Sun's Strange Behavior Baffles Scientists

[Bobbi]

What do you think this presages?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/201006...lesastronomers

[Norval]

The sun is acting a bit weird, but not as bad as Yahoo at times.

[Bobbi]

Try this link. Sorry.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37705466/

[Gale]

Interesting
It seem astronomers are noting perturbation of many bodies in our sol system.

[Gale]

Scientists are puzzled about the odd behavior of the thermosphere. They claim when there are solar flares the thermosphere increases in thickness and when solar activity is less the thermosphere thins out but this thinning has dipped to an all time low. So low is cold, they don't know what is causing the recorded cold temperatures.

When carbon dioxide gets into the thermosphere, it acts as a coolant, shedding heat via infrared radiation. It is widely-known that CO2 levels have been increasing in Earth's atmosphere. Extra CO2 in the thermosphere could have magnified the cooling action of solar minimum.

\"But the numbers don't quite add up,\" says Emmert. \"Even when we take CO2 into account using our best understanding of how it operates as a coolant, we cannot fully explain the thermosphere's collapse.\"

According to Emmert and colleagues, low solar EUV accounts for about 30% of the collapse. Extra CO2 accounts for at least another 10%. That leaves as much as 60% unaccounted for.

The thermosphere ranges in altitude from 90 km to 600+ km. It is a realm of meteors, auroras and satellites, which skim through the thermosphere as they circle Earth. It is also where solar radiation makes first contact with our planet. The thermosphere intercepts extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photons from the sun before they can reach the ground. When solar activity is high, solar EUV warms the thermosphere, causing it to puff up like a marshmallow held over a camp fire. (This heating can raise temperatures as high as 1400 K—hence the name thermosphere.) When solar activity is low, the opposite happens.

A Puzzling Collapse of Earth's Upper Atmosphere