Solar Storms Charging Upper Atmosphere
The recent solar activity on the sun has dumped enough energy into the upper atmosphere of earth to “power every residence in New York city for 2 years”. This comes from a NASA Science report of 22 March which has it on good authority from, Martin Mlynczak, based at their own Langley centre. “The thermosphere lit up like a Christmas tree,” adds James Russell. “It began to glow intensely at infrared wavelengths as the thermostat effect kicked in.” This information is gathered from the SABER instrumentation, on-board the TIMED satellite. A ScienceCast video, explaining the physics of this phenomenon, can be found below. Unfortunately, according to Mlynczak, the energy cannot be harnessed or used at this stage. “It’s so diffuse and out of reach high above Earth’s surface. Plus, the majority of it has been sent back into space by the action of CO2 and NO.” Apparently though, this intense level of solar activity isn’t nearly over yet, “We’re just emerging from a deep solar minimum,” says James Russell of Hampton University, SABER’s principal investigator… “The solar cycle is gaining strength with a maximum expected in 2013.” This bodes well for solar research, “This is a new frontier in the sun-Earth connection,” says Mlynczak, “and the data we’re collecting are unprecedented.”