Sun-brewed Storms

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 44, 8 March 1937, Page 13

Sun-brewed Storms

Mysteries of the Immense Spots

QNE of the largest sunspots seen for some years is now apparent on the face of the sun, and experience has shown that in such circumstances severe eleetrical storms and interruptions to all kinds of eleetrical and telegraphic services may be expected (writes P. Orosbie Morrison, M^c., in the Melbourne Argus). Sunspots attain a maximuia ln size and frequency every 11 years, and 1937 is the 11th year since the last maximum. Special study is being directed to them, therefore, in the hope that this year may gee the solution of one of the most perslstent mysteries of science. Not only eleetrical disturbances, but also the recent terrific storms in the United States and queer weather ln Australia, are probably attributable to this recurrence of "sunspot maximum." In Ilegular Cycles. T^RESH life was given to the study when Schwage, of Dessau, an amatour observer, announced in 1843 that the spots occurred in regular cycles and not fortuitously. Individual spots may persist for only a day or two; others last for more than a month, slowly crossing the face of the sun, disappearing at one edge, and reappearing 14 days later at the opposite edge as the sun rotates on its axis; indeed, it was by observation of sunspots that the period of rotation of the sun was first determined. "OUT Schwage, as a result of 18 years of persevering observation, demonstrated that there are long periods when the sun is scarcely spotted at all, and that at other times the spots are unusually numerous and large. He showed, further, that these maximum and minimum phases of "spottedness" recurred regularly every 11 years. Here was a rhythm in Nature hitherto unsuspected, and scientists set out confidently to trace its source. They have been on8 the trail ever since without success. The importance -of their quest increased a hundredfold when it was discovered in 1851 that magnetic disturbances and eleetrical storms on the earth recurred in cycles identical with the sunspot cycle. Since then cycles of 11 years have been observed in the most strangely assorted occurrences. Affects Cod Market. ^URORAS, thunder-storms, good harvests, famines, financial booms and depressions, and even the supply of Murray cod on the Melbourne fish market have been observed to wax and wane tnore or less in accord with the waves o maximum and minimum spottiness of fche sun. Large sunspots almost invariably cause "static" in wireless

reeeptlon. The electro-magnetic character of these "blowholes" has been verifled with Ingenious instruments, ESach spot is like a volcano, spurting jefcs of charged electrons into space, and even across the 93,000,000 miles of void into the upper atmosphere of the it has been shown that the spots occur in pairs, one member corresponding to the north pole and the other 4o the south pole of a magnet. Still the mystery behind it all has not been revealed. YV^HOUT doubt the 11 years' cycle exists. Every new observation proves it, and sunspots have been etudied persistently and continuously since Schwabe's. day. Delvlng back into the past, the year 1816 was a year of sunspot maximum, and it is known in the records of the world as "the year without a summer" — the weather was thoroughly out of joint. Also, 1872, very close to another maximum, is still the wettest year on record in Britain, and it was abnormally stormy throughout the world. Less outstanding peculiaritlee of weather have been associated with almost all the other maxima, and now 1937, another year of sunspot Tnn.Y*"U?™. already passes into the records with disastrous floods in the United States and weather disturbances in almost all parts of the world. Science Baffled. T>UT as soon as individual storms and individual spots are sfcudied the correlation breaks down and science is baffled. A huge sunspot appears, large enough to engulf half a dozen earths side by side without touching its walls. It crosses the sun and fades away, leaving the whole earth tranquil. On other occasions fierce eleetrical storms arise in the year of sunspot maximum, while the face of the sun may be temporarily clear of spots. Again, large spots and world-wide storms coincide perfectly or a tranquil earth faces an unblemished sun. Astronomers have decided that there must be some deeper cause within. the sun for both sunspots and for electromagnetic storms and displays of the aurora. Observatories at strategic points round the world are constantly engaged in research in solar physics in a concerted effort to unravel the mystery. The solar physics observatory at Mt. Stromlo, in the Federal Capital Territory, is one of the important in this chain. All are prepared for unusual activity, hoping that this year of Sunspot maximum may reveal the vital clue to the problem.