At an
American Astronomical Society press conference today (6-17-09) in
Boulder, Colorado, researchers announced that a jet stream deep inside
the Sun is migrating slower than usual through the stars interior,
giving rise to the current lack of sunspots.

It has been
discovered the Sun has jet streams as does the Earth, and it would
appear the jet stream shifts as does ours. The enthusiastic question is
— “what influence causes the Suns jet stream to shift?”

Equation:

Sunspots => Solar Flares => Magnetic Field Shift => Shifting
Ocean and Jet Stream Currents => Extreme Weather and Human
Disruption (mitch battros)

As outlined
in the book “Solar Rain: The Earth Changes Have Begun”, we know it is
the sunwhich causes Earths jet stream to shift. So what is it,
inside or outside, our solar system which manipulates the Suns jet
stream? Could it be the Mayans and other ancient civilizations knew
this answer, and it is this knowledge which allowed them to have such
precision in their predictions and prophecy?

Rachel Howe
and Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson,
Arizona, used a technique called helioseismology to detect and track
the jet stream down to depths of 7,000 km below the surface of the Sun.
The Sun generates new jet streams near its poles every 11 years, they
explained to a room full of reporters and fellow scientists. The
streams migrate slowly from the poles to the equator and when a jet
stream reaches the critical latitude of 22 degrees, new-cycle sunspots
begin to appear.

Howe and
Hill found that the stream associated with the next solar cycle has
moved sluggishly, taking three years to cover a 10 degree range in
latitude compared to only two years for the previous solar cycle.

The jet
stream is now, finally, reaching the critical latitude, heralding a
return of solar activity in the months and years ahead.

“It is
exciting to see”, says Hill, “that just as this sluggish stream reaches
the usual active latitude of 22 degrees, a year late, we finally begin
to see new groups of sunspots emerging.”

The current
solar minimum has been so long and deep, it prompted some scientists to
speculate that the Sun might enter a long period with no sunspot
activity at all, akin to the Maunder Minimum of the 17th century. This
new result dispells those concerns. The Suns internal magnetic dynamo
is still operating, and the sunspot cycle is not “broken.”

Because it
flows beneath the surface of the Sun, the jet stream is not directly
visible. Hill and Howe tracked its hidden motions via helioseismology.
Shifting masses inside the Sun send pressure waves rippling through the
stellar interior. So-called “p modes” (p for pressure) bounce around
the interior and cause the Sun to ring like an enormous bell. By
studying the vibrations of the Suns surface, it is possible to figure
out what is happening inside. Similar techniques are used by geologists
to map the interior of our planet.

In this
case, researchers combined data from GONG and SOHO. GONG, short for
“Global Oscillation Network Group,” is an NSO-led network of telescopes
that measures solar vibrations from various locations around Earth.
SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, makes similar
measurements from Earth orbit.

“This is an
important discovery,” says Dean Pesnell of NASAs Goddard Space Flight
Center. “It shows how flows inside the Sun are tied to the creation of
sunspots and how jet streams can affect the timing of the solar cycle.”

There is, however, much more to learn.

“We still
don’t understand exactly how jet streams trigger sunspot production,”
says Pesnell. “Nor do we fully understand how the jet streams
themselves are generated.”

To solve
these mysteries, and others, NASA plans to launch the Solar Dynamics
Observatory (SDO) later this year. SDO is equipped with sophisticated
helioseismology sensors that will allow it to probe the solar interior
better than ever before.

“The
Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on SDO will improve our
understanding of these jet streams and other internal flows by
providing full disk images at ever-increasing depths in the Sun,” says
Pesnell.

Continued
tracking and study of solar jet streams could help researchers do
something unprecedented–accurately predict the unfolding of future
solar cycles. Questions is — did our ancestors already have this
knowledge?

Earth Changes Media