Is Something That Is Coming Down In Our Air Causing Some Of Our Issues?

@ UnityEmissions -
Our effects on the ocean pH - Do you have something that relates to this that I could use as a starting point to research further and see if it relates to what I'm looking into?

@ PacificBlue -
Yes, volcanoes are an excellent suggestion and I've added it to my list of things to look into for this thread.

@ Deja 'vu -
Solar activity has crossed my mind...but how to see if/how it's connected? Geo-engineering? I'm not sure what you mean about that?

@ Collietta -
Hello fellow Seattle-ite Having whole trees that are healthy and green is some of what is stumping me. I'll see a whole line of reddish trees/bushes, and then several that are green and look just fine, and then several more that are reddish.

I was thinking of pollution, and even recalled from years ago a news report about pollution from China reaching us for a few days due to some weather system...and it had a pinkish look. But, I *still* think that was weird and not sure how I felt about the likely-hood of that. But even for pollution this has been weird because it was visible at ground level and not just hovering like a low cloud.

I wonder if it could have anything to do with Rayleigh scattering (optical)....

Source

Rayleigh scattering (named after the British physicist Lord Rayleigh) is the elastic scattering of light or other electromagnetic radiation by particles much smaller than the wavelength of the light, which may be individual atoms or molecules. It can occur when light travels through transparent solids and liquids, but is most prominently seen in gases. Rayleigh scattering is a function of the electric polarizability of the particles.

Rayleigh scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere causes diffuse sky radiation, which is the reason for the blue color of the sky and the yellow tone of the sun itself.

[..snip]

The strong wavelength dependence of the scattering (~λ−4) means that shorter (blue) wavelengths are scattered more strongly than longer (red) wavelengths. This results in the observation of indirect blue light coming from all regions of the sky. Rayleigh scattering is a good approximation to the manner in which light scattering occurs within various media for which scattering particles have a small size parameter.

What this means is that the concentration of and size of particles in the sky can effect the scattering of certain wavelengths creating different colors.

As for the leaves turning brown, radiation causes damage to the DNA of chlorophyll, and this effects photosynthesis. If there are more radioactive particles from Fukushima, this could account for both phenomena. Also, the fact it's mostly on the Westcoast could be indicative.

Not eliminating contributing chemical, biological loads. In fact the effects could be symbiotic.

Maybe, just maybe this has something to do with a thread and news I reported some years ago.

ESA sees stardust storms heading for Solar System

PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Monday, August 18, 2003
Source: Artemis Society

Until ten years ago, most astronomers did not believe stardust could enter our Solar System. Then ESA's Ulysses spaceprobe discovered minute stardust particles leaking through the Sun's magnetic shield, into the realm of Earth and the other planets. Now, the same spaceprobe has shown that a flood of dusty particles is heading our way.
...........
What is surprising in this new Ulysses discovery is that the amount of stardust has continued to increase even after the solar activity calmed down and the magnetic field resumed its ordered shape in 2001.

Scientists believe that this is due to the way in which the polarity changed during solar maximum. Instead of reversing completely, flipping north to south, the Sun's magnetic poles have only rotated at halfway and are now more or less lying sideways along the Sun's equator. This weaker configuration of the magnetic shield is letting in two to three times more stardust than at the end of the 1990s. Moreover, this influx could increase by as much as ten times until the end of the current solar cycle in 2012.

www.spaceref.com...

And could also be related to this.

Title:
Is the solar system entering a nearby interstellar cloud
Authors:
Vidal-Madjar, A.; Laurent, C.; Bruston, P.; Audouze, J.
Affiliation:
AA(CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique Stellaire et Planetaire, Verrieres-le-Buisson, Essonne, France), AB(CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique Stellaire et Planetaire, Verrieres-le-Buisson, Essonne, France), AC(CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique Stellaire et Planetaire, Verrieres-le-Buisson, Essonne, France), AD(Meudon Observatoire, Hauts-de-Seine; Paris XI, Universite, Orsay, Essonne, France)
Publication:
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1, vol. 223, July 15, 1978, p. 589-600. (ApJ Homepage)
Publication Date:
07/1978
Category:
Astrophysics
Origin:
STI
NASA/STI Keywords:
ASTRONOMICAL MODELS, DEUTERIUM, HYDROGEN ATOMS, INTERSTELLAR GAS, SOLAR SYSTEM, ABUNDANCE, EARLY STARS, GAS DENSITY, INTERSTELLAR EXTINCTION
DOI:
10.1086/156294
Bibliographic Code:
1978ApJ...223..589V

Abstract
....................
Observational arguments in favor of such a cloud are presented, and implications of the presence of a nearby cloud are discussed, including possible changes in terrestrial climate. It is suggested that the postulated interstellar cloud should encounter the solar system at some unspecified time in the 'near' future and might have a drastic influence on terrestrial climate in the next 10,000 years.

adsabs.harvard.edu...

