Trigger Northern Light Shows --THEMIS Aurora Mission

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hanson - 25 Jul 2008 04:46 GMT

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080724-themis-aurora-mystery.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Plasma_Bullets_Spark_Northern_Lights_999.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/science/space/25aurora.html?hp
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/24/MND111UVSM.DTL

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Cwatters - 25 Jul 2008 23:23 GMT

> http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080724-themis-aurora-mystery.html
> http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Plasma_Bullets_Spark_Northern_Lights_999.html

Quote: A little more than midway up the THEMIS line, magnetic fields
erupted, "releasing about 1015 Joules of energy," says Angelopoulos. "For
comparison, that's about as much energy as a magnitude 5 earthquake."

err I don't think so.

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Androcles - 26 Jul 2008 00:29 GMT

| > http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080724-themis-aurora-mystery.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Plasma_Bullets_Spark_Northern_Lights_999.html

| Quote: A little more than midway up the THEMIS line, magnetic fields
| erupted, "releasing about 1015 Joules of energy," says Angelopoulos. "For
| comparison, that's about as much energy as a magnitude 5 earthquake."
|
| err I don't think so.

Perhaps Angelopoulos means magnitude 5 earthquakes measured
on the bathroom scale rather than the Richter scale.

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Golden California Girls - 26 Jul 2008 03:25 GMT

>> http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080724-themis-aurora-mystery.html
>> http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Plasma_Bullets_Spark_Northern_Lights_999.html
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> err I don't think so.

Was that one thousand fifteen Joules or ten raised to the fifteenth power
Joules? I don't trust websites to display such things as superscript text
correctly.

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hanson - 27 Jul 2008 21:29 GMT

> http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080724-themis-aurora-mystery.html
> http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Plasma_Bullets_Spark_Northern_Lights_999.html
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/science/space/25aurora.html?hp
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/24/MND111UVSM.DTL

Thanks for the responses guys, but I was not after the
"1015" print-press faux-pas. This here caught my eye
though. In #1 link above it says:

:: NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft in different orbits
:: around Earth spotted the trigger for the substorms,
:: powerful energy bursts in the planet's magnetic field
:: that can interfere with satellites, [HAVE interfered with]
:: power grids

Now, if the Solar wind condition can interfere with the
earth's power grid, it is not a far jump to imagine & ask
"Can this be managed and harnessed to become a
power source"?
Anybody any idea about such research attempts?...
in particular at the Fairbanks Uni in Alaska?
Thanks, hanson

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Mark Thorson - 27 Jul 2008 22:25 GMT

> Now, if the Solar wind condition can interfere with the
> earth's power grid, it is not a far jump to imagine & ask
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> in particular at the Fairbanks Uni in Alaska?
> Thanks, hanson

Yeah, it's going to be used for an electric tractor.

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Dirk Bruere at NeoPax - 27 Jul 2008 23:54 GMT

Work out the energy involved and see whether it would even be worth it.

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Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.onetribe.me.uk/wordpress/?cat=5 - Our podcasts on weird stuff

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Space Forum / Astronomy / July 2008

Trigger Northern Light Shows --THEMIS Aurora Mission