Posted on 08/27/2010 11:33:22 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) The upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere are unexpectedly shrinking and cooling due to lower ultraviolet radiation from the sun, US scientists said Thursday.
The sun's energy output dropped to unusually low levels from 2007 to 2009, a significantly long spell with virtually no sunspots or solar storms, according to scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
During that period, the thermosphere, whose altitude ranges from about 55 to 300 miles (90 to 500 kilometers), shrank and contracted from the sharp drop in ultraviolet radiation, said the study published in the American Geophysical Union's journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The thermosphere cooled by 74 degrees Fahrenheit (41 Celsius) in 2008 compared to 1996, and shrank by 30 percent, "more than at any time in the 43-year era of space exploration" the researchers said.
"Our work demonstrates that the solar cycle not only varies on the typical 11-year time scale, but also can vary from one solar minimum to another," said study lead author Stanley Solomon.
A narrower, less dense thermosphere is good news for satellites orbiting Earth, ..
.. but it is also bad because of the thousands of non-operating objects (debris) remaining in space that could potentially have collisions with our working satellites," he added.
Woods said the research shows the sun could be going through a period of relatively low activity, as it did in the early 19th and 20th centuries.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I usually avoid the thermosphere if I can help it.. traffic is pretty intense up there sometimes.
Holy mackeral...more “unexpectedly”.
We are doomed! On the bright side, I don’t need to worry about the Obama Economy anymore!
This picture from NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) shows a view of the Sun. The sun's energy output dropped to unusually low levels from 2007 to 2009, a significantly long spell with virtually no sunspots or solar storms, US scientists said. (AFP/NASA/File)
Bush’s Fault.
and then to top it off there’s this:
http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/nasa-warns-of-super-solar-storm-2012/
Solar flares rise and fall on an 11-year cycle, and last year marked what scientists thought was the solar minimum. But through the beginning of 2009, the sun stayed unusually quiet. That changed yesterday, when a major sunspot appeared on the backside of the sun, where it was captured by NASAs STEREO instrument.
This is the biggest event weve seen in a year or so, said Michael Kaiser, research scientist with the heliophysics division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Does this mean were finished with the minimum or not? Its hard to say. This could be it. Its got us all excited.
Ok what stupid laws are thry gonna pass this time? Surely there is some type of goods or activity they haven’t outlawed or controlled yet.
thry = they
Clearly, the only way to fix this is to raise taxes, ban handguns, and pass the fairness doctrine - we must, for the children.
I thought you were getting Shakespearean. You should have ran with it - or raneth with it.
"If it is indeed similar to certain patterns in the past, then we expect to have low solar cycles for the next 10 to 30 years," he added.Then can we drop the cap'n'crap for awhile, please?
Global warming on the sun is causing a greenhouse effect, trapping the energy on the sun.
We’re going to freeze to death.
It’s caused by leftwing activists.
Holy mackeral...more unexpectedly.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Betcha it’s unprecedented, too.
Yes, of course! And we all believe scientists, right?
Clearly, the only way to fix this is to raise taxes, ban handguns, and pass the fairness doctrine - we must, for the children.
You left out the immediate ban of incandescent light bulbs, and for Michelle to take another vacation.
...older news:
NASA: Ionosphere not where it should be [Dec 17, 2008]
The U.S. space agency says it has discovered the boundary between the Earth’s upper atmosphere and space has moved to extraordinarily low altitudes. ....
But the first discovery was that the ionosphere was not where it had been expected to be. During the first months of the satellite’s operations, the transition between the ionosphere and space was found to be at about 260 miles altitude during the nighttime, barely rising above 500 miles during the day. Those altitudes, said NASA, were extraordinarily low compared with the more typical values of 400 miles during the nighttime and 600 miles during the day.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_Ionosphere_not_where_it_should_be_999.html
Well, perhaps if we boost our carbon output, it’ll act much like the inflow of air into a ballon expanding our atmosphere.
So let me guess... we’re going to have to ban cotton?
This appears to be an actual real article about some real actual science!
It's the sun's fault, not ours. So far, anyway.
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