A DARK MATTER HURRICANE

A COMING "DARK MATTER HURRICANE? 

THERE IS A SORT OF WEATHER IN SPACE AND IT AFFECTS THE WEATHER ON PLANETS INCLUDING OUR OWN. We first published on this subject in our post:

THE NAMAZU SCHOOL OF CLIMATOLOGY:"THE EXOATMOSPHERE"

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Now the Great Catfish Updates us on a recent development

NAMAZU, GIANT JAPANESE CATFISH AND FORMER DEMIGOD IN CHARGE OF COASTAL STORMS AND EARTH QUAKES, NOW DEAN OF THE NAMAZU SCHOOL OF CLIMATOLOGY

Editor's note: We first published this post 2 years ago. The planet has moved a bit farther out of the former Exoatmosphere and winter is coming. We are expecting colder than recent past winters other than on the East Coast for quite some time now due to solar flare activity and the surface temperature inversion in the Atlantic of two years ago. The effects of the Solar flare activity of last year should wear off completely by 2020, but the effects of an Atlantic surface temperature inversion usually last 20 to 30 years. In any year the effects of a strong El Nino could cancel the effects of the solar flare activity and Atlantic surface temperature inversion in some places. But no one really knows how moving out of the relatively dense Exoatmosphere will affect weather or climate.The planet is changing neighborhoods and it hasn't done that in millions of years. Even Namazu with 3,000 years of weather observation admits to being a bit puzzled.

AND NOW: WE LEARN OF AN EXOATMOSPHERE EVENT KNOWN AS A DARK MATTER HURRICANE: 

Greetings Bipeds!

 In the past when we have discussed the various natural causes of climate change, including sudden and dramatic climate change, we have mentioned besides such earthly causes as ocean current changes, and volcanic activity; changes that happen in space. These changes may include such factors as change in the shape of the Earth's orbit, it's angle of inclination on its axis, solar flares and similar solar phenomena. We have not mentioned previously that the entire solar system is moving slowly through space. The planets and other content of the solar system are not all just spinning around the sun in place for millenniums, we are not only moving around the sun and in circles relative to  each other, the entire solar system is moving slowly through space. In the AAB series "SPACE AS AN OCEAN" the authors did bring up the idea that Space isn't just , well, empty space, though in a comparative sense with the Earth's atmosphere it isn't very dense with stuff between planets and stars. 

 As it turns out for quite some time now we have been moving through a rather gassy area of space. The gases are no where near as dense as even a thin atmosphere as found clinging to planets, but it is there in detectable amounts with modern technology. Scientists call the region of space that we have been traveling through for the past few million years "the Local Interstellar Cloud". For the purpose of our discussion here I've coined the term the "Exoatmosphere" to underscore the idea that this is gas beyond the atmosphere. Thin and wispy to a point of being virtually, but not quite actually nothingness. None the less, we can detect the stuff of the "Exoatmosphere or "Local Interstellar Cloud" and determine its relative "flow" direction and velocity. There is no doubt that this Exoatmosphere can have a dramatic effect on the weather in the Earth's atmosphere, and climate is simply average weather over protracted periods.

 We recently became aware that the exoatmosphere of space contains not only gases that may affect planetary weather but also collections of particles in various configurations. Astronomers now suggest that we are probably approaching a "dark matter hurricane".This "particle storm" will envelope the Earth on its way through the Milky Way galaxy that we are a part of. But without instruments manned by astute astro physicists we mere mortals are unlikely to notice the "storms passage". It's called a dark matter "hurricane" more for the size and shape of formation than for its destructive capacity in the world of non dark matter.

