Friday, November 14, 2014

Optimal Lightning

Optimal Lightning .


Andre Willers
14 Nov 2014
Synopsis :
Lightning is the balancing element to keep the ionosphere at about 200 000 Volt difference with Earth . This is vital for UV protection . Global warming then increases habitability of Earth. But also decreases buffer effect to insolation . This means many more localized lightning strikes .
 
Discussion :














1.Ozone repletion :
This requires the 200 000 volts  .(Appendix B)  This is maintained by
Insolation(+)  , lightning storms (upper)(+) , chemicals(-) .

2.The hole in the ozone .
This has been replenished , mostly due to increased global warming . See Appendix A .
Humans had very little to do with the whole affair .
 
3. The action is mainly driven by lightning See Appendix E

4.This is driven by thunderstorms . See Appendices A, B ,C

5.What happens if global warming drives up the number of lightning storms and insolation remains the same ?
Much more food for everybody .

This would be a more normal thing for Gaia . The planet is much cooler now than normal .
The system is quite sensitive (see Appendix A : 12% more lightning per degree Celsius) is hairtrigger for a planetary system .
The Ozone layer would allow much less UV through .
This would mean a lower death rate among the phytoplankton  , etc . Sea blooms . Increase in fish biomass .
The same on land , especially higher altitudes .

6.Acidification .
UV + Acidification seems to have a synergistic effect . Reducing the UV will mean a chance at recovery for things like corals .
This has already happened and is happening .

7.Human overdramatization .
Humans like to look in the mirror and see the Terminator (a sort of Super-Silverback Gorilla)
The reality is more a boy in a mask and toy gun .

8. Expect a great expansion of whale numbers .
This has already happened . See http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29069515  Recovery of Blue Whales .

http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-whales-are-so-large.html . See Appendix F below for the full article .
Whales are expert vertical farmers , and can teach humans a thing or two .

9.The greatly increased number of lightning strikes due to global warming  will correspondingly increase nitrate fertilizers , thus alleviating the need for the great game treks like in Serengeti . Why bother with all these fancy climate meters . Just count the number of migrating Serengeti animals .

10.Electrical interference with communications will decrease on average , but show some very sharp spikes on occasion .

11. Weather forecasting : once again , humans will be scared of the sky . With good reason . All this means local thunderstorms brew up out of nothing .
Call them mini-lightning storms .

12. Megalithic Structures .
They are resonant at The Schumann resonance .(See Appendix C) . Approaching lightning storms will disturb this resonance (same as EM effects of earthquake) .
So , places like StoneHenge , GobekliTepe  , etc are also lightning detectors .


Exactly how severe were these storms ?
Many old shelters look suspiciously like bombshelters . I suppose severe lightning storms , natural or steered , qualify as an electric Blitzkrieg Luftwaffe .

13. Nuclear weapons
The energy levels of the ionosphere are low . See Appendix B .
High-energy pulses into the ionosphere will disrupt it , and probably cause permanent extinction of life above Earth by UV protection removal .
Why do you think they stopped atmospheric nuclear testing ? Even the military could see extinction grinning at them from it’s skullface .

Electrically Yours
Andre

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Appendix A
Lightning expected to increase by 50 percent with global warming
Date:
November 13, 2014
Source:
University of California - Berkeley
Summary:
Atmospheric scientists looked at predictions of precipitation and cloud buoyancy in 11 different climate models and concluded that their combined effect will generate 50 percent more electrical discharges to the ground by the end of the century because of global warming. The main cause is water vapor, which fuels explosive deep convection in the atmosphere. The more convection, the greater the charge separation and the more cloud-to-ground strikes.
On average, the models predicted an 11 percent increase in CAPE in the U.S. per degree Celsius rise in global average temperature by the end of the 21st century. Because the models predict little average precipitation increase nationwide over this period, the product of CAPE and precipitation gives about a 12 percent rise in cloud-to-ground lightning strikes per degree in the contiguous U.S., or a roughly 50 percent increase by 2100 if Earth sees the expected 4-degree Celsius increase (7 degrees Fahrenheit) in temperature. This assumes carbon dioxide emissions keep rising consistent with business as usual.
Exactly why CAPE increases as the climate warms is still an area of active research, Romps said, 


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Appendix B
Excellent work !
Ionosphere-Earth Voltage ~ 200 000 Volts
Planetary Current a miserly 1000 Amps
Usable Power an even more miserly 50 MW

…….
The Fair-Weather Atmosphere as a Power Source
Joseph M. Crowley
Electrostatic Applications
phone/fax: (1) 805-927-2448



