Right: The anatomy of the heliosphere. Since this illustration was made, Voyager 2 has joined Voyager 1 inside the heliosheath, a thick outer layer where the solar wind is slowed by the pressure of interstellar gas. Credit: NASA/Walt Feimer. [larger image] The fact that the Fluff is strongly magnetized means that other clouds in the galactic neighborhood could be, too. Eventually, the solar system will run into some of them, and their strong magnetic fields could compress the heliosphere even more than it is compressed now. Additional compression could allow more cosmic rays to reach the inner solar system These events would play out on time scales of tens to hundreds of thousands of years, which is how long it takes for the solar system to move from one cloud to the next.
John |
Anthony points out to the commenter that this may have nothing to do with climate.
But let's think for a moment. Tens to hundred of thousands of years for the solar system to move from one "fluff" cloud to the next? How sure are we that Milankovitch cycles are totally determinant of the current roughly 100,000 year -- with smaller warmings occuring on intervals measured in tens of thousands of years -- warm episode periodicity?
And what if Leif Svalgaard is correct in the comments later on in this post that:
Leif Svalgaard (10:28:05) :
Eventually, the solar system will run into some of them, and their strong magnetic fields could compress the heliosphere even more than it is compressed now. Additional compression could allow more cosmic rays to reach the inner solar system, possibly affecting terrestrial climate
I don’t think this is correct. Cosmic rays are scattered away from the inner solar system by compression regions in the solar wind including the big one at the edge of the heliosphere, so I think that a more compressed heliosphere would mean less cosmic rays. Also, think of the opposite scenario: slowly take away the solar wind until in the end there is no heliosphere. That would IMHO lead to an increase in cosmic rays.
That would correlate with this being a time period of low cosmic rays -- which according to Henrik Svensmark's theory of Cosmoclimatology would lead to fewer clouds and more warming. That is, the current Holocene warm period may in fact be correlated with passing through the current "fluff" cloud!
Over to you Henrik... (Merry Christmas and I hope you've recovered now and able to comment soon on the "fluff" discovery.)
But let's think for a moment. Tens to hundred of thousands of years for the solar system to move from one "fluff" cloud to the next? How sure are we that Milankovitch cycles are totally determinant of the current roughly 100,000 year -- with smaller warmings occuring on intervals measured in tens of thousands of years -- warm episode periodicity?
And what if Leif Svalgaard is correct in the comments later on in this post that:
Leif Svalgaard (10:28:05) :
Eventually, the solar system will run into some of them, and their strong magnetic fields could compress the heliosphere even more than it is compressed now. Additional compression could allow more cosmic rays to reach the inner solar system, possibly affecting terrestrial climate
I don’t think this is correct. Cosmic rays are scattered away from the inner solar system by compression regions in the solar wind including the big one at the edge of the heliosphere, so I think that a more compressed heliosphere would mean less cosmic rays. Also, think of the opposite scenario: slowly take away the solar wind until in the end there is no heliosphere. That would IMHO lead to an increase in cosmic rays.
That would correlate with this being a time period of low cosmic rays -- which according to Henrik Svensmark's theory of Cosmoclimatology would lead to fewer clouds and more warming. That is, the current Holocene warm period may in fact be correlated with passing through the current "fluff" cloud!
Over to you Henrik... (Merry Christmas and I hope you've recovered now and able to comment soon on the "fluff" discovery.)
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REPLY: Why does it have to?