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tkdguy

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I am not sure there is even a court whose jurisdiction would be recognized as valid for such cases, though I believe that if you approach it like admiralty law -- high seas type cases -- you are closest to the right idea.

 

I have looked for a usable textbook on space law and not been successful.

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On 4/10/2018 at 7:13 AM, Lord Liaden said:

 

On 4/10/2018 at 6:31 PM, Zeropoint said:

My understanding is that they're in the process of flipping right now. Check out how the North Pole (magnetic) has been moving over the last few centuries.

 

Moving, and the field is weakening measurably, with a "disappearance timescale" on the order of 104 - 105 years.  

 

Given that the time history of these reversals is known from the frozen-in magnetic field in ocean floor spreading basalts, that timescale seems about right.  The physics behind the field reversal is under exploration, of course; the one I know about is here, including an animation of a reversal event showing up in their model of the planetary core.  In their model, the reversal took "only" about 1200 years.  So I am not worried personally about the effects.  And since there doesn't seem to be a correlation between extinction events and these field reversals, biology doesn't seem to care much about them either.  That leaves only technology, and we aren't making anything with a design lifetime that long anyway.

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Yep.

 

"ZOMG! The Earth's magnetic poles could flip ANY TIME!"

 

"Dude, chill. They're flipping right now. They've BEEN flipping your entire life. They've been flipping since before the industrial revolution started. It's not a problem unless you're trying to navigate with a compass and old maps."

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I don't know enough about the time frame of the process to comment on its pace or imminence. The only info I had to work with was what that video provides. What it does highlight is that the process is accelerating, won't be smooth or uniform, and will drastically weaken Earth's magnetic field for an extended period, which will cause far more problems than just for people using compasses.

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3 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

I don't know enough about the time frame of the process to comment on its pace or imminence. The only info I had to work with was what that video provides. What it does highlight is that the process is accelerating, won't be smooth or uniform, and will drastically weaken Earth's magnetic field for an extended period, which will cause far more problems than just for people using compasses.

So could this be the cause of climate change?

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On 4/13/2018 at 11:08 PM, Beast said:

So could this be the cause of climate change?

No.  There is no good way for it to be a major or significant contributor.

 

Magnetic fields interact strongly with charged particles, but only very weakly with neutral particles like photons (aka sunlight).  Someone else can check me on this, but by weakly, I mean not technically zero interaction, but essential zero for everyone who's not conducting quantum physics experiments.  And while more charged particles will reach Earth's atmosphere and surface, they really don't add all that much energy versus sunlight.  Don't forget that all those charged particles are counted in when measuring the vacuum of interplanetary space, which is still better than all but the best vacuums you can make in a lab.

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23 hours ago, novi said:

No.  There is no good way for it to be a major or significant contributor.

 

Magnetic fields interact strongly with charged particles, but only very weakly with neutral particles like photons (aka sunlight).  Someone else can check me on this, but by weakly, I mean not technically zero interaction, but essential zero for everyone who's not conducting quantum physics experiments.  And while more charged particles will reach Earth's atmosphere and surface, they really don't add all that much energy versus sunlight.  Don't forget that all those charged particles are counted in when measuring the vacuum of interplanetary space, which is still better than all but the best vacuums you can make in a lab.

what about ice melting at the ice caps?
the magnetic field does  redirect a good portion of  that radiation to the poles
and maybe  the outflow/inflow of the magnetic field is heating the ice cap?

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49 minutes ago, Beast said:

what about ice melting at the ice caps?
the magnetic field does  redirect a good portion of  that radiation to the poles
and maybe  the outflow/inflow of the magnetic field is heating the ice cap?

I'm still going with no.  I'm going to guess that at least one of the thousands of climate scientist would have thought of that and tested it, and I haven't heard it suggested anywhere else.

 

Also, I believe the best counterexample is that previous magnetic reversals do not track climate fluctuations in the fossil record, AFAIK.

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2 hours ago, novi said:

I'm still going with no.  I'm going to guess that at least one of the thousands of climate scientist would have thought of that and tested it, and I haven't heard it suggested anywhere else.

 

Also, I believe the best counterexample is that previous magnetic reversals do not track climate fluctuations in the fossil record, AFAIK.

Considering what fossils record, that’s not a strong answer. Really, can petrified bones hold magnetic properties?

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