Magnetic Explosion Next to Earth

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Around 4 years ago there was a magnetic explosion very close to Earth.

Yes, there are explosions in Earth’s magnetic field. They happen all the time. Gusts of solar wind press against Earth’s magnetosphere, squeezing lines of magnetic force together. The lines criss-cross and reconnect, literally exploding and propelling high energy particles toward Earth. Auroras are the afterglow of this process.

On Dec. 20, 2015, one such explosion occurred closer to Earth than anyone had seen before. It has taken researchers 4 years to fully wrap their minds around what happened, and the results were published just this week in the Jan. 13, 2020, edition of Nature Physics.

Lead author Vassilis Angelopoulos of UCLA explains: “Usually, these explosions happen at least 100,000 miles from Earth, far downstream in our planet’s magnetic tail. On Dec. 20, 2015, however, we observed a reconnection event only 30,000 miles away–more than 3 times closer than normal.”

It was a case of good luck and perfect timing. NASA’s swarm of three THEMIS spacecraft were passing through the area, and they were able to pinpoint the explosion’s location “right on the doorstep” of the geosynchronous satellite belt. This showed reconnection events may pose a previously overlooked threat to Earth-orbiting satellites. The nearby blast caused a strong G2-class geomagnetic storm and intense auroras around the Arctic Circle.

Angelopoulos estimated the energy involved. “The explosion and subsequent storm delivered as much as ~88 PetaJoules of energy to the near-Earth environment. That’s more than 10 times the energy of the largest US nuclear bomb and about 20 times the energy of a magnitude 7 earthquake.”

Before this event, many researchers felt that reconnection at such proximity was impossible. Earth’s nearby magnetic field was too stable for such explosions … or so the thinking went.

“Now we know better,” Angelopoulos says.

Source: Magnetic Explosions Discovered on Earth’s Doorstep

Nature is so beautiful and powerful. I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights. Maybe I'll do it one day.

Interstellar terrorism?

North Korea?
Iran?
Martian Confederacy?

could this have done major damage at some point on earth?

I don't see this as an immediate problem, but over the last century the strength of Earth's magnetic field has been dropping like a "lead brick". Mini-pole reversals such as the South Atlantic Anomaly have materialized. It is quite possible that as the field strength continues to decline, events like this may occur closer to the Earth's surface and produce damage. Probably the first signs of this will be seen in an uptick in satellite malfunctions.

^^^could the dropping of field strength have anything to do with an upcoming pole reversal?

Earth's magnetic field strength has varied significantly over geological time. The magnetic field strength in general is weaker than the present. The earth will switch magnetic poles every now and then, but the process is not cataclysmic. But what is of concern is a very weak state. Earth's magnetic field protects the planet from the ravages of space, primarily charged particles such as galactic cosmic rays, the solar winds, solar proton events, solar storms.

What do you think has made it weaker then?

I have seen them here in the 1990's. I also saw false ones caused by haarp which are very different.

Approximately every 11 years the sun changes its magnetic polarity. The sun’s polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero, and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. This is a regular part of the solar cycle. We tend to think of the magnetic field of the sun as one massive dipole but in reality it is composed of million of mini magnetic dipoles. As the sun reverses polarity, these local dipoles individual reverse and cancel each other out allowing the magnetic field to weaken and go to zero.

I tend to think a similar process occurs on Earth but at a vastly longer time scale and significantly more irregular. The magnetic field on Earth breaks apart into a number of smaller mini dipoles and the opposing polarity allows the mini dipoles to cancel each other out driving the magnetic field strength to zero.

I view the South Atlantic Anomaly as a mini-dipole. And I expect as the Earth's magnetic field strength decreases, addition Anomalies will appear.

This graph shows how the South Atlantic Anomaly has grown in size during the past 150 years.

Gosh, I never knew that the sun was composed of millions of mini dipoles, nor the Earth. I'm trying to picture in my mind of how that would look.

Cows farting?
I am sure someone will connect it to climate change.

Last edited by Pepe on 20 Jan 2020, 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

All new to me too.

Good to see you weren't "H.A.A.R.P."-ing on about it.


https://www.livescience.com/45829-haarp-shutdown.html

OK.

Haarp can do some spectacular things. Is an interesting project.