The Coming Solar Storm

As humans we depend on the light of the Sun. The astrological Sun feeds our vitality and quality of being, and when there is a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection we are affected here on earth. Cosmic rays disrupt the electrical systems on earth, and as humans we are surrounded by an elecromagnetic grid that can be affected by solar changes.

- http://astrodynamics.net/astrologicalmusings/2013/08/06/the-suns-magnetic-field-is-about-to-flip/

"Every particle of rock or water or air has God by its side leading it the way it should go; The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness; In God's wildness is the hope of the world."

-John Muir, Travels in Alaska 

"I am an attendant of the sovereign Sun... A vehement love for the splendors of this god took possession of me from my youth; in consequence of which, while I was a boy, my rational part was ravished with astonishment as often as I surveyed his etherial light; nor was I alone desirous of stedfastly beholding his diurnal splendors, but likewise at night, when the heavens were clear and serene, I was accustomed to walk abroad, and, neglecting every other concern, to gaze on the beauty of the celestial regions with rapturous delight: indeed I was so lost in attentive vision...."

-Julian the Apostate, Oration to the Sovereign Sun 

“...he would be able to look at the Sun and contemplate its nature, not as it appears when reflected in water or any alien medium, but as it is in itself in its own domain....And now he would begin to draw the conclusion that it is the Sun that produces the seasons and the course of the year and controls everything in the visible world, and moreover is in a way the cause of all that he and his companions used to see.”

-Plato, Allegory of the Cave, Republic, 516ff)

"Our motion is regulated by some measure of the amount by which it has not yet been accomplished."

-NorbertWiener, Cybernetics, p.116 

Sunrise in Sunningdale (Photo CG Garvie)

Some Sundays, despite my love for worship, I would rather want to walk the beach or simply listen to the scheduled "Radio Amateur News Bulletin" than suffer spartan benches and discordant music!

I am a licensed Radio Amateur (ZR5ADZ). Not an active one but a philosophical one, one that constantly monitors the 2 metre bands networking with an invisible band of channellers. I even have an Android application (Echolink) to communicate worldwide (or should I say, after Bucky Fuller, "world-around"?) using my smartphone! Some regard "hams" as a somewhat esoteric breed of enthusiasts.

Last Sunday I did in fact tune in to the South African Radio League News broadcast and one item caught my attention. I was riveted. We are currently in the midst of a solar cycle peak. Solar Cycles and sunspots are a peculiar, ubiquitous interest of hams. Extreme arcane ghost-like concepts from electron holes to sunspots and even black holes interest us, indeed anything that has to do with propagation, transmission, or connectivity. Back to that news item....

SUN MAGNETIC POLES READY TO REVERSE

SARL NEWS SUNDAY 11 AUGUST 2013

According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to turn over. The Sun's magnetic field changes polarity approximately every 11 years. It happens at the peak of each solar cycle as our home star's inner magnetic field generator reorganizes itself signalling the mid-point of a Solar Cycle.

Todd Hoeksema is the Director of Stanford's Wilcox Solar Observatory which is one of the few that monitor the sun's polar magnetic fields. He says that we are no more than 3 to 4 months away from a complete field reversal and that this change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system. This is because of the Sun's magnetic influence, also known as the Heliosphere, which extends billions of kilometres beyond the minor planet Pluto and almost to interstellar space.

When solar physicists talk about solar field reversals they are also referring to something known as the Sun's Current Sheet. This is a sprawling surface jutting outward from its equator where it's slowly rotating magnetic field induces an electrical current. During field reversals, the current sheet becomes very wavy. As Earth orbits the sun, it dips in and out of the current sheet. Transitions from one side to another can stir up stormy space weather around our planet which in turn can affect radio propagation to some degree.

As the field reversal approaches, data from the Wilcox Solar Observatory shows that the sun's two hemispheres are out of synch. According to Solar Physicist Phil Scherrer the Sun's North Pole has already changed sign, while the South Pole is racing to catch up. Soon both poles will be reversed, and the second or downhill half of Solar Max will be underway. For amateur radio it likely means that good DX openings especially on the higher bands could be fewer and far in-between.

What caught my attention was the remark, "..... this change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system." Disturbing, apocalyptic language, as this may sound, there is nothing to be alarmed about really. I myself have lived through six such flips already and have happily survived....May 1947, March 1958, November 1968, December 1979, July 1989, March 2000, and now August 2013! Of interest to radio amateurs, of course, is the effect of solar activity on propagation, communications, and electronic equipment. Cosmologists, Astronomers, Astronauts, Electrical Engineers, Neurologists, Psychologists even Astrologers and Homing Pigeons are interested in these solar rhythms too. Perhaps Cybernauts and Theologians should be too. Every Sunday evening I religiously tune in to "Sterre en Planete" ("Stars and Planets) on RadioRSG to get the week's update on what is up with the Sun. Julian the Apostate would be impressed by my devotion!