I reported these back in 2006 in the following thread.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I reported recently that their predictions on how soon our Solar System will encounter this interstellar cloud had been wrong.

Scientists think that we will encounter this interstellar cloud within 100 years. But, as I explained in the other thread where I reported the update, we could very well be already feeling the effects from this interstellar cloud, and parts of this interstellar cloud could have already found it's way into the Solar System. The interstellar dust which has exponentially been increasing and has found it's way into the Solar System must have a source, and this interstellar cloud is the closest source right now to our Solar System.

But this is not the only way this interstellar cloud, and whatever else might be in it, have been affecting Earth, every planet, and Moon with an atmosphere in the Solar System, and possibly even the Sun. As I pointed out with the other links, there have been other things happening in our Solar System, and on Earth which cannot just be a coincidence.

Also, as the NASA and ESA report states, our Solar System has been receiving more interstellar dust, and would continue to do so exponentially until at least 2012, even after the Sun's magnetic field had re-aligned and strengthened, which should mean the Solar System has been entering regions of this interstellar cloud for some years now.

IMO, this encounter which has been occurring already for some time and it's effects will exponentially increase could also be the reason for other anomalies occurring in our Solar System, such as.

Surprise In Earth's Upper Atmosphere: Mode Of Energy Transfer From The Solar Wind

www.sciencedaily.com
"Its like something else is heating the atmosphere besides the sun. This discovery is like finding it got hotter when the sun went down," said Larry Lyons, UCLA professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and a co-author of the research, which is in press in two companion papers in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

www.sciencedaily.com...

Further down on the article you can read the following

"We all have thought for our entire careers — I learned it as a graduate student — that this energy transfer rate is primarily controlled by the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field," Lyons said. "The closer to southward-pointing the magnetic field is, the stronger the energy transfer rate is, and the stronger the magnetic field is in that direction. If it is both southward and big, the energy transfer rate is even bigger."

However, Lyons, Kim and their colleagues analyzed radar data that measure the strength of the interaction by measuring flows in the ionosphere, the part of Earth's upper atmosphere ionized by solar radiation. The results surprised them.

"Any space physicist, including me, would have said a year ago there could not be substorms when the interplanetary magnetic field was staying northward, but that's wrong," Lyons said. "Generally, it's correct, but when you have a fluctuating interplanetary magnetic field, you can have substorms going off once per hour.

"Heejeong used detailed statistical analysis to prove this phenomenon is real. Convection in the magnetosphere and ionosphere can be strongly driven by these fluctuations, independent of the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field."

www.sciencedaily.com...


It was at first believed that the time when the Earth would experience dramatic climate change due to this interstellar cloud would be 10,000 years, but more recent research states that within this century the Earth would experience such changes, but obviously we have already been experiencing the changes.

We have been SLOWLY feeling the effects. Supposedly within 100 years we will be inside this new interstellar cloud, but we are feeling right now it's effects.

Ribbon at Edge of Our Solar System: Will the Sun Enter a Million-Degree Cloud of Interstellar Gas?
ScienceDaily (May 24, 2010) — Is the Sun going to enter a million-degree galactic cloud of interstellar gas soon?

Scientists from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute, and Boston University suggest that the ribbon of enhanced emissions of energetic neutral atoms, discovered last year by the NASA Small Explorer satellite IBEX, could be explained by a geometric effect coming up because of the approach of the Sun to the boundary between the Local Cloud of interstellar gas and another cloud of a very hot gas called the Local Bubble. If this hypothesis is correct, IBEX is catching matter from a hot neighboring interstellar cloud, which the Sun might enter in a hundred years.
...

www.sciencedaily.com...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/63ffeeb144dd.jpg[/atsimg]

The Sun traveling through the Galaxy happens to cross at the present time a blob of gas about ten light-years across, with a temperature of 6-7 thousand degrees kelvin. This so-called Local Interstellar Cloud is immersed in a much larger expanse of a million-degree hot gas, named the Local Bubble. The energetic neutral atoms (ENA) are generated by charge exchange at the interface between the two gaseous media. ENA can be observed provided the Sun is close enough to the interface. The apparent Ribbon of ENA discovered by the IBEX satellite can be explained by a geometric effect: one observes many more ENA by looking along a line-of-sight almost tangent to the interface than by looking in the perpendicular direction. (Credit: SRC/Tentaris,ACh/Maciej Frolow)

www.sciencedaily.com...

