(Left) A solar flare showing the twisting motion characteristic of a Birkeland current.
(Right) An X-ray image of the sun showing the active lower corona.
The Sun's corona is visible only during solar eclipses (or via sophisticated instruments developed for that specific purpose). It is a vast luminous plasma glow that changes shape with time - always remaining fairly smooth and distributed in its inner regions, and showing filamentary spikes and points in its outer fringes. It is a 'glow' mode plasma discharge. If the Sun were not electrical in nature this corona would not exist. If the Sun is simply a (non-electrical) nuclear furnace, the corona has no business being there at all. So one of the most basic questions that ought to arise in any discussion of the Sun is: Why does our Sun have a corona? Why is it there? It serves no purpose in a fusion-only model nor can such models explain its existence.
Positive ions stream outward from the Sun's surface and accelerate away, through the corona, for as far as we have been able to measure. It is thought that these particles eventually make up a portion of the cosmic ray flux that permeates the cosmos. The 'wind' varies with time and has even been observed to stop completely for a period of a day or two. What causes this fluctuation? The ES model proposes a simple explanation and suggests a mechanism that both creates and controls fluctuations in this flow. The standard model provides no such explanation or mechanism. See Solar Surface Transistor Action .
The photosphere, then, is plasma in the 'arc' mode. We say this because the Sun emits power at a rate of over 63 million watts/sq meter from its photospheric surface. This is equivalent to a power output of 40 kW from each square inch of that surface. Some have questioned whether the photosphere's relatively low temperature (~5800K) disqualifies it from being in arc mode. In 1944 C.E.R. Bruce of England's Electrical Research Institute proposed that the "photosphere has the appearance, the temperature, and the spectrum of an electric arc; it has arc characteristics because it is an electric arc, or a large number of arcs in parallel." And, it is difficult to imagine a plasma discharge in anything other than arc mode that could radiate 40 kW of power from each square inch of its surface area. Can you imagine the light from forty 1000 watt light bulbs coming out of a one square inch area?
A cross-section taken through a photospheric granule is shown in the three plots shown together below in figure 1. The horizontal axis of each of the three plots is distance, measured radially outward (upward), starting at a point near the bottom of the photosphere (the true surface of the Sun - which we can only observe in the umbra of sunspots). Almost every observed property of the Sun can be explained through reference to these three plots; for this reason, much of the discussion that follows makes reference to them.
The first plot shows the energy per unit (positive) charge of an ion as a function of its radial distance out from (altitude up from) the solar surface. The units of Energy per Unit Charge are Volts, V. The second plot, the E-field, shows the outward (upward) radial force (toward the right in this figure) experienced by each such positive ion. The third plot shows the locations of the charge densities that will produce the first two plots. The chromosphere is the location of a plasma double layer (DL) of electrical charge. Recall that one of the properties of electric plasma is its excellent (although not perfect) conductivity. Such an excellent conductor will support only a weak electric field. Notice in the second plot that the almost ideal plasmas of the photosphere (region b to c) and the corona (from point e outward) are regions of almost zero electric field strength.
Figure 1. Energy, Electric field strength, and Charge density
as a function of radial distance from the Sun's surface.
All three of these plots are related mathematically. By the laws of electro-physics: E = - dV/dr, and Charge density = dE/dr. In words: The value of the E-field, at every point r, is the (negative of) the slope of the energy plot at that point. The reason for the negative sign in this equation is that the force on a positively charged particle is down the potential hill, not up. This is analogous to the fact that a mass will tend to roll downhill, not uphill. The value of the charge density at each point, r, is the slope of the E-field plot at that point. The two layers of opposite charge density necessary to produce the compound shaped energy curve between points c and e used to be called a 'double sheath'. Modern nomenclature calls it a 'double layer' (DL). It is a well known phenomenon in plasma discharges. Because of the DL positioned between points c and e, a +ion to the right of point e sees no electrostatic force from +ions to the left of point c. The 'primary plasma' of the corona and the 'secondary plasma' of the photosphere are electrically separated by the DL.
The energy plot shown above is valid for positively charged particles. Because a positive E-field represents an outward radial force (toward the right) per unit charge on any such particle, the region wherein the E-field is negative (a to b) constitutes an inward force. This region of the lower photosphere is, thus, an energy barrier that positive ions must surmount in order to escape the body of the Sun. Any +ions attempting to escape outward from within the Sun must have enough energy to get over this energy barrier. So the presence of this single positive charge layer at the bottom of the photospheric plasma serves as a constraint on unlimited escape of +ions from the surface of the Sun.
