According to a new paper published by the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestial Physics, it appears the cause behind global warming is a lot more complicated than a few molecules of CO2.
The paper titled Geomagnetic South Atlantic Anomaly and global sea level rise: a direct connection? authored by De Santis et al recently has uncovered an “intriguing and to date unreported relationship between the surface area of the South Atlantic Anomaly of the geomagnetic field and the current trend in sea level rise”.
The abstract starts:
These two geophysical variables have been growing coherently during the last three centuries, thus strongly suggesting a causal relationship supported by some statistical tests.”
According to the paper, the first quantitative evidence of a relationship between the geomagnetic field, external field activities and weather or climate change was given by Wollin et al (1971) and by Bucha (1976, 1978).
The anomaly at an altitude of approximately 560 kilometers, 2007 (Source: NASA).
The abstract states:
The monotonic increase of the SAA surface area since 1600 may have been associated with an increased inflow of radiation energy through the inner Van Allen belt with a consequent warming of the Earth’s atmosphere and finally global sea level rise.”
The good news for the IPCC is that there is little understanding of the connection between the SAA and warming, thus giving them reason enough to just completely ignore it in its next assessment report.
The paper’s abstract:
Although we cannot establish a clear connection between SAA dynamics and global warming, the strong correlation between the former and global sea level supports the idea that global warming may be at least partly controlled by deep Earth processes triggering geomagnetic phenomena, such as the South Atlantic Anomaly, on a century timescale.”
The paper then states that the geomagentic field can modulate charged particles reaching the earth and that the average field strength has decreased substantially over the last 150 years. The paper adds:
This reduction of the field strength may imply an enhanced effect on some climatic parameters, if in fact the energy flux associated with the incoming particles has an effective impact on climate.”
Could this all be just a coincidence? The authors quantified the correlation with two robust tests, and write in their conclusion:
The agreement between global sea level rise and SAA area is spectacular […] a mere coincidence is highly unlikely.”
There you have it. Yet another phenomenon that likely impacts the climate without CO2. Now you understand why in my last post I wrote the IPCC and its 2007 AR4 report are totally obsolete and divergent from reality. The IPCC models are Stone Age. With its focus welded solely on CO2, the IPCC is out to lunch, out of the ballpark – and on a different planet.
h/t: Dr Ghana
There is a relationship, but it is much more tenuous. It’s the sun… Again. The solar magnetic field interacts with the geomagnetic field. The elephant is very large and very complicated. This is the belly-button.
Right you are!
In Physics a “field” is just a quantity which depends on position in space.
Therefore magnetic fields cannot interact. There can, however be a superposition
of the two magnetic fields, which causes the described phenomena.
When the fields are imbedded in a plasma, they most definitely interact.
When the fields are imbedded in a plasma, they most definitely interact. This is how the geomagnetic field protects the atmosphere from the solar wind.
All electro-magnetic phenomena are described by the four Maxwell-Equations plus the Lorentz-Force. According to these equations an alternating magnetic field can induce an electric field and vice versa.
An interaction between two fields of the same kind is not possible.
The charged particles of the solar wind undergo a Lorentz-Force which is perpendicular both to their velocity and to the vector of the (local) magnetic field.
Thus they are deflected towards the poles.
As long as the two fields simply emanate from solid bodies you are right with the simple superposition; but given that plasma in space consists of moving charged particles – which move in the field and create their own fields, new dynamics come into play.
Plasma physics, computational electrodynamics; a very interesting and young discipline (with enormous computational requirements).
My arguments are not restricted to electro- and magneto-statics. Plasma physics does not invalidate the basic laws of electrodynamics. It is true, that the plasma, as a stream of charged particles, is accompanied by a strong magnetic field. When the charged particles are deflected by the Lorentz-Force in the geomagnetic field, they emit electromagnetic radiation, which is nothing but a system of coupled electric and magnetic fields. The field-vectors of all these fields add to that of the magnetic field of the earth. So the superposition of the various components is perceived as a deformation. The models of plasma physics do not introduce new physical theories beyond classical electrodynamics!
BTW. Anyone remember Gillian Anderson, the ex X Files actress who participated in the 10:10 splatter movie, is BFF to Franny Armstrong and liberal alarmist par excellence? Yesterday I stumbled across this interview in Der Stern with her, from 2009, when she was promoting Franny Armstrong’s “The Age Of Stupied” (and her newfound worry for the planet) even though she doesn’t even appear in the movie.
http://www.stern.de/kultur/film/the-age-of-stupid-die-unbequeme-wahrheit-der-gillian-anderson-1510200.html
Now, you might ask, what importance does this dimwit have? Nothing much. But there’s an interesting part in the interview. She says “During X Files, and even after it, people identified me so much with the role I played that they even called me “Scully” after the series had ended. Only now after I have hired a PR agent which I should have done back then already do people recognize that I am Gillian Anderson”.
Now, she was never on the record of being a planet saver when X Files still ran… let alone urging other people to kill their children.
You get the connection? These days, a Lovelockian image is what the PR agents recommend to their clients. Gillian Anderson might even be a decent person, nobody knows – it’s her PR agent that makes her appear like an alarmist, totalitarian dimwit because that is the consensus position…
Just as I am trying [with little success] to get my head around plasma physics and corona’s and lorentz forces and blumin’, solar flares and solar winds, Van allen radiation belts – which is marvellous gobsmacking stuff but a bit over my head………….then you come along with……
Gillian who?
:>)
Well, la belle Bardot beat her to it. And, hmm, Doing Good is an Ageless Thing. Also, being 50 % of The Face of a long-running TV show is even more of a career killer than being a Bond girl (just ask Buffy Summers or Capt.Picard).
A good summary on the geomagnetic field:
http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/education/earthmag.html