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Appendix C
Earth-Ionosphere cavity[edit]
Main article: Schumann resonance
Potential difference between the ionosphere and the Earth is maintained by thunderstorms' pumping action of lightning discharges. In the Earth-ionosphere cavity, the electric field and conduction current in the lower atmosphere are primarily controlled by ions. Ions have the characteristic parameters such as mobility, lifetime, and generation rate that vary with altitude.
The Schumann resonance is a set of spectrum peaks in the ELF portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum. Schumann resonance is due to the space between the surface of the Earth and the conductive ionosphere acting as a waveguide. The limited dimensions of the earth cause this waveguide to act as a resonant cavity for electromagnetic waves. The cavity is naturally excited by energy from lightning strikes.
Atmospheric layers[edit]
The electrical conductivity of the atmosphere increases exponentially with altitude. The amplitudes of the electric and magnetic components depend on season, latitude, and height above the sea level. The greater the altitude the more atmospheric electricity abounds. The exosphere is the uppermost layer of the atmosphere and is estimated to be 500 km to 1000 km above the Earth's surface, and its upper boundary at about 10,000 km. The thermosphere (upper atmosphere) is the layer of the Earth's atmosphere directly above the mesosphere and directly below the exosphere. Within this layer, ultraviolet radiation causes ionization. Theories that have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of the polar aurora, but it has been demonstrated by experiments that it is due to positive charge passing from the higher regions of the atmosphere to the earth.[42]
The mesosphere (middle atmosphere) is the layer of the Earth's atmosphere that is directly above the stratosphere and directly below the thermosphere. The mesosphere is located about 50-80/85 km above Earth's surface. The stratosphere (middle atmosphere) is a layer of Earth's atmosphere that is stratified in temperature and is situated between about 10 km and 50 km altitude above the surface at moderate latitudes, while at the poles it starts at about 8 km altitude. The stratosphere sits directly above the troposphere and directly below the mesosphere. The troposphere (lower atmosphere) is the densest layer of the atmosphere.
The planetary boundary layer (PBL), also known as the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), is the lowest part of the atmosphere and its behavior is directly influenced by its contact with the planetary surface.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/NearField-Earth-eField.png/220px-NearField-Earth-eField.png
Electric density increases 88 DC volts with each metre of altitude above the earth, or, in feet equivalents, 1-19 DC volts per foot of altitude.
There is a potential gradient at ground level ("Atmosphere ground layer") and this vertical field[43] corresponds to the negative charge in and near the Earth's surface. The negative potential gradient falls rapidly as altitude increases from the ground. Most of this potential gradient is in the first few kilometers. The positive potential gradient rises rapidly as altitude increases from the ground. Volta, in the 18th century, discovered that the gradient of electric potential increased as the distance from the earth increases, and, more recently, Engel has provided data to calculate the increase (image to the right).

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Appendix D
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/wea00/wea00239.htm
When you include observations of weather over the whole earth, you get some pretty amazing numbers. Here are a couple-

Number of thunderstorms occurring at any given time: 2000
Number of lightning strikes over the earth per second: 100

(The above numbers from this web site: http://www.lightningstalker.com/weather/lightningstalker/more.html

Expanding the lightning numbers... 100 per second equals 6000 strikes per minute, 6000 per minute equals 360,000 per hour, 360,000 per hour equals 8,640,000 per day.

Wendell Bechtold, meteorologist
Forecaster, National Weather Service
Weather Service Office, St. Louis, MO


Sophie,

A number of studies have been done using lightning detection networks located in some countries and using a couple of satellites that have optical detectors designed to recognize lightning flashes. The most recent data suggests that the long used statistic of around 100 flashes per second globally is close to being correct, of which 80% are in-cloud flashes and 20% are cloud-to-ground flashes.

This gives us approximately 20 flashes to the ground per second globally and therefore 1,728,000 flashes to the ground per day. This seems like a huge number, but it is necessary to maintain an electrical balance between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere.

David R. Cook
Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry Section
Environmental Research Division
Argonne National Laboratory


This is not an easy question to answer because the average number of strikes varies with location, season, and many other variables. However, the web site:

shows a global distribution map. This can give you an approximate distribution. Another interesting site is:

http://www.exploratoriu   http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_info/lightningmaps/worldlightning.html

m.edu/ronh/weather/weather.html


Vince Calder

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Appendix E

Based on the work of statistical analysis software SPSS, through curve estimation, linear correlation, partial correlation and stepwise regression, we make a correlation analysis among ionosphere disturbance, ground electric variation and thunderstorm activity. We also look into the influence from ionosphere and ground electric field on thunderstorm activity instantly, ionosphere disturbance has extremely significant influence on thunderstorm current. The correlation between ground electric field and thunderstorm activity is negative. On the other hand, in multi-factor interplay analyses, thunderstorm activity is largely affected by ionosphere disturbance within 3 hours. Between electric field and thunderstorm current, the partial correlation is negative which increases from significant to extremely-significant in the time span from the 4th hour to the 7th hour.
Published in:
Date of Conference:
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Appendix F
Friday, August 12, 2011
Why Whales are so large .
Why Whales are so large
Andre Willers
12 Aug 2011