If the standard model were correct, heat and light would simply radiate away from the photosphere as from a hot stove. Temperature measurements would monotonically decrease with distance. But many processes, other than simple radiation of heat, are occurring above the photosphere. A temperature minimum (~4100K) occurs just above the photosphere. The lower regions of the Sun’s corona, at much higher altitude, are millions of degrees hotter than the surface of the Sun itself. How can this be? The standard model has no satisfactory explanation for it. The Electric Sun hypothesis explains it clearly as follows:Charged particles do not experience external electrostatic forces when they are in the range b to c - within the photosphere. Only random thermal movement occurs due to diffusion. (Temperature is simply the measurement of the violence of such random movement.) This is where the ~ 6,000 K photospheric temperature is measured. Positive ions have their maximum electrical potential energy when they are in this photospheric granule plasma. But their mechanical kinetic energy is relatively low. At a point just to the left of point c, any random movement toward the right (radially outward - upward) that carries a + ion even slightly beyond point c will result in it's being swept away, down the energy hill, out of the Sun (toward the right in figure 1). Such movement of charged particles due to an E-field is called a 'drift current'. This drift current of accelerating positive ions is a constituent of the solar 'wind' (which is a serious misnomer). As positive ions begin to accelerate down the potential energy drop from point c through e, they convert the high (electrical) potential energy they had in the photosphere into kinetic energy - they gain extremely high outward radial velocity and lose side-to-side random motion. Thus, they become 'de-thermalized'. In this region, in the upper photosphere and the chromosphere, the movement of these ions becomes extremely organized (parallel). Therefore an observed temperature minimum occurs here.
Hannes Alfvén in his book, The New Astronomy, Chapter 2, Section III, pp 74-79, said about cosmic rays: "How these particles are driven to their fantastic energies, sometimes as high as a million billion electron volts, is one of the prime puzzles of astronomy. No known (or even unknown) nuclear reaction could account for the firing of particles with such energies; even the complete annihilation of a proton would not yield more than a billion electron volts."
Figure 2. The volt-ampere plot of a plasma discharge.
This plot is usually measured in a laboratory plasma contained in a column - a cylindrical glass tube with the anode at one end and the cathode at the other (See: http://electric-cosmos.org/PrimerAboutGD.pdf ) These two terminals are connected into an electrical circuit whereby the current through the tube can be externally controlled. In such an experiment, the plasma has a constant cross-sectional area from one end of the tube to the other. The vertical axis of the volt-ampere plot is the voltage rise from the cathode up to the anode (across the entire plasma) as a function of the current passing through the plasma. The horizontal axis is labeled total current (A). It can be relabeled as the Current Density at a point in the plasma. Current density is the measurement of how many Amps per square meter are flowing through a cross-section of the tube. If the horizontal axis shows current density at a point in the plasma, the vertical axis is then relabeled as being the electric field (V/m) at that point. In a cylindrical tube the cross-section is the same size at all locations along the tube and so, the current density at every cross-section is just proportional to the total current passing through the plasma.
When we consider the Sun, however, a spherical geometry
exists - with the sun at the center. The cross-section becomes an imaginary sphere. Assume a constant
total electron drift moving from all directions toward the Sun and a constant total radial flow of +ions outward.
Imagine a spherical surface of large radius through which this total current passes. As we approach the Sun
from deep space, this spherical surface has an ever decreasing area. Therefore, for a fixed total current,
(A/m²) increases as we move inward toward
the Sun. The anode (surface of the Sun) is a tiny fraction the area of the virtual cathode
(the area of the heliopause). According to the latest measurements, the
surface area of the heliopause is 653 million times larger than the surface
area of the
Sun. Thus, current density at the Sun's surface will be 653 million times
what it is at the heliopause cathode.
Some early plasma researchers and most modern astronomers believe that the only "true" plasma is one that is perfectly conductive (and so will "freeze" magnetic fields into itself). This is the erroneous theoretical basis of magnetic 'reconnection'. The volt-ampere plot shown above indicates that this does not happen. Every point on the plot (except the origin) has a non-zero voltage (E-field) coordinate. The static resistivity of a plasma operating at any point on the above volt-ampere plot is proportional to the slope of a straight line drawn from the origin to that point. This means that, at every possible mode in which a plasma can operate, it has a non-zero static resistivity; it takes a non-zero E-field to produce the current density. Obviously the static resistivity of a plasma in the high end of the dark mode can be quite large. (The arc region and the left half of the glow region exhibit negative dynamic resistance - and the E-field can be quite small - but that is not what is in question.) No real plasma can "freeze-in" a magnetic field. The highest conductivity plasmas are those in the arc mode. But, even in that mode, it takes a finite, non-zero valued electric field to produce a current density. No plasma is an "ideal super-conductor".
Figure 3. A sunspot showing the umbra, penumbra, and surrounding granular cells.
