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michaelmozina
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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>