 "Dark matter hurricanes" are associated at least as far we know today with particle streams in space that we are just starting to understand. It is almost as if the galaxy we live in has eddies and streams somewhat like our own planet's oceans have. There are a number of what astrophysicists call "Stellar streams spread throughout the Milky Way. These are gatherings of stars that were once dwarf galaxies or clusters of stars. Millions of years before even the birth of myself, the Great Namazu these star clusters were torn apart as they collided with our Galaxy as it passed through space. The debris from that collision left a stream of orbiting stars that circle our galactic center. As our Galaxy passed through the area of space where it encounter these debris stars we picked up the stars that lacked the velocity to travel into and then out of our system. No doubt this is one of the ways that galaxies grow in matter volume as they age and travel through space. 

 Of course we aren't exactly sure what makes up dark matter. The candidates for component parts include weakly -interacting particles appropriately referred to as "WIMPS" , and what sounds like their opposites  "gravitationally -interactive massive particles or Gimps and something called Axions which are still more theory than proven particles. Scientists have a net work of sensors around the globe in place in the hope that as we are over run by the "Dark Matter Hurricane" they will finally detect the dark matter and be able to move it out of the realm of theory and into the status of proven fact. For the rest of us the educated guess is that it will be a non event.

 But then we don't really know. The point is that space isn't nearly as empty as commonly thought and as our planet moves through different exoatmospheres the things it encounters in space often have effects great and small on our planetary weather. As we originally reported we are moving now into a new region of the exoatmosphere than that which we have been inhabiting for thousands of years.  

 Well, as my sailor buddies at the AAB say; "stand by for heavy rolls". As we reported about two year ago, our planet's long standing relationship with the Exoatmosphere may be about to change. Astronomer David McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas believes there has been a shift in direction of the helium atoms that flow into the solar system. Think of this flow of helium atoms as a sort of measure of a more complex flow of atoms that we call the "interstellar wind". According to McComas if the direction change continues for  hundreds to thousands of years (something that no one can predict or determine with any accuracy at the moment) our solar system could be in for some big time change. This change in direction could signal a change in the heliosphere , a really big bubble of charged particles blown out by the sun in the solar wind that protects the solar system from harmful cosmic rays. The size, shape and effectiveness of the heliosphere is shaped by the balance between the outward push of the solar wind and the inward pressure from gas in the Exoatmosphere or Local Interstellar Cloud, otherwise called by real science guys "the interstellar wind." 

 As measured so far the perceived change in direction is small roughly about 6 degrees over the last 40 years (I'm not sure that before that we could measure these things). However if the flow continues in this direction the general current flow could shift to the other side of the heliosphere (what I have been calling the Exoatmosphere in this discussion) and distort its shape letting in more harmful cosmic rays that negatively impact life on earth. Now we all know that forests produce oxygen and reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere but fewer people realize that microscopic phytoplankton is the bigger photosynthetic oxygen system on the planet. These microscopic floating plants are probably much more sensitive to these cosmic rays than a sequoia. We could be in big trouble in the future (but probably not your life time) in terms of the oxygen content of the atmosphere. Now there is a climate change! 

 The more likely result may be a massive die off of the less cosmic ray resistant forms of life most importantly certain species of phytoplankton and an increase in the cosmic ray resistant variety with a lot of ecological instability during the transition. Climates change, its what they do , so does life. All states of apparent relative equilibrium are temporary, even if they last millions of years. Life forms including us who may be caught mid life cycle in one of these dramatic changes suffer.  

 We can't do a single thing about these potential causes of mega climate change. But we can do something about the results of such events. We now know that climates change and can change rapidly and drastically and we can't do anything about these planetary or cosmic change agents. We also know that the type of climate change that Al Gore talks about, if actually happening (a big if given the actual science) is beyond our ability to change due to global politics. The United States which never signed the Kyoto Accords continues to reduce green house gas emissions while others that did sign increase their production and continue to point their fingers at the United States.  So it is pointless to worry about the various causes of climate change. Change will eventually come regardless. It is time to do something about managing the negative consequences and protecting our large population centers. We can change building codes, flood protection systems, and food production/transportation systems to anticipate and compensate of such change when , not if it comes. These are the facts Jack

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