The top plot in figure 1 (above), shows the electrical potential energy of a +ion in the Sun's atmosphere. This diagram is expanded and reproduced below in figure 4. It is re-labeled to show the energies (voltage levels) at different locations in the vicinity of a sunspot. In figure 3, normal, bright yellow, arc-mode, solar granules appear around the periphery of a typical sunspot. They are at voltage level V2 in figure 4. Typically, in these normal granules, +ions flow upward (directly out toward the viewer in figure 3). In figure 4, such ions have enough energy to make the journey from the interior of the Sun (left of the origin - marked as a on the horizontal axis), up over the voltage rise from a to b, they diffuse across the region b - c, and fall down the potential hill from c to e. At this point, these rapidly moving ions create the turbulence observed as the high, two million Kelvin temperatures seen in the lower corona. In figure 3, this journey takes such an ion up out of the Sun's interior, up through a granule, and accelerates it out vertically upward. These ions then continue outward as the major constituent of what is called the 'solar wind'.
We must be aware of what figure 4 represents - the black locus indicates the voltage a +ion would experience along its journey upward, out of the Sun's body - through the photospheric granule and upward into the lower corona. Also shown in figure 4 (the dashed red locus) is the less variable voltages that a +ion experiences as it travels, upward out of the Sun at a location where no photospheric granules exist, that is: up and out of the umbra of a sunspot. Therefore it does not encounter the restraining energy barrier of a granule. Note carefully that this motion, left-to-right in figure 4, is directed vertically upward (toward the viewer) in figure 3. No lateral (sideways) forces or movements occur.
The darkest portions of the umbra (the Sun's anode surface) are at voltage level V1. Within the umbra there are no photospheric granules, so, for any point in the umbra, the plot in figure 4 just decreases monotonically from its left-end intersection with the vertical axis - at point (a, V1) - downward to point e on the horizontal axis. Point e represents the beginning (lowest altitude) of the Sun's corona. It's voltage level is labeled as V0.
But, what about the penumbra - those strangely shaped plasma filaments (cells) surrounding the umbra that remind us of the iris of a human eye? Starting just inside the Sun's body, some ions have barely enough kinetic energy to leave the body of the Sun by rising up to voltage level V2 or greater. In the altitude range b to c in figure 4, where they are diffusing upward, some of these ions may collide with other ions or neutral atoms and some of them may be given a diffusion velocity that bounces them back downward (toward the left in figure 4). If they diffuse in that direction beyond point b, they will be attracted back down into the Sun. In 3D space they may just sink out the bottom of the granule, or fall off its side into the darker channels that surround each granule. Or, if they are close enough to the edge of a sunspot, they may fall into it. That is what we are seeing in the penumbral filaments shown in figures 3 and 5. The process is analogous to icebergs calving off from glaciers to which they have been attached. The tops of the granules near the umbra's edge peel off, bend downward toward the umbra, and fall toward the lower voltage (and lower altitude) surface of the Sun visible in the umbra.
Figure 4. The electrical potential energy of a +ion as a function of distance above the Sun's anode surface.
(Caution: This is NOT a side view of a granule. It is simply a graph of the plasma's voltage as a function of distance up
along a straight-line vertical path coming from the Sun's surface up toward the lower corona. If the path goes through a
granule, the black curve applies. If the path goes up through the umbra of a sunspot, the dashed red curve is correct.)
A recent time-lapse video of this process is available on You Tube at Time-lapse image of penumbral filaments . This short clip shows the downward cascade of +ions that constitute the penumbral filaments. Some ions arriving at the umbra from above, in this manner, may then sense the attraction of the still lower voltage of the corona, V0, and join the flood of ions spilling out (upward) there from the Sun's interior (the dashed, red locus in figure 4). This observed behavior is completely consistent with the electric Sun model as described in these pages and elsewhere.
The motion of charges (+ions) falling from the top of the granules downward toward the umbrae constitutes a strong electrical current within the photospheric plasma. Such currents are called Birkeland currents. They twist! They are also hollow because of a well-known mechanism called Marklund convection. Both these properties can be seen in figure 5. The normal photospheric granules, which are packed in closely together, carry a relatively high current density. They are in high temperature, arc mode (see figure 2, above). When charges near the edge of the umbra (at voltage level V2 ) peel off and drop back, downward, toward the lower voltage, V1 of the umbra, they are less confined than they had been within the granules, so they spread out and have a lower valued current density. In figure 2 it is clear that the volt-ampere plot of plasma in this range (between points I and J) has a negative slope. Moving charges in plasma are free to move around and will attempt to minimize any forces on them. They can do that (lower the value of E-field they are experiencing) by moving toward the right in figure 2 (away from point I, toward point J), thereby reducing the cross-sectional area they occupy - they will form filaments. That is the cause of penumbral filaments. In the right hand image of figure 5, these filaments appear to end. In all probability they do not actually end where they seem to. The current they carry will not be discontinuous. The filaments can continue to occupy more and more space, to expand, and so reduce their current density still further. This puts them into the 'abnormal' glow mode as seen in the right-hand side of the glow-mode region of figure 2. Glow mode is so much less radiant than arc mode, especially in close proximity to the arc mode granules, that the +ion flow becomes invisible to us.
