Comments on: Superstorms and magnetic poles

By: Hank Roberts

Hank Roberts — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 04:37:38 +0000

Thanks for noticing the jump in hits and writing a clear debunk and posting where people will see it. Maybe it’ll help a bit. Good luck with the folks who don’t believe your sanity check.

By: Barba McChang

Barba McChang — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:05:05 +0000

A quick search on the author suggests he is in the business of being a 2012er without coming out and saying so. Rather, he just talks about impending dooms, and lets the reader jump to the 2012 conclusion.

By: citizentoo

citizentoo — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:25:27 +0000

If the poles change, Pennsylvania will end up in South America. I hope I don’t have to learn Spanish and how to cook Encheladas?
I’ll just get Tom to cook for me.

By: Adolph Kassen

Adolph Kassen — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:38:20 +0000

What else did you expect from the Salem News? It’s a screwball publication filled with oddball stories. Today they had an article by the same pseudo scientific author proclaiming how the next ice age could topple the US government.

By: david b lowry

david b lowry — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 19:08:20 +0000

The fact that sunspot activity is rather low may also be involved.

By: jennyburger

jennyburger — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:51:08 +0000

You wrote: "Last month I wrote an article entitled “Earth’s Magnetic Poles, Reversing or Not?” I noticed that yesterday it receive an unusually large number of hits. Why the sudden interest?" Well, I can tell you the likely cause of an influx of hits is a result of radio personality and political info warrior, (PrisonPlanet.tv & InfoWars.com) Alex Jones' light being shed over the subject-matter, yesterday! He has a massive following so, when he high-lighted the subject of the Earth's Polar Magnetic Fields, you can bet his listeners immediately began "Google-ing". That's why I'm here! Very interesting topic, I might add! Guess we'll be seeing where it takes us, soon enough!

By: Tyson F. Gautreaux

Tyson F. Gautreaux — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:11:45 +0000

This is really helpful, I appreciate it

By: Adrian Kerton

Adrian Kerton — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 11:00:10 +0000

There is a remarkable correlation between global temperatures and the shift of the magnetic poles, though correlation does not prove cause and effect. See the published paper in E&E on my web page. Comments welcome. Search for:

Climate Change And The Earth’s Magnetic Poles, A Possible Connection

or find it here
http://www.akk.me.uk/Climate_Change.htm

By: Don WV

Don WV — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 03:15:38 +0000

Jonathon, a very good article. Recently more work has been done in the theory of cosmic rays and cloud formation. The Chilling Stars by Henrik Svensmark has a lot more information on this subject if you have not read it. You are correct when you stated this has more to do with climate than weather. The cosmic ray theory looks like it would come closer to causing these large storms than any other reason, but his would be a long trend rather than an individual storm. In the past several years the suns magnetic field has been expanded which would have caused less cloud formation, but since the suns magnetic field has shrunk this would let the formation of more clouds and would lead to larger than normal storms.

By: Jonathan DuHamel

Jonathan DuHamel — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:53:18 +0000

What I get from the Aym article is that his main contention is that changes such as polar wandering and the Earth’s internal magnetic field signal disaster. I am not aware of any evidence to support this. There have been suggestions that solar magnetic flux may have an influence.

Cosmic ray flux is affected by the strength of the solar wind, or magnetic flux on periods of 11, 22, 80 and 200 years, all of which are well-known periods of solar activity. A weaker field allows in more cosmic rays which ionize the atmosphere and form nuclei for cloud formation. The variation in cosmic ray flux depends on where the solar system is in the galaxy relative to the spiral arms – within spiral arms are more stars, hence more cosmic radiation. There are cycles within cycles, and most are in the time-frame of climate rather than weather. The subject is controversial and there have been attempts to attribute individual weather events to cosmic ray flux. I think, however, Aym make too much of it.