Issue 58: The Solar Wind II

This strange new auroral phenomenon is called 'Steve'

Steve is still a mystery

There's been quite a bit of odd space weather lately. 'Steve' above has been spotted in the skies before, but only in the last couple of months has this bizarre aurora really started to cause a stir.

Also, a recent crack in the Earth's magnetic field unleashed a magnificient auroral display over Norway earlier this month. There seems to be increasing evidence that the Solar Wind does periodically enter our planet's Magnetosphere, and may, somewhat paradoxically, even be responsible for it.

“We’ve discovered that our magnetic shield is drafty, like a house with a window stuck open during a storm,” says Harald Frey of the University of California, Berkeley

Since this issue was written, and while we were “going to press” as it were, some interesting evidence came to our attention which may support the notion that the Earth’s magnetic field was originally ‘seeded’, and continues to be supported by the Solar Wind.

A paper entitled Solar wind induced magnetic field around the unmagnetized Earth (2004) by G. T. Birk1, H. Lesch1 and C. Konz2, looks particularly relevant in this regard, as does this excerpt from Natural Resources Canada website, an article entitled Generation of the Earth’s magnetic field:

“Even before the Earth’s magnetic field was first formed magnetic fields were present in the form of the sun’s magnetic field. Once the process is going, the existing field acts as the seed field.”

There’s some really intriguing, and seemingly holistic science going on in this area of physics - but further research is required to work out its veracity and its significance to our own theories regarding magnetism and the Universal Substrate. Watch this space: The Solar Wind III is already in preparation.

Read The Solar Wind II on SHAPE