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Sun Spot Germination

18 March 2019
Electromagnetism

At https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2019/03/17/solar-tsunami-can-trigger-the… …. it begins by saying the next sun spot cycle can be expected to begin in 2020 according to The Hindu (see www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/solar-tsunami-can-trigger-the-sunspot-cycle/ar… ). It is thought the solar dynamics which produce electric and magnetic fields in the Sun is linked to the production of sun spots. What kick starts the 11 year sun spot cycle? A group of solar physicists suggest a solar tsunami is at work. The extreme temperatures and pressure below the Sun's surface cause it to form a plasma consisting primarily of hydrogen and helium in a highly ionised state. The plasma is confined within large magnetic fields inside the Sun – see www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-37939-z … (Scientific Reports). The Sun's toroidal magnetic fields from which sun spots are generated wraps around the Sun in an east west direction. These fields behave like elastic bands on a polished sphere. They tend to slip towards the poles. To hold these fields in place requires extra plasma mass pushing in at high altitudes. This tends to form a dam, storing lots of plasma. At the end of a solar cycle this dam may break releasing huge amounts of plasma cascading towards the poles.

I queried this with Bob Johnson and he sent back a link to www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2012/03/31/predicting-volcanic-eruptions-by-iso… .. which has an interesting analogy. What causes volcanoes on Earth? What triggers them? It seems that contrary to the mainstream view (at the time) volcanoes are not triggered by magma pressure in a subterranean chamber but by the release of stored energy in the volcanoe's isohypse pattern in a process known as 'i

'Isohypse Reconnection Events' – isohypses behave like rubber bands (that analogy once again) which get more and more stretched with each discharge of lava. Over time vast amounts of energy become frozen in to the isohypse because the mobility of the volcano is effectively zero, preventing dissipation of the stored energy. When the stress in the isohypses exceeds the breaking strength, the weakest chain in the isohypse will breach and trigger a catastrophic cascade of failures as the stress is redistributed. So, what occurs on Earth also occurs on the Sun.

 

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