What is space “weather” exactly. Well, not clouds and rain, obviously.
But there are some unbelievably powerful electrical storms out there and you have surely heard of the solar wind? Comic rays rain down on us all the time. We were recently “showered” with a tremendous blast of the Sun’s power called a coronal mass ejection (CME).
In fact (an aside note) that’s very likely what upset my blood pressure recently and which I wrote to you about last week. I was not aware when I wrote the last newsletter, but there had been a CME just at the time my blood pressure changes started and we do know that a CME, or sun spot storms, will often lead to a mass of hospitalization due to heart attacks, irregular heart rhythms, blood pressure and other health effects, including raised anxiety, bizarre behaviors and psychosis even, with lots of mental hospital admissions. It has been speculated that this even causes wars.
Want to know more? I’m sure you do, because space weather DOES affect us all!
A dramatic coronal mass ejection, courtesy of BBC
I first wrote about this in a 1992 book (long out of print), published by Thorson’s (an imprint of Harper Collins). Here’s the entry, to set the stage for today:
Planet Earth is a complex electrical environment. Even before Man set foot on it, never mind invented electricity generating machines, the whole globe was bathed in immense fields of charged particles, which in total power make our National Grid look like a glow-worm beside a nuclear explosion.
We are continually receiving bombardments of highly charged particles from our Sun, the so-called Solar Wind. These sweep into our upper atmosphere where, fortunately for us, they are contained; though the upper layers become super-charged: the Ionosphere. Because of the Earth’s polarity, these sheets of electrical energy only dip down to near ground level at the north and south poles and this effect gives rise to the aurorae. The Northern Lights (aurora borealis) are, in reality, nothing more than a giant electric storm. Observers who are close describe swishing and crackling noises, typical of electric discharges, and occasionally tingling and the smell of ozone, which is the familiar odour from electrical sparks.
If this isn’t enough, then the whole rotating globe works rather like a giant dynamo, charging up the planet’s very substance. Thus rocks have innate electricity, called piezo-electricity. It comes to the surface especially where there is volcanic and earthquake activity, and is the cause of a greenish glow often seen in the region of a recent earthquake.
Occasionally this ‘rock electricity’ escapes into the upper atmosphere, causing streamers or ‘rays’; the well-known Andes glow is such a manifestation. Doubtless this accounts for a number of strange world-wide phenomena, phantom lights, apparitions etc. Even the flying saucer enthusiasts must concede that some sinister-looking lights in the sky have an entirely natural earth-bound origin. St Elmo’s Fire is an electrical effect which used to terrify our ancestors, especially sailors. A greenish glow surrounds objects, such as ships, buildings and even people under certain favourable atmospheric conditions. It is simply a harmless build-up of static electricity, but without the benefit of scientific knowledge it must have seemed a fearful, even diabolical, manifestation.
Then, of course, there is lightning in all its forms which, although intense, is a very minor effect in global terms and represents no more than a local build-up of static which then discharges itself.
Along came man
Then along came that inquisitive and inventive biped, homo sapiens (Man). By the time of the Ancient Greeks our species had discovered that rubbing amber with silk or fur produces static electricity (the Greek word for amber is elekiron, which eventually morphed into our word electricity).
In the eighteenth century the Italian Volta (after whom the volt is named) discovered that alternate layers of copper and zinc discs, separated by brine-soaked cloths, gave rise to an electric current. The battery was born, though we now know there are much earlier batteries, found in the Middle East.
In the nineteenth century a Dutchman called Oersted discovered that a current in a wire has a magnetic field. In 1831 Michael Faraday realized the importance of the opposite effect: that if a coil of wire is rotated in a magnetic field, an electrical current is produced. Thus the dynamo or generator was born.
This in turn led to other possibilities, such as the electric telegraph and Thomas Eddison’s great boon, the electric light, which freed Man from the shackles of night. It is impossible to overestimate the benefit of this simple advance, which lengthened the working day to a potential 24 hours and so speeded up Man’s progress into the technological age.
Finally, we arrive at the twentieth century, and today we have radios, TVs, phones, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, ovens, toasters, clocks and a whole host of gadgets powered by electricity, at work and in the home. Cables run everywhere in walls, under floors and over our heads. We are literally surrounded by electricity, in a way which would have been unthinkable 150 years ago…
Our world has now altered. As a species, we evolved in natural electric fields. Possibly we are accustomed, biologically-speaking, to this background radiation. Yet we are now exposed to levels estimated conservatively at a million times greater. Some scientists put it as high as a hundred-million-fold increase in exposure to electricity. Isn’t it strange, then, that nobody, until recently, asked the question:
Is it safe?
New and disturbing evidence suggests that indeed it is not…
-END QUOTE-
Fast forward to the early 21st century and we now realize that being drenched in electrical charges may be far from healthy. That’s not just about 5G, which is trivial compared to what’s going on out there!
Remember, the electromagnetic spectrum is almost entirely hostile to life: radio waves, microwaves, infrared (heat), ultraviolet, which can be dangerous, x-rays and gamma rays (radio-activity). Even light, which is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, has the potential to cause biological harm. Blue light, we know, damages our eyes and will sterilize micro-organisms.
Space Storms
There are occasions when solar activity increases exponentially. Sunspot activity is a big driver though we are currently in a quiet period for those. But solar flares, causing coronal mass ejections (CMEs), can occur at any time. It’s pot luck whether they head in our direction or go somewhere off into the Great Wide Yonder!
Last week’s CME hit earth hard; in fact two CMEs hit Earth last weekend–one on Saturday, Nov. 4th, another on Sunday, Nov. 5th. So much so that there were fabulous auroras (aurorae to be strict) here on earth. The skies were ablaze with an electrical glow visible as far south as Texas here in the US, to Israel and the Crimea. Kiev was especially affected and the skies glowed, literally, blood red (which of course had all the cranks and prophets gabbling with omen-talk).
Doom-laden skies over Kiev glowed blood red after the CME
Much of the UK and Ireland was lit up on Saturday night – from Orkney and Donegal to parts of southern England including Stonehenge. I wish I’d seen that!
Flares were also visible in Slovenia and Croatia. Wow!
As above, so below – the old hermetic adage seems to be especially appropriate at times like these.
Of course we now know so much more: about the biological effects and about the physics of sunspot activity and CMEs.
As I said, the ill-health effects can be considerable. It’s probably what “got” me last weekend. Soaring blood pressure is one of the well-documented effects of solar activity. Other effects include heart irregularities, epileptic seizures and even deaths due to heart attacks.¹
There is a direct correlation with heart rate variability (the very BEST indicator of health) and solar activity and cosmic rays.
All of which is not surprising. Solar flares can cause transformers to blow and power outages to occur. The famous solar flare of 18— blew out electricity cabling in many parts of northern America. It would be surprising if there was NOT a biological negative effect.
So have we entered the age of “helio-biology”? I think so. NASA, bless ‘em (idiots actually) have stated in a 2017 statement “Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground.”
Oh yes it can!
Let me start you off with some interesting reading…
According to one article on PubMed, “It appears that sharp or sudden variations in geomagnetic and solar activity as well as geomagnetic storms can act as stressors, which alter regulatory processes such as melatonin/serotonin balance, blood pressure, breathing, reproductive, immune, neurological, and cardiac system processes. Geomagnetic disturbances are associated with significant increases in hospital admissions for depression, mental disorders, psychiatric admission, suicide attempts, homicides and traffic accidents.”²
Stay safe and enjoy the night sky,
Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor
References:
- https://www.health.com/condition/stroke/solar-flare-health-effects
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5805718/
