Naked Science Forum

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
21/05/2013 19:50:46

Author Topic: Does solar magnetism affect our atmosphere?  (Read 424 times)

Bill.D.Katt.

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 179
    • View Profile
  • on: 28/03/2012 17:55:06
I was wondering if the changing in the magnetic poles of our sun (which happens often on an astronomic scale) has an affect on the chemistry of our atmosphere. More specifically would it have an affect on the amount of carbon 14?

CliffordK

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4909
  • Site Moderator
    • View Profile
  • Reply #1 on: 28/03/2012 22:08:57
What happens with the solar cycles is that during solar maxima, the sun tends to blow more ions towards the Earth (solar storms).  Certainly the solar storms, and I believe also the solar winds decrease during the solar minima.

These interact with our atmosphere to create Auroras.

Most of the 14C doesn't come from the sun, but is manufactured here on Earth by cosmic rays, and high energy particles from the sun smashing into Nitrogen atoms displace a proton with a neutron.

Solar variation during the decadal solar cycles, will affect the 14C levels, and presumably also during longer term solar variation.

Temperature changes will also affect the absorption/evaporation of various isotopes in the oceans, and thus also change the isotopes in the atmosphere.

 

Naked Scientists Science Radio Show Home Who are The Naked Scientists Information about Naked Scientists
Naked Scientists Podcast Ask the Naked Scientists Podcast Question of the Week Podcast
Naked Science Articles Experiments to do at Home Science Discussion Forum
Science News Stories Answers to Science Questions Interviews with Famous Scientists

Information presented on this website is the opinion of the individual contributors and does not reflect the general views of the administrators, editors, moderators, sponsors, Cambridge University or the public at large.

Click here for the Naked Scientists PODCAST

The contents of this site are © The Naked Scientists® 2000-2013. The Naked Scientists® and Naked Science™ are registered trademarks.


Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP SMF 2.0 | SMF © 2011, Simple Machines Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!