Read this from 1996 when they thought it was farther away.

Our solar system may be headed for an encounter with a dense cloud of interstellar matter
Our solar system may be headed for an encounter with a dense cloud of interstellar matter–gas and dust–that could have substantial implications for our solar systems interplanetary environment, according to University of Chicago astrophysicist Priscilla Frisch. The good news is that it probably won’t happen for 50,000 years. Frisch presented the results of her research Monday, June 10, at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Madison, Wisc.

Frisch has been investigating the interstellar gas in the local neighborhood of our solar system, which is called the Local Interstellar Medium (LISM). This interstellar gas is within 100 light years of the Sun. The Sun has a trajectory through space, and for most of the last five million years, said Frisch, it has been moving through a region of space between the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy that is almost devoid of matter. Only recently, within the last few thousand years, she estimates, the Sun has been traveling through a relatively low-density interstellar cloud.

“This cloud, although low density on average, has a tremendous amount of structure to it,” Frisch said. “And it is not inconsistent with our data that the Sun may eventually encounter a portion of the cloud that is a million times denser than what we’re in now.”

Frisch believes the interstellar cloud through which we’re traveling is a relatively narrow band of dust and gas that lies in a superbubble shell expanding outward from an active star-formation region called the Scorpius-Centaurus Association. “When this superbubble expanded around these stars, it expanded much farther into the region of our galaxy between the spiral arms, where our sun lies, because the density is very low,” Frisch said. “It didn’t expand very far in the direction parallel to the spiral arms because it ran into very dense molecular clouds.”
...

www-news.uchicago.edu...

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


WHOA! AWESOME! Now this is what I'm talking about. I'm totally going to be digging into this information. There's like a smorgasborg of information in there that could help me understand or better connect my thread topic. Thank you mucho!

If you just noticed this recently, could it possibly be related to the burning of radioactive trash in Japan?

A number of independent experts have discussed their concerns regarding the burning of radioactive waste in Japan since this activity will simply result in the radioactive contamination moving to other locations in Japan and significantly to North America and elsewhere. The burning has taken a very ominous turn for the residents of Japan as the Japanese Ministry of Environment has decided the radioactive ashes can be buried. Until now they have been sitting around waiting for a policy on their disposal.

From NHK News (8/28/2011): [Japanese characters removed] "Regarding the ashes after burning the disaster debris and regular household garbage contaminated with radioactive materials, the Ministry of the Environment has decided on a policy that will allow the burial of ashes that exceed 8,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, as long as there are countermeasures in place to prevent the leakage into the ground water.

Radioactive cesium exceeding 8,000 becquerels/kg has been detected from the ashes from burning the regular household garbage in Kanto and Tohoku regions. The Ministry of the Environment has decided to apply the same rule as the disaster debris and allow the ashes to be buried.

Link

I am not sure if radioactive cesium fumes would change the color of the sky, but this just does not sound good.

The air is different this year, the water tastes odd, and the sky looks browner, hard to describe, but it is grayer than usual, and it does not have as much color. Above posts are interesting.
Will try to find an article I read about iron, sulphur, and the dead zones in the ocean off of the coast, it was interesting.

And I agree-Something is different.

Another piece of the puzzle perhaps, I will have to study this more, but here's a glimpse...

The disabling of the cooling systems forced them to pour vast quantities of seawater onto the problem reactors. Salt is sodium chloride, and when the dissolved chlorine was bombarded with neutrons from the exposed fuel rods, it was transformed it into an unstable form of sulfur - sulfur-35. As the seawater boiled to steam, it was vented off to prevent explosions. That steam took with it the newly created sulfur-35.
Source

note that some of the, Cl-38-->S-35 would have been charged, in a gas, meeting some of the elemental requirements for a larger Rayleigh scattering effect, but I'm sure there are many more particles, U, Pu-38, Sr-90, I-131, Ne, and many other particles that were aerosolized into a gaseous form.

[..snip]

Just how bad were things at Fukushima? So far, painting a clear picture is difficult, as all we know for sure is how much radioactivity has been spotted at specific sites of contamination. Now, researchers have put together a largely independent estimate of the neutron flux that occurred during the meltdown, pieced together from an unlikely source: a long-term monitoring experiment being run in San Diego. Nearly two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami, some equipment on the Scripps Pier picked up a surge in radioactive sulfur that has enabled a rough estimate of the radioactivity released at Fukushima.

