Crack in Earth’s Defenses Against Solar Wind.

March 7, 2008 on 6:30 pm | In 2012 | No Comments

In 2012 EYE OF THE SHAMAN I create a premise that powerful geomagnetic storms will wreak havoc with our  electronically driven technology  thus rendering our society’s functionality useless.  It’s not as far fetched as one might think. 

Last night the sun’s magnetic field near Earth tipped south, opening a crackin our planet’s defenses against the solar wind. Charged particles poured in, fueling a brief but beautiful display of aurora borealis. 

(source: http://www.spaceweather.com/)

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole will hit Earth’s magnetic field later today or tomorrow. Credit:SOHO Extreme UV Telescope.

Evidence Mounts

The next solar cycle is going to be a big one.

Solar cycle 24, due to peak in 2010 or 2011 “looks like its going to be one of the most intense cycles since record-keeping began almost 400 years ago,” says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

He and colleague Robert Wilson presented this conclusion last week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

Their forecast is based on historical records of geomagnetic storms.Hathaway explains: “When a gust of solar wind hits Earth’s magnetic field, the impact causes the magnetic field to shake. If it shakes hard enough, we call it a geomagnetic storm.”

In the extreme, these storms cause power outages and make compass needles swing in the wrong direction.

Auroras are a beautiful side-effect.

Hathaway and Wilson looked at records of geomagnetic activity stretching back almost 150 years and noticed something useful:. “The amount of geomagnetic activity now tells us what the solar cycle is going to be like 6 to 8 years in the future,” says Hathaway. A picture is worth a thousand words: