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The sun's magnetic field is about to flip

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91–100 of 185 posts

Re: The sun's magnetic field is about to flip

#91
post #3

Interestingly this happens every 11 years and also their is a longer cycle called the Hale cycle which is double the length at 22 years. It flips from a mostly dipole where the poles match the orientation of earth to a reverse and much more irregular magenetic orientation. I didn't see anything about how this really affects Earth directly other than what I knew previously about sun spots make Coronal Mass Ejections s…

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Correlations are to be found everywhere: http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious/random

Not to say there isn't a causal relationship, but a correlation graph is only a "maybe there's a relationship" and not "this means that".

Re: The sun's magnetic field is about to flip

#92
post #3

Interestingly this happens every 11 years and also their is a longer cycle called the Hale cycle which is double the length at 22 years. It flips from a mostly dipole where the poles match the orientation of earth to a reverse and much more irregular magenetic orientation. I didn't see anything about how this really affects Earth directly other than what I knew previously about sun spots make Coronal Mass Ejections s…

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I am no expert, but I am skeptical because the paper results looks way too perfect to be true.

Then instead of doing statistical analysis with things like p-values or probabilities, they make wildly out of scope assertions like this:

> "Considering all pandemics with obtained extremum points, we can conclude that sunspot extrema coincide with the pandemics’ first appearance probably because of mutation on virus DNA or generation of a new virus."

They are claiming both sunspot minima and maxima, not just one or the other (which seems more intuitive?) somehow cause pandemics due to virus DNA mutations, even for pandemics that were caused by bacteria.

I am all for using statistics and data science for discovery of new phenomena, but I suspect this one is total bunk.

Re: The sun's magnetic field is about to flip

#93
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or we will learn those studies were by the same caliber of people who did the food pyramid etc

The food pyramid is misunderstood 'those scientists' were from Sweden responding to protests over the increasing costs of food due to famine. When looked at from the lens of maximizing calories per dollar, it makes a lot more sense.

it could have been divine revelation. what matters is that it is used to this day for policy.

Re: The sun's magnetic field is about to flip

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall back a few years reading some articles speaking about the sun entering in a Grand Solar Minimum cycle similar to the Maunder minimum, and that the result could be global cooling, etc. Not sure if there's been additional research or conjecture since then.

The theory is that we're due for another ice age and that there's going to be a pole shift. Pumping CO2 into the atmosphere would then be the best thing to do to stave off this scenario.

> "Pumping CO2 into the atmosphere would then be the best thing to do to stave off this scenario."

which makes for a very convenient distraction/talking point of climate-focused science deniers. I am no expert, but every time I have checked into one of those supposed impending Grand Solar Minimum predictions (that will cause some sort of climate crisis), it has been pure pseudo-science with no legitimate or rational theoretical basis.

Re: The sun's magnetic field is about to flip

#95
post #3

Interestingly this happens every 11 years and also their is a longer cycle called the Hale cycle which is double the length at 22 years. It flips from a mostly dipole where the poles match the orientation of earth to a reverse and much more irregular magenetic orientation. I didn't see anything about how this really affects Earth directly other than what I knew previously about sun spots make Coronal Mass Ejections s…

Is it related to the 11 year sunspot cycle or just a coincidence?

For layman explanation it was just discussed it on StarTalk just a few days ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lty_55JbkmE

Re: The sun's magnetic field is about to flip

#96
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The theory is that we're due for another ice age and that there's going to be a pole shift. Pumping CO2 into the atmosphere would then be the best thing to do to stave off this scenario.

How about we don’t do that? And if it indeed starts getting cold, we regroup?

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Re: The sun's magnetic field is about to flip

#97
post #56
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a solar scale though earth goes through a full orbit in just a year, Mars two years. It is interesting that Jupiter has an 11 year orbit and that kind of matches the flip, might just be coincidence but that mass has a huge tug though. Sun is only 1000 times the mass of Jupiter, if you think of it like a "failed star" it's kinda like a pseudo binary? Eh I am grasping at straws.

If Jupiter was a failed star, it failed big time. "Although Jupiter would need to be about 75 times more massive to fuse hydrogen and become a star,[66] its diameter is sufficient as the smallest red dwarf may be only slightly larger in radius than Saturn." It got as big as it could be, though. "Theoretical models indicate that if Jupiter had over 40% more mass, the interior would be so compressed that its volume wou…

I think the point is that it's pretty darn close to the very fuzzy limit of when something can be a star vs. when it can't. If it were off in space on its own, rather than orbiting our star, it might be a contentious classification

Re: The sun's magnetic field is about to flip

#98
post #29
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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causality0 was making statements about his credentials and expertise, not his personal characteristics. I think ad hominem definitionally has to be irrelevant. “x knows nothing about topic y” is not ad hominem even if it is a false statement.

An ad hominem doesn't have to be irrelevant; it just means that the argument is about the person rather than the position. Attempting to dismiss an argument due to the person's credentials instead of their position is 100% an ad hominem.

But like contravariant said, that doesn't mean the argument is wrong—just that it's a weak argument.

Re: The sun's magnetic field is about to flip

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The theory is that we're due for another ice age and that there's going to be a pole shift. Pumping CO2 into the atmosphere would then be the best thing to do to stave off this scenario.

> "Pumping CO2 into the atmosphere would then be the best thing to do to stave off this scenario." which makes for a very convenient distraction/talking point of climate-focused science deniers. I am no expert, but every time I have checked into one of those supposed impending Grand Solar Minimum predictions (that will cause some sort of climate crisis), it has been pure pseudo-science with no legitimate or rational…

Don't shoot the messenger. It's all theory and conjecture until it actually happens, and it has in the past, and it WILL happen again in the future.

Re: The sun's magnetic field is about to flip

#100
post #36

Can one use Sun's magnetic field for navigation? I imagine Sun compass would be far more precise than Earth compass, no?

You want something to make it easier to find the sun ? Anyway the sun's magnetic fields is ridiculously weak on earth.

I am thinking of a Sun compass a signal of which could be used in space. Can this signal be fused into IMU? I wonder if it makes any sense.
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