Birkeland currents or Alfven Waves?

[michaelmozina]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080122-st-sunshine-hinode.html<br /><br />It seems to me that LMSAL has the magnetic cart before the electrical horse as it relates to the heat source of the chromosphere and corona. Let me try to demonstrate this point from a recent press release.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Powerful magnetic waves have been confirmed for the first time as major players in the process that makes the sun's atmosphere strangely hundreds of times hotter than its already superhot surface.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />It would be more accurate to say that *electromagnetic waves* are involved in this heating process. They are intentionally ignoring the electrical aspect of this phenomenon, like one might try to ignore the electrical aspect of an electrical discharge. We could responsibly say that it was clear that an *electromagnetic wave* was responsible for the heating of a lightning bolt, but it would not be not be accurate to try to suggest that it was a completely "magnetic" heating process. Magnetic fields are not a heat source.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>The magnetic waves — called Alfven waves — can carry enough energy from the sun's active surface to heat its atmosphere, or corona.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />How exactly did they differentiate between "Alfven Waves" and "Birkeland Currents"? How does a dispersionless magnetic wave heat plasma exactly?<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>"The surface and corona are chock full of these things, and they're very energetic," said Bart de Pontieu, a physicist at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in California.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Birkeland currents are also highly energetic, as it any electrical discharge through plasma. It seems to me they are neglecti <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. - Kristian Birkeland </div>

 

[origin]

Thanks for the link. It looks like they getting to the bottom of the heating of the corona.<br /><br />It was a viliant effort on your part to spin these findings to the EU view point. But unfortunately for you it fell fall short of being at all convincing.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

I never heard of alfen wave

 

[brigandier]

Here we go again..

 

[michaelmozina]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Thanks for the link. It looks like they getting to the bottom of the heating of the corona.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Actually they haven't "explained" anything, and certainly not the heat source. Magnetic fields are not a heat source. A magnet doesn't heat itself up all by itself, simply by virtue of it's magnetic orientation, or the strength of it's magnetic field. The only known force of nature that has been documented to heat plasma to millions of degree is electricity. All they are doing is noticing the velocity changes in the atmosphere that are due to electrical current flows in the plasma and claiming that it is a 'magnetic' event. It's not a "magnetic" event, it's an *electromagnetic* event.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>It was a viliant effort on your part to spin these findings to the EU view point.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />I didn't "spin" anything. I simply noted that these observations are entirely consistent with EU theory. EU theory "predicts' the existence of all sorts of electrical discharges in the solar atmosphere. Birkeland even created these very same 'loops' in his terella experiments in fact. Their existence is not only predicted, it's been lab simulated over 100 years ago.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>But unfortunately for you it fell fall short of being at all convincing. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />I'm equally unconvinced that magnetic fields are somehow heating the plasma, or that magnetic fields make and break connections, or that magnetic feilds form "open lines" or any of the bizarre things that are attributed to magnetic fields. Let's see these folks create "Alfven waves" in light plasma in a lab, where the magnetic fields (without current flow) somehow manage to heat the plasma to millions of degrees. It's never going to happen without a lot of electrical current. The forbidden <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. - Kristian Birkeland </div>