As winter solstice approaches here in the North, we can look forward to ever so slowly increasing daylight hours. It will only be a few seconds to start, and eventually work up to over five minutes gain a day over the coming months. I love it. I love that knowing our "long dark time" is nearly over, and I love knowing that the longer days will bring heat back into the sunlight, and trigger the eventual annual event we know as "break up".
That is what we know from history, that is what we expect, and what our instincts tell us will occur, regardless of what happens on this planet. The Earth will continue it's journey around the sun, and its axial tilt produces the seasons we know. Pretty simple science, agreed? Yes, yes, who cares, that's boring *yawn*
Well, not so fast there.
Things are changing with our sun. I noticed this back about 2005, 2004. In fact, I entered into a great discussion with an online friend about it, who had begun to notice something just slightly off with the sun. Back then, a person could find anecdotal articles about "solar dimming" if a person dug around, but it has long since been buried by the hype and hysteria over global warming. Or climate change. Or whatever you want to call it, if you pay any attention at all. Paying attention or not, it matters a great deal, what is happening on our sun.
You should consider the sun, in all its lethal glory, the engine and the guardian of our solar system. The complexities are substantial as scientists continually learn new things about our sun, bringing new theories and more questions every decade. But some basics are helpful to know. In no particular order, think of the sun as casting a monumental shield around the entire solar system. This is called the heliopause. It extends in a basically spherical shape, with a bow facing the direction of travel, and a tail behind. There are some very cool YouTube videos showing some of this science, worth some time if you care to watch. Think of the heliopause as the sun's own solar winds, protecting us, as it were.
Our own earth provides amazing, complicated protection from the energies blown off our own sun too. That is called the magnetosphere, in case you are wondering. Magnetic currents generated from the core, and extending well beyond the atmosphere, protect us from excessive solar radiation that would otherwise fry us in a nanosecond or three. The stronger the solar winds, the denser the magnetosphere, isn't that handy? It can be large when little is happening, and shrink rapidly when CME remnants strike. Now, it can't handle everything from space, far from it. This is why we see the aurora, for one. And why the Carrington Event occured, and even the 1989 Montreal black out. It's pretty good, but not 100%. (And no I won't get into the various particles and energies and densities of solar winds, CMEs and filaments and so on, all that information is readily available online for anyone to learn about)
But what you should know is that nothing is static in our universe, in our galaxy, in our solar system, and not in our sun either. It's all in motion, for one. And for another, our sun is in the midst of a polar reversal. This is an expected event, by the way, and you've likely never heard about them and that's okay too. But what you are not hearing much about, is the solar dimming. That is, less energy is reaching the earth. How do we know this? Why, by sun spot activity. Right now, we are supposed to be in the midst of a very active solar cycle 24. At the peak, the scientists say. But no, we are not. The sun is quiet. Very quiet indeed, and no one knows why.
And so by now you are rolling your eyeballs, thinking, what the heck is this about? And why should I care? Allow me to stitch it together for you-
The Egyptians were not all wrong, and neither were the other sun worshiping peoples of the past-and present. All life relies upon what emanates from our sun. Any serious disruption is going to have effects we cannot easily calculate, but we can deduce and speculate based on what we know has happened in the past. I urge you to look up on Wiki, the phenomena known as "The Maunder Minimum". The crib note version is basically this: No or very low sunspot activity, caused a whole heap of change on this world. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maunder_Minimum )
And another, oft overlooked period(s) in our past, known as "The Little Ice Age" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age ) You will note that the dates do not coincide exactly, but there is no question that the intensity and composition of the energy we get from the sun, is directly related to conditions on earth. Less energy, colder temperatures. Sure, toss in a couple huge volcanic eruptions, or a rapid warm up, and things will vacillate between the extremes regularly. So we have a couple things going on here. The sun is switching polarity, but not in the expected, projected manner, cause unknown. There are not enough sunspots, and no one knows why this is happening, either. The entire solar system is moving through an area of space that is both electrically charged and full of plasma, effects unknown (Look up the NASA IBEX mission report on YouTube and watch all 40 plus minutes if you dare) The sun and the Earth are connected in more ways than most know, notably the portals as described here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/mag-portals.html#.UrDfyeJqyos
I think global warming is going to be the least of our worries.
Something wicked this way comes. And come it will.
And our survival will depend upon our amazing ability to adapt, to shape the world around us, our innovation, our creativity, our hard headed pursuit of life. Will this challenge happen this year? Oh very doubtful. Next year? Not sure. This coming decade? It's a possibility. Within my child's lifetime? Yes. Most definitely yes.
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