Earthsky Interviews
Marty Mlynczak: ‘Our atmosphere breathes sun’s energy’
06-03-2009 - Earth
Astrophysicist Marty Mlynczak has discovered that our planet’s upper atmosphere moves up and down. He describes it as “breathing” the sun’s energy in and out.
Marty Mlynczak: From a satellite’s perspective, if you’re up there in orbit and you’re going along, the breathing looks like the energy from the sun has come in, the high speed stream has come in, it’s heated up the atmosphere, it’s expanded it.
The high speed stream coming in is what’s called solar wind. It’s made up of electrons and protons escaping through the sun’s upper atmosphere and flying towards Earth.
Marty Mlynczak: Just like your house when it gets hot, the air conditioner kicks on and brings the temperature down. When these high speed streams come in, they heat up the atmosphere.
And this is what activates the breathing. Earth’s upper atmosphere expands from the heat, and contracts when it’s been released. The fluctuation corresponds with the sun’s own solar wind cycles.
Marty Mlynczak: Every nine days, you all of a sudden have more stuff you’re running into. The atmosphere has gotten denser, and if you’re a satellite at a fixed altitude, all of a sudden you’re running into more matter. When you’ve got people in orbit, even a little tiny piece of space junk could be catastrophic if you hit the space station, put a hole in it.
Mlynczak says that’s one important reason for scientists to understand this atmospheric breathing.
Our thanks to:
Marty Mlynczak
NASA Langley Research Center
Hampton, VA
Photo: Johannes G.
I think that is soooo neat. I told my grandchildren how the earth breaths and their eyes opened as big as door knobs. They did not believe me at first.I told them to ask their teachers to see their reaction, then hand them the proof on paper. Thank you for sharing your research with others.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/na.html
2006 – 2008 Trend = -44.25 degF / Decade COOLING
2005 – 2008 Trend = -16.35 degF / Decade COOLING
2004 – 2008 Trend = -1.50 degF / Decade COOLING
2003 – 2008 Trend = -0.69 degF / Decade COOLING
2002 – 2008 Trend = -2.47 degF / Decade COOLING
2001 – 2008 Trend = -0.17 degF / Decade COOLING
2000 – 2008 Trend = -0.74 degF / Decade COOLING
1999 – 2008 Trend = -1.08 degF / Decade COOLING
1998 – 2008 Trend = -1.77 degF / Decade COOLING
1997 – 2008 Trend = -0.15 degF / Decade COOLING
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I think the term “breathing” is dangerous from a context point of view. It anthropromorphizes what is essentially an inaminate object. The earth, as far as we can tell is a rock with water on it spinning in a universe we are still trying to define. I would not say it “breathes”. I would say the gasses that comprise our atmosphere expand and contract as they absorb and release energy. I would also say we are not totally sure of the types and amounts of radiant energy the earth is subjected to.
The Earth’s atmosphere contracts and expands according to the Sun. What do you think brought down the space station “Skylab”. The Sun expanded the upper atmosphere so “Skylab” encountered the upper atmosphere and its orbit decayed much sooner than expected. Whithout this, it was hoped that “Skylab” would stay up until it could be rescuted by The Space Shuttle.
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This tends to support why I think global warming and CO2 increases, even if true, would not a big deal (especially when compared to the more pressing needs of clean water, etc). The ideal gas formula PV=nRT suggests to me that the atmosphere should expand when heated, thus leading to more cooling and equilibrium. I wonder why I don’t read much about that.