Normally, a radioactive form of sulfur (S-35) is produced in the atmosphere when cosmic rays react with argon in the upper atmosphere. In San Diego, this produces fairly steady levels of S-35O2 and S-35O4-2, except during seasonal periods when winds shift more material down from the stratosphere, where cosmic ray exposures are highest. But, on March 23rd of this year, levels of radioactive sulfur suddenly spiked, reaching over seven times normal background by the end of the month. With no indications of an atmospheric disturbance, the researchers focused across the Pacific, on Fukushima.

S-35 can also be formed by neutron bombardment of Cl-35; that isotope is normally present in sea water, which was dumped on the ailing reactors in copious quantities. As the seawater reached the reactor core, it would receive a healthy dose of neutrons. A decent fraction of the S-35 that formed would then boil off with the water, reacting with oxygen and forming sulfates. The uncharged form would fall out of the atmosphere over the next few days as a solid, but the S-35O4-2 could potentially stay airborne for an entire trip across the Pacific. By modeling the flow of winds prevalent at the time of the reactor meltdown, the authors were able to demonstrate that some portion of the air that was reaching San Diego probably had originated above the reactor site.

Source

Anyhow, just thoughts ATM.

Wow - this information regarding Japan is certainly disturbing to hear.

I've been trying to think how far back I've noticed these things, but nothing obvious or clear cut is coming to mind. It seems like it's been a gradual thing happening over a period of years - but suddenly in the last month it's become so obvious that I can no longer play it off as my imagination.

But I wonder if Japan is simply exacerbating whatever was going on before. I'm also still thinking on the idea of volcanoes too. Have enough been going off at the same time to put a sort of haze over us globally?

I get frustrated when trying to understand whether there truly has been an uptick in volcano or earthquake activity because the conversations seem to inevitably turn into discussions about technicalities of what is meant by "normal" in the big scheme of things instead of productive discussions to further our understanding of what is going on in the *now*. I just get more confused on what to think, so I haven't made much progress in those arenas and how it might be related to my current topic.

So, of course, I'd welcome any input from someone who does understand those things and if it may have a part in this discussion (pretty please).

You guys are coming up with some fantastic information, and I definitely appreciate your contributions!

I've noticed the trees and plants too.....probably around june is the first time I seen this. They all seem to have at least one red leaf ? So odd. The trees in my yard and my mothers yard 3 miles away have them. They were not like this before. I'm in Ma., USA.

reply to post by Wertwog


I am curious about your mention of Rayleigh scattering, and if either the stuff happening in Japan would indeed make an orange/pink tinge color. Or if the volcanoes and or forest fires would also do this on a more global scale. My thinking going towards enough of some *thing* increasing to the point that it does become visible.

But then also I'm thinking of the cosmic dust...which could also become more visible with the rayleigh scattering?

Here's a big ole' "what if"...cosmic dust coming in...settling in and affecting our plants, health (mental/physical), water, etc. as well as stirring up trouble with weather or volcanoes and in turn we're seeing the culmination of all of it with the Rayleigh scattering (volcano/fires/cosmic dust, etc.)?

Ok...I think a break time is needed for my mind, lol

Okay... let me offer you another take: how familiar are you with the plants in your area and the environment? I don't mean from a "I walk outside and I know what kind of weather to sort of expect" standpoint.

What I mean is are you as familiar with this as a state Master Naturalist (citizen science program... no degree required)?

I've been talking to Texas Master Naturalists for several years, and they've enlightened me on things that I thought were strange or out of place (like the sesbane plant I recently found and couldn't account for.) I'd talk to some of those folks and see what they know -- it could be pollution (which also affects leaves), problems with too much rainfall, pollen, or a lot of other things. Start by asking local environment experts (and checking the newspaper) ... 'cause what I know about this stuff here in Texas sure doesn't apply to Washington state (the birds, trees, plants, pollen season, are ALL different)!

I remember someone who was fairly new to Texas getting hysterical on another board about the reddish-yellow stuff in the air a few months back. It was just cedar pollen -- it gets heavy every few years and they always do some sort of news feature on it. We Texans have seen this before. But this person who was new to the area was CERTAIN that chemicals were being sprayed in their yard to poison them.

Check local. See what they're saying.

Originally posted by onthelookout
reply to post by Wertwog

 

Here's a big ole' "what if"...cosmic dust coming in...settling in and affecting our plants, health (mental/physical), water, etc. as well as stirring up trouble with weather or volcanoes and in turn we're seeing the culmination of all of it with the Rayleigh scattering (volcano/fires/cosmic dust, etc.)?

I have been wondering exactly the same thing, and I also found this interesting.

Electric Ash Found in Iceland Plume Miles From Volcano

But according to a new study, electric ash from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano was found a record 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) away from the eruption.

