Posted on 04/04/2008 11:17:22 AM PDT by qam1
A case study: Analysis of the Portuguese forest fires.
Chemical Engineering Department, IST — Instituto Superior Técnico, Torre Sul, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal; Chemical Engineering Department, ISEL — Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, R. Conselheiro Emídio Navarro, 1, 1949-014 Lisboa, Portugal.
Fires of large dimension destroy forests, harvests and housing objects. Apart from that combustion products and burned surfaces become large ecological problems. Very often fires emerge simultaneously on different locations of a region so a question could be asked if they always have been a consequence of negligence, pyromania, high temperatures or maybe there has been some other cause.
This paper is an attempt of establishing the possible connection between forest fires that numerous satellites registered and activities happening on the Sun immediately before fires ignite. Fires emerged on relatively large areas from Portugal and Spain on August 2005, as well as on other regions of Europe.
The cases that have been analyzed show that, in every concrete situation, an emission of strong electromagnetic and thermal corpuscular energy from highly energetic regions that were in geo-effective position had preceded the fires. Such emissions have, usually, very high energy and high speeds of particles and come from coronary holes that also have been either in the very structure or in the immediate closeness of the geo-effective position.
It should also be noted that the solar wind directed towards the Earth becomes weaker with deeper penetration towards the topographic surface. However, the results presented in this paper suggest that, there is a strong causality relationship between solar activity and the ignition of these forest fires taking place in South-western Europe.
PMID: 18291443 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Large forest fire outbreaks occur when the forest gets too dry.
This is due to solar radiation.
If you take an oily rag, and let it get a little sunlight, it ignites by itself.
A tiny micrometeorite (which we are pelted with constantly) can ignite a forest.
When one considers that we are inside the burning corona of the sun, and that clouds are our major protection, it is a miracle we don’t have more fires.
What political reasons? The study doesn't mention global warming at all. If anything, if this study has any merit it would be a plus to the skeptical side of the global warming issue.
Interestingly, here's a study confirming this
Recordings of potential gradient and air-earth current in fair-weather conditions were made at high-elevation mountain stations; the latter were generally above the vertical-mixing layer and not disturbed by local sources. Both electrical quantities increased significantly from the day of appearance of a solar flare (or a maximum incidence of flares) till the fourth day after the event. Peak potential gradient and air-earth current exceed the normal levels measured during quiet-sun conditions by 50–60% in terms of averages.............................We may conclude from these results that the total potential between the ground and the upper atmosphere increases for several days after solar flares.
So this link between solar activity & forest fires might not be so crazy after all
The idea of “global warming” isn’t a BAD idea. The idea that it is caused by people is what is a BAD idea. Global warming, as well as global cooling takes place on a cyclical basis, as seasons change, and as the Earth itself tilts....What they fail to take into account is the very fact that the SUN is what drives our environment,
I know Global warming is a scam, my point (Note: there is no GW mentioned in this study) before this thread kind of went off the deep end was that if this study turns out to have something to it and the sun (no matter how indirectly) can effect forest fires then it is ludicrous to believe the sun can't have any effect on the climate as a whole like the alarmist tell us.
ABSOLUTLY!
If it was not for solar activity, the Earth would be nothing but a ball of ice.
With an increase of solar irradiation, some areas of the planet will obtain more rain, and other areas will become drier as a result.
If it rains in one area, then there is not much left for another area downwind. That is why mountains get lots of rain, and deserts on the downwind side receive very little moisture.
Actually, the thread didn’t really go off the deepend. There is another thread, along the same lines going on now. It was suggested in that article that “cosmic rays” don’t change with the solar cycle, and “thus” we can’t say that the sun effects the environment.
This is blatantly incorrect, bad logic and so on. Someone merely mentioned that thread at the beginning.
It all comes down to real science though - and global warming is something that DOES happen, but not based on man-made problems, rather based on the Sun itself. Because of this, these things are definitely connected.
Of course it’s not a cause. It may be a contributing factor. The headline writer needs to review the definition of “cause”.
NONSENSE! The sun has absolutely nothing to do with the warming of the planet!
In the Summer when the temperatures and solar influence is stronger, then we get more forest fires. It is hot and dry.
Of course the Sun can "cause" forest fires.
Apparently it did go off the deep end, all this study is about is the authors noted a correlation between solar activity & forest fires. Nothing more, nothing less. They don't link it to or even mention global warming in any way, pro or con.
It was I not the authors who linked it to the global warming issue by noting in the 1st post that if this study is true, then what the alarmist have been telling us about the sun having no effect on climate can not be true. Somehow that lead to tin-foil hats and some leftist political motivation that's just not there. Again, if anything, this study is a plus to the skeptical (the correct)side.
I haven’t been disagreeing with you. lol
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