift => Shifting Ocean and Jet Stream Currents => Extreme Weather and Human Disruption (mitch battros)
The new observations "overturn the way that we understand how the Sun's magnetic field interacts with the Earth's magnetic field," said David Sibeck of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., during a press conference today at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The Sun operates on an 11-year cycle, alternating between active and quiet periods (solar 'max' and solar 'min'). We are currently in a quiet period, with few sunspots on the Sun's surface and fewer solar flares, though the next cycle of activity has begun. It is expected to peak around 2012, bringing lots of sunspots, flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). FULL ARTICLE: http://earthchangesmedia.com/secure/3247.326/article-9162523598.php
