It proves, say the researchers, that there exists a direct electrical connection between thunderclouds and the upper atmosphere.
They say that since the electrical link was seen in what was a relatively small commonplace thunderstorm, it could be a widespread phenomenon and a hitherto unappreciated arm of a global electrical circuit.
Blue Jets (http://everythingselectric.com/forum/index.php?topic=91.msg136#msg136) - BBC report
Researchers have long known that the Earth and sun must be connected. Earth's magnetosphere (the magnetic bubble that surrounds our planet) is filled with particles from the sun that arrive via the solar wind and penetrate the planet's magnetic defenses. They enter by following magnetic field lines that can be traced from terra firma all the way back to the sun's atmosphere.
Magnetic Portals Connect Sun and Earth - NASA (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30oct_ftes.htm)
Telluric current activity is related to thunderstorms, and recent research indicates that by causing accumulation of electrical charge on the Earth's surface, they play a vital role in turning a rain shower into a thunder storm - Wikipedia on Telluric Currents
Several speakers at the Workshop have outlined how FTEs form: On the dayside of Earth (the side closest to the sun), Earth's magnetic field presses against the sun's magnetic field. Approximately every eight minutes, the two fields briefly merge or "reconnect," forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth. The European Space Agency's fleet of four Cluster spacecraft and NASA's five THEMIS probes have flown through and surrounded these cylinders, measuring their dimensions and sensing the particles that shoot through. "They're real," says Sibeck.
flux transfer event (FTE) - NASA (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30oct_ftes.htm)
The origin and mechanism of the Earth’s magnetic field are amongst the biggest unsolved questions in the earth sciences. Most geophysicists agree however that the main component of the field — which defines the magnetic poles — is a dipole generated by the convection of molten iron deep within the Earth’s interior. We know, from studying the way magnetic minerals align in volcanic rocks, that this dipole has flipped its orientation every million years or so throughout Earth history.
Now, Gregory Ryskin of Northwestern University, Illinois, is offering an alternative explanation for the origin of this secular variation. Ryskin believes that electric currents induced in dissolved salts — as ocean waters circulate through the Earth’s magnetic field — can generate secondary magnetic fields strong enough to shift the orientation of the original field. Comparing his own calculations with public geophysical data, Ryskin links circulation in the North Atlantic with observed trends in secular variation over Western Europe.
Scientists have long since known that salt in the ocean can conduct electricity, leading to secondary fields, as the waters chop and change in the presence of the Earth’s magnetic field. In practice, however, it is difficult to gauge the scale of these fields — partly due to the incompleteness of data and the limited precision of computations. Ryskin also suggests that previous measurement of these fields have been somewhat biased by standard theories. “Researchers work backwards — they begin with the assumption that secular variation comes from the core when this is still only a hypothesis.” - physicsworld.com (http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/39469)
Earth's magnetic field, long thought to be generated by molten metals swirling around its core, may instead be produced by ocean currents, according to controversial new research published this week.
It suggests that the movements of such volumes of salt water around the world have been seriously underestimated by scientists as a source of magnetism....
“Everyone accepted this, but in reality there has never been any proof,” said Gregory Ryskin, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University in Illinois. “It is just an idea we have accepted for a long time without questioning it enough.”
His research suggests that Earth’s magnetism is actually linked to ocean movements. The salt in seawater allows it to conduct electricity, meaning it generates electrical and magnetic fields as it moves.
The findings, published by Britain’s Institute of Physics’s New Journal of Physics, will cause a fierce scientific debate - timesonline.co.uk (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6493481.ece)
The electrojet is a current system that is approximately fixed in inertial space with the earth rotating under it, and a strong electrojet activity is common in the local midnight sector of the auroral region.
Electrojets - VLF Group - Stanford University (http://www-star.stanford.edu/~vlf/ejet/electrojet.html)
We investigate variations of the location and intensity of auroral currents during two magnetic storm periods based on magnetic field measurements from CHAMP separately for both hemispheres, as well as for the dayside and nightside. The corresponding auroral electrojet current densities are on average enhanced by about a factor of 7 compared to the quiet time current strengths. The nightside westward current densities are on average 1.8 (2.2) times larger than the dayside eastward current densities in the Northern (Southern) Hemisphere.
Both eastward and westward currents are present during the storm periods with the most intense electrojets appearing during the main phase of the storm, before the ring current maximizes in strength. The eastward and westward electrojet centers can expand to 55° MLat during intense storms, as is observed on 31 March 2001 with Dst=-387 nT. The equatorward shift of auroral currents on the dayside is closely controlled by the southward IMF, while the latitudinal variations on the nightside are better described by the variations of the Dst index. However, the equatorward and poleward motion of the nightside auroral currents occur earlier than the Dst variations.
The Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) can capture the general dynamics of the storm time current variations. Both the model and the actual data show that the currents tend to saturate when the merging electric field is larger than 10mV/m. However, the exact prediction of the temporal development of the currents is still not satisfactory.
Storm time dynamics of auroral electrojets : CHAMP observation and the Space Weather Modeling Framework comparison (http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=20269024)
Subtle connections among the 11-year-solar cycle, the stratosphere and the tropical Pacific Ocean work in sync to generate periodic weather patterns that affect much of the globe, according to research results appearing this week in the journal Science.
The findings will help scientists get an edge on predicting the intensity of certain climate phenomena, such as the Indian monsoon and tropical Pacific rainfall, years in advance.
"It's been long known that weather patterns are well-correlated to very small variations in total solar energy reaching our planet during 11-year solar cycles," says Jay Fein, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Atmospheric Sciences, which funded the research. "What's been an equally long mystery, however, is how they are physically connected. This remarkable study is beginning to unravel that mystery."
The Suns 11 cycle affects earths global weather patterns (http://everythingselectric.com/forum/index.php?topic=92.msg205#msg205)