Figure 5. (Left) The Penumbra - Birkeland currents following the voltage drop from the photosphere down to the umbra.
(Right) The twisting Birkeland currents evident in a detailed image of the penumbral filaments.
For the same reason, the Sun's glow mode corona is difficult to see except in solar eclipses and in X ray images such as the one shown on the right in the first figure at the very top of this page and below in figure 6. The bright regions of the corona that we see in X-ray images indicate hotter, more energetic areas; these are mainly above sunspot regions. For example, the three images of a sunspot group, shown below show increasing altitude levels:
Figure 6. The effects of +ions flowing out of a sunspot.
Any electric current, i, creates a magnetic field (the stronger the current - the stronger the magnetic field, and the more energy it contains). Curved magnetic fields cannot exist without either electrical currents or time varying electric fields. Energy, Wm, stored in any magnetic field, is given by the expression Wm = 1/2 Li ^2. If the current, i, is interrupted, the field collapses and its energy must be delivered somewhere. The magnetic field of the Sun sometimes, and in some places on its surface, forms an 'omega' shaped loop. This loop extends out through the double sheath layer (DL) of the chromosphere. One of the primary properties of Birkeland currents is that they generally follow magnetic field 'lines'. A strong looping current will produce a secondary toroidal magnetic field that will surround and try to expand the loop. If the current following the loop becomes too strong, the DL will be destroyed1. This interrupts the current (like opening a switch in an inductive circuit) and the energy stored in the primary magnetic field is explosively released into space.
Figure 7. Hannes Alfven's Solar Prominence Circuit Figure 8. TRACE Image of Plasma Loops
It should be well understood (certainly by anyone who has had a basic physics course) that the magnetic field lines that are drawn to describe a magnetic field, have no beginning nor end. They are closed paths. In fact one of Maxwell's famous equations is: "Div B = 0". Which says exactly that (in the language of vector differential calculus). So when magnetic fields collapse due to the interruption of the currents that produce them, they do not "break" or "merge" and "recombine"2 as some uninformed astronomers have postulated. The field simply collapses (very quickly!). On the Sun this collapse can release a tremendous amount of energy, and matter is thrown out away from the surface - as with any explosively rapid reaction. This release is consistent with and predicted by the Electric Sun model as described above. That is how Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) occur.
Note that although astronomers ought to be aware that magnetic fields require electrical currents or time varying E-fields to produce them, currents and E-fields are almost never mentioned in standard models.
1. Double layers can be destroyed by at least two different mechanisms: a) Zener Breakdown - The electric field gradient becomes strong enough to rip all charges away from a region, thus breaking the discharge path; b) Avalanche Breakdown - A literal avalanche occurs wherein all charges are swept away and no conducting charges are left - thus the conducting path is opened.
2. A magnetic field is a continuum. It is not a set of discrete 'lines'. Lines are drawn in the classroom to describe the magnetic field (its direction and magnitude). But the lines themselves do not actually exist. They are simply a pedagogical device. Proposing that these lines break, merge, and/or recombine is an error (violation of Maxwell's equations) compounded on another error (the lines do not really exist in the first place). Magnetic field lines are analogous to lines of latitude and longitude or topographic lines on a map. They are not discrete entities with nothing in between them - you can draw as many of them as close together as you'd like. And they most certainly do not break, merge, or reconnect any more than lines of latitude do. Oppositely directed magnetic intensity H-fields simply cancel each other - no energy is stored or released in that event.
Today's orthodox thermonuclear model fails to explain many observed solar phenomena. The Electric Sun model is inherently predictive of most if not all these observed phenomena. It is relatively simple. It is self-consistent. And it does not require the existence of mysterious entities such as the unseen solar 'dynamo' genie that lurks somewhere beneath the surface of the fusion model and serves as a fall-back explanation for all observations that are inconvenient for the accepted fusion model.
Ralph Juergens had the genius to develop the Electric Sun model back in the 1970's. He based it on the work of others who went before him. His hypothesis, and modern extensions of it have so far passed the harsh tests of observed reality. This seminal work may eventually get the recognition it deserves. Or, of course, others may try to claim it, or parts of it, and hope the world forgets who came up with these ideas first.
There is now enough inescapable evidence that a majority of the phenomena we observe on the Sun are fundamentally electrical in nature. Ralph Juergens had the vision to recognize that.
Figure 9. Ralph Juergens in 1949.
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The Electric Sky (Mikamar Pub.)