Magnificent CME_Eruption (Wikimedia Commons)

Little ripples can have humongous consequences but we are not expecting Earth to be toasted to a crisp this time round. These ripples are relatively subtle. Your GPS might be out of kilter for a bit so watch where you are going. The Internet might go down here and there much to the annoyance cyber junkies. There could be a power outage like the New York blackout of 1977. ATMs might be uncooperative. But the Solar Flip does not have to be a conflagration. It could be a joyful, expansive jubilation moment, a time of illumination. Clement of Alexandria said: “The healthful Word or Reason (the Logos), who is the Sun of the soul...has risen within the depths of the mind, the soul's eye is illuminated” (Exhortation to the Greeks 6). In the Hermetic Corpus we find: “But when the Sun did rise for me, and with all-seeing eyes I gazed upon the hidden [mysteries] of that New Dawn...” (Virgin of the World, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, III,60). Let us see where the ripples takes us.

We touched on this in my previous blog about "Trim Tab"Fuller.

We talk about feedback loops, chain reactions, the butterfly effect, cybernetics, governors , or servo control systems. Positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events while negative feedback have a dampening effect. Jesus may also have alluded to small effects with massive outcomes when he spoke of the mustard seed and the leaven in the lump.

For instance, in Stellar Physics the theory is that a remarkable magnetic braking system controls, governs, or regulates stellar effects such as the angular momentum of a star including our Sun. Mysterious mechanisms shields us from harmful bombardments. All parts of a complex but delicately balanced control system.

Coronal Mass Ejection (Wikimedia Commons)

We know that solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CME), if directed earthwards can knock out entire power grids. Could they not also impact on our behaviour? Do we flare up in sympathy with solar activity? There is considerable evidence that we do! These are called "circadian rhythms". Inasmuch as some might be moonstruck we can also be solstruck. One might even speculate whether there are magnetic braking systems governing our own physical and psychological well being at molecular DNA levels ensuring balance and equilibrium in harmonious resonance with the Sun and/or even the Galaxy as Plato deduced: “the Sun … controls everything in the visible world.”

Dr Robert Becker said back in 1963: Subtle changes in the intensity of the geomagnetic field can affect the nervous system by altering the living body's own electromagnetic field." (Newsweek, 13 May 1963). Changes elsewhere in distant galaxy pulsates through us affecting and effecting us in subliminal ways modulating waves as they pass through us. We are an intrinsic element in a vast cosmic self-adapting ocean.

MichelGauquelin of the Psychophysiological Laboratory at Strasbourg University in 1966 wrote:

....the sun is responsible for a mass of strange effects which seem to influence all of life on this sphere through the weather, the atmosphere, and magnetic disturbances.

However, perhaps not all cosmic effects on earth come from the sun and the moon. There remains in the universe a huge field of influences which have yet to be explored: the influence of galactic forces, the disturbing influence of planets in the solar field, cosmic rays coming from distant space, and no doubt many other things which we know nothing about at the moment. When we do know more, we will understand better what goes on between the sky and ourselves.

(Astrology and Science, p.199)

More recent studies have refined these assumptions.

Jo A Joselyn in a paper, "The impact of solar flares and magnetic storms on humans" says:

Solar flares may disrupt radio communications in the HF and VLF ranges. Energetic particles pose a special hazard at low-earth orbit and above, where they can penetrate barriers such as spacesuits and aluminum and destroy cells and solid state electronics. Energetic solar particles also influence terrestrial radio waves propagating through polar regions. Magnetic storms may disturb the operation of navigation instruments, power lines and pipelines, and satellites; they give rise to ionospheric storms which affect radio communication at all latitudes. There is also a growing body of evidence that changes in the geomagnetic field affect biological systems.

Sometimes our chronobiological clocks might miss a beat or two in sympathy with the Sun. 

Apollo 14 astronaut, Edgar Mitchell "became profoundly aware that each and every atom in the Universe was connected in some way, and on seeing Earth from space he had an understanding that all the humans, animals and systems were a part of the same thing, a synergistic whole. It was an interconnected euphoria," says Ian O'Neill in an article "The Human Brainin Space: Euphoria and the 'Overview Effect' Experienced byAstronauts". 

One need not be a Moon Astronaut to experience this "interconnected euphoria". It can be enjoyed equally in the woods and desert places of our own planet. Naturalist, John Muir wrote: "When we try to pick out anything by itself we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." Visiting Yosemite he wrote, "We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us."

In short...the solar cycle has a direct effect on humans. There could be solar butterflies affecting emotional tornadoes in our minds and behaviour on our streets, in our universities, temples, mosques, synagogues and churches. Possibly the Arab Spring has its wells on far distant planets or deep within the magnetic poles of the Sun.

So hang on to your hats and sunblocks, take off your shirt and feel the Sun...you never know precisely when the Sun will flip your mind!

Sunset in Sunningdale (Photo: CG Garvie)

Further Reading:

Anthropic Principle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle
Bioelectromagnetics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectromagnetics
Butterfly Effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect
Chronobiology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronobiology
Grandfather Paradox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox
Holism: http://www.environment.gen.tr/holistic-view/111-what-is-holism.html
Retrocausality: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrocausality
Reversal of Stellar Magnetic Field: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_magnetic_field
List of Solar Cycles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_cycles
Stellar Magnetic Fields: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_magnetic_field

Teleology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleology

©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za