Synopsis :
Vertical migration in the ocean between each breath recycles nutrients into the sunlit layers of the ocean , stimulating phytoplankton-krill-whale positive feedback cycle . The bigger the whale , the more krill , the more whales , etc

Discussion :
See "Givers of Life" by Steve Nicol in NewScientist 9 Jul 2011 p36 .
This is an excellent overview by an actual researcher .

Critical points :
1.Nutrients tend to sink after concentration into plant cells . Small animal faeces like krill sink by 100 – 1000 metres a day . The thermocline acts as a trapdoor , excacerbating the effect in summer or global warmaing .

2.Mammals have to breathe at the surface . This forces a vertical migration with each breath , mixing things up in at least three ways :

2.1 Wake turbulence and Coanda Effect (Google it) . Large volumes of water are transported up and down . It is part of whale's reduction to water-flow resistance . The bigger the whale , the better .

2.2 Nutrient scavenging from the depths and faeces plumes at surface . Size helps .

2.3 Floating reservoirs of nutrients in krill are eaten and excreted as faeces plumes in the sunlit zones , preventing loss of vital nutrients like iron . This stimulates phytoplankton , which stimulates krill , which stimulates whales . The bigger the whales , and the more of them , the better .


Social effect and mini-ecology :
A pod of whales use their sonar calls to coordinate their vertical migrations to create a nutrient rich mini-ecology around the pod . They farm the sea .
Other species benefit . Fishing is good .

Note that the minimum survival size is a pod , and the techniques are learned .
Think of the pod as a farming village in 3-dimensional oceanic terms .

A lonely whale is a hungry whale

The feedback effect here would be as the cube of the number of whales and their size . A very strong effect , leading quickly to large numbers and maximum possible sizes .

This was indeed the case as late as 17th century Whale , fish and wild bird populations were about 100 times larger than at present . Google it .

The Fly-by effect :
Whale pod ecologies moving past a coast would have significant effects on local crustaceans and inshore fishing .
The same is applicable for coral reefs . Blanching is be ameliorated by temperature-layer mixing .
The Australian Great Barrier reef can be saved through whale pods doing a fly-by
Coral atolls the same .

Without them there would be a desert .

Whales seems to have been the key-stone eco species .

The Bad News :
This seems bad , since humans reduced whale numbers so drastically .

The Good News :
1.The feedback effect is very strong (cubed effect) and can be applied per pod .
2.Pod-package : similar to human civilization package .
Symbiotic and commensal species of fish , phytoplankton , krill , dolphins , orcas , can be used to accelerate repopulation , under strict human protection .
3.Commercial Demand :
Whale Pods and their symbiotic humans can negotiate their own terms for ecological beneficiation for coral islands , fisheries , barrier reefs , etc .
In a warming world , the Whale Union will be a powerful force .

Whales and Dinosaurs :
Whales are the largest animals that ever lived .
Sea dinosaurs did not need to breathe air . Hence no vertical migration .
Hence no feedback effect for size .

Hippo's
Hippo's are a branch of whales (from long ago) . They also create a mini-ecology in their pool by stirring things up . Especially in the dry season . The pools are stagnant . The only thing stirring up nutrients are hippo's . The other species depend on them . The eco-system collapses without them .
Which is why humans put up with bad-tempered hippo's in Africa . They were essential to a functioning ecosystem .
(Or , to put it more elegantly , the tribe that killed them perished .)

Which makes me wonder why they were not domesticated .
Maybe an attempt was made around the Makgadigadi Sea , and what we have are the descendants of the untamable ones . Similar to buffalo and kwagga .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com "Makgadigadi Sea" Aug 2009

The Human-Whale interaction .
There is fairly good evidence that a crucial human bottle-neck experience took place about 190 000 to 200 000 years ago on the Agulhas plains during an ice-age .The only thing enabling them to survive was the annual whale pods flying by , fertilizing the Agulhas Banks .

This survives to this day . The locals are fanatical in protecting the whales . No large scale whaling has ever taken place . They have long forgotten the reasons for it , but like any good religious proscription , it persists .

Whale watching is a major industry today .
Local South Africans and others gather to watch the phallic plumes of whale-breath spume new life into the banks .

Every time the whale pods go by , the poor over-fished abalone , crayfish and other fisheries are invigorated and struggle on .

Having a whale of a time .

Andre
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