At that distance, it wasn't energy from the eruption itself that charged the ash, said study co-author Giles Harrison, a meteorologist at the University of Reading in the U.K. Based on the average size and shape of particles in the ash, "any initial charging that occurred would have decayed away many times over." In fact, ash from deep in the volcanic plume was still charged 32 hours after being spewed from the Iceland peak, which suggests that the charge was self-renewing, the scientists say.

The discovery means that many volcanic ash plumes might be electrified, which could have implications for the air-travel industry.

news.nationalgeographic.com...

I was always taught that the ash from a volcano loses its charge rather quickly. Why did this change or did our understanding of volcanic ash change?

I also have the same question regarding volcanoes, and I know what you mean about it getting too technical, or not being able to really get an answer that I can understand. Hopefully, someone else may have an answer.

reply to post by Byrd


Thank you so much Byrd, for your reply. I am not the OP, but I can check with naturalists in my area, to see if anything this year has changed. I noticed that we had a lot more stuff (sorry, not a botanist) floating around in the air this year. Now I can find out what it is, as I am sure it is not called little fluffy white things that are everywhere this year and were around months longer than usual, and if anything else was different.

reply to post by Byrd


Hi Byrd,

I'm the 4th generation to live in this area, my great-grandmother came here in the early 1900s. And also being a family of hikers/campers we all grew up getting pretty cozy with nature. So I am very familiar with the local plant/animal life and overall environment. But, having said that - it isn't a bad idea to get some feedback from professionals who may have more information to help with the discussion - so thanks for that suggestion.

Also, I'll try to get some better pictures this weekend that show larger areas of what I'm talking about vs. just close up pictures. I tried to before, but with the limitations of my old camera, you can't really see from any kind of distance what it is I'm really seeing in person. If so, it would be more clear what I'm trying to describe and less of a question as to whether it's normal for the area or not.

Gosh darn my camera limitations (shaking fist at sky)

reply to post by PacificBlue


Could you post the link regarding the ash plume holding an electric charge longer than originally thought - that is mighty interesting stuff there. Get some of that electricity sparking off in the soup of oddness going on out there and who knows what potential that holds.

(And still laughing at little fluffy white things )

reply to post by onthelookout


My bad-I forgot to include the link, too late to edit, but article can be found at:

Electric Ash Found in Iceland Plume Miles from Volcano

Funny I just found your thread here, today and only today I thought the sun was very yellow .......almost crayon yellow if you know what I mean here.
It was not the right/normal/ every day colour here......
Regards,Iwinder

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


Reading an article from the thread you referenced, I found this:

Ulysses sees Galactic Dust on the rise

While grains of stardust are very small, about one hundredth the diameter of a human hair, they do not directly influence the planets of the Solar System. However, the dust particles move very fast, and produce large numbers of fragments when they impact asteroids or comets. It is therefore conceivable that an increase in the amount of interstellar dust in the Solar System will create more cosmic dust by collisions with asteroids and comets. We know from the measurements by high-flying aircraft that 40 000 tonnes dust from asteroids and comets enters the Earth's atmosphere each year. It is possible that the increase of stardust in the Solar System will influence the amount of extraterrestrial material that rains down to Earth.

So while stardust itself would be too small to do of anything to interest to the planet, it does aid in increasing the amount of other extraterrestrial material that we see raining down on our planet. I think this particular article was saying it would be increasing from 2005 onward. So that is something to look into. What would asteroid & comet dust mostly consist of? I'd like to see if/what any studies regarding the effects (is that right? or affects...I never get it straight) the material have on us & our planet.

Originally posted by onthelookout
But, having said that - it isn't a bad idea to get some feedback from professionals who may have more information to help with the discussion - so thanks for that suggestion.

Check with your local agriculture agent and also check to see if there's a pollen or pollution watch in your area. Those were the two things that came to mind. If you were near the west (Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, New Mexico, I'd say "dust storm, for sure.) I've seen that kind of haze during droughts like we're having.

Originally posted by onthelookout
So while stardust itself would be too small to do of anything to interest to the planet, it does aid in increasing the amount of other extraterrestrial material that we see raining down on our planet. I think this particular article was saying it would be increasing from 2005 onward. So that is something to look into. What would asteroid & comet dust mostly consist of? I'd like to see if/what any studies regarding the effects (is that right? or affects...I never get it straight) the material have on us & our planet.

If you want to (directly) see the micrometeorites, go out to any flat surface outdoors (the top of your car, for instance) and run a magnet over it. The things it picks up (dustlike stuff) are micrometeorites "raining down" on the planet. (here's a page with more specific instructions)

No, it isn't any huge quantity.