SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

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StefanR
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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by StefanR » Sat Jun 28, 2008 3:07 pm

O by the way, for those who think nice pictures but what happens there... :
Magneto-Optical Imaging of Superconductors
http://www.fys.uio.no/super/mo/
Just scroll down this page slowly but surely and in a funny way it will be understandable. It's all about magneto-optical imaging, and crucial to get a first grip on the matter.
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by StefanR » Sat Jun 28, 2008 3:11 pm

Imaging the vortex-lattice melting process in the presence of disorder
Image
Figure 1a presents differential MO images from the vortex-lattice melting 'movie' in one of the smaller BSCCO crystals, which is initially in the vortex solid phase. At 159.5 Oe a small liquid puddle is nucleated, seen as a bright spot in the upper-right corner. In contrast to expectations, the puddle is not in the centre of the sample, nor is it round; instead, a rather rough shape of the liquid domain is observed. As Ha is further increased a ring-like bright object is obtained, which is the solid–liquid interface separating the liquid from the surrounding vortex solid. Both the shape and the width of the ring are highly non-uniform. At 165 Oe a 'tongue' of the liquid protrudes sharply to the left side. Figure 1b shows the corresponding outer contours of the liquid phase at 0.5 Oe intervals of Ha . The interface is often pinned, resulting in overlapping contours, and then bursts out to more remote locations by a sequence of irregular local protrusions with a high degree of corrugation.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 282a0.html
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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by StefanR » Sat Jun 28, 2008 3:14 pm

Magneto optical imaging for superconductors and magnetic materials

Image
Image and flux map of an YBCO bulk holed superconductor (Ofc, 55mT, 80K)

Magneto optics (MO) for superconductors and magnetic materials characterisation enables to measure rapidly and relatively easily the local magnetic flux in the sample. It also allows the analysis of dynamic properties.
We have developed a MO device in CRETA in order to test different types of superconductors and magnetic materials. The principal originality of our device is the capability of making measurement in both current transport and applied magnetic field.
MO imaging is based on the Faraday Effect where the plane of polarized light rotates while passing through an optically active garnet. This rotation is proportional to the applied magnetic field. The active layer is a key point of the device which consists of a Fe-Bi ion layer grown on a GGG substrate (fig1). The polarization rotation gives direct access to the local magnetic field by polarization contrast.
http://creta.grenoble.cnrs.fr/page_magneto_optiqueE.htm
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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by StefanR » Sat Jun 28, 2008 3:17 pm

Strain Has Major Effect on High-Temp Superconductors
Image
Magneto-optical image of magnetic fields within a YBCO superconductor showing electrically connected grains (yellow) and grain boundaries (green) that form barriers to superconducting currents. The large reversible effect of strain observed by NIST might be due to associated changes in grain boundaries, which raise the barriers to current flow and lower the material's current-carrying capability. Credit: D.C. van der Laan/NIST

Just a little mechanical strain can cause a large drop in the maximum current carried by high-temperature superconductors, according to novel measurements carried out by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The effect, which is reversible, adds a new dimension to designing superconducting systems—particularly for electric power applications—and it also provides a new tool that will help scientists probe the fundamental mechanism behind why these materials carry current with no resistance.

The discovery is the first major reversible strain effect found in practical high-temperature superconductors, which generally have been tested under smaller tensile strains only, or at strains so high they caused the material to break down permanently. The newly discovered effect is totally reversible and symmetric for both compressive and tensile (pushing and pulling) strains, suggesting it is intrinsic to the fundamental mechanism of superconductivity in YBCO.

The NIST team is now pursuing the possibility of using the effect as a new tool for probing the elusive mechanism underlying high-temperature superconductivity. The next step is to investigate how magnetic fields affect the strain effect, and several collaborations are under way with universities and other research organizations to study the interplay of the effect with other factors affecting high-temperature superconductivity.
http://www.physorg.com/news90776817.html
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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by StefanR » Sat Jun 28, 2008 3:19 pm

Grain Boundaries

Our underlying goal is to understand "real" grain boundaries (GBs) of high Tc superconductors in all their multi-scale complexity. This requires a forefront, mix of sample design and fabrication, film growth, superconducting property characterization, nanoscale microstructure and electronic structure determination, methods to modify GB properties and theory that takes full account of the complex materials science of these materials. Different techniques are being used to address key aspects of current transport through GBs:

* Advanced electron microscopy
* Controlled increase of critical currents of GBs by overdoping
* EFM imaging of plastic vortex motion near GBs
* MO imaging of percolative current flow in HTS polycrystals
* Probing vortex dynamics and pinning on grain boundaries by measuring transport V-J characteristics and critical currents of HTS bicrystals
* Theory


Image
Penetration of magnetic flux into grain boundary network in YBCO polycrystals, observed by magneto-optical imaging.
http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/magnettechnol ... grain.html
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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by junglelord » Sat Jun 28, 2008 10:18 pm

A very telling theory of about what superconductors are all about, by Dirac, from his Sea of Negitive Energy.
this “free field theory” exactly describes our strictly identical, negative-energy
boson sea, in which electron and positron approach as if for a
collision, but in fact they don’t collide, as they are both waves
at the time. (We will later show that this lack of interactions
between fields is a non-problem, because there is only one
field, this simplest Dirac field.)

The form that this negative-energy boson sea must take
can be seen as we approach the absolute zero state of the zero
point. In laboratory ultra-cold studies, we remove “positive”
energy and achieve lower temperatures to come closer and
closer to “zero absolute,” which is a state of no positive energy.
That there is still immense energy (hn/2) at this zero
point of no positive energy should immediately have informed
us that positive energy is not the only kind of energy. So
what is the alternative to positive energy?

As we approach the zero-point, some curious things happen.
First, centered at about 2.73°K, we find an immense
number of photons. Then, at 0°K, the equations of QM tell
us that there is unlimited energy. Let’s say you are approaching
a wall. As you approach, you detect a large amount of
energy. And at the wall, you find it is glowing white hot. You
ask what is behind the wall, and someone tells you, “Oh,
there is nothing behind the wall. The universe ends there.”
Would you be inclined to believe it? Yet that’s what we are
told about the zero-point. Energy and activity decline rapidly
with temperature, then near the wall, suddenly there are
immense numbers of photons, and at the wall, unlimited
energy. But nothing is behind it. Believe that, and there are
some bridges you might be interested in buying.

The matter that registers in our measuring devices is positive
energy. But all matter except the electron is composite,
and positive energy is pushing-apart or explosive energy. It
takes immense negative energy to bind matter together. If
positive energy were the only energy, one would think that
at temperatures near absolute zero matter would lose its
cohesion and fall apart. Nothing of the kind—in fact matter
binds closer and closer together until it becomes all one
thing. It takes energy to bind matter together, yet all positive
energy has been removed. What is left? Only the negative energy
that is the result of negative forces.
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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by Solar » Sun Jun 29, 2008 10:21 am

StefanR wrote: I also am thinking (trying that is) in that direction. But the athmosphere of Earth and space itself is not superconductive of course. But how can it be caracterized then? Is it dielectric or something else? And in what way do the fields have to be switched or inverted ? Difficult (for me at least :) ).
Well theorizing is fun, which is all we're doing. I don't think the fields are switched or inverted. They're dynamically linked and interacting to maintain equilibrium as hierarchically linked plasma systems are known to do.

I guess I'm a bit concerned or confused regarding the term "flux expulsion" in relation to 'induction'.

I went to "The Balloon goes up over lightning!". Although not stated as such this presents the atmospheric dynamic with which we can establish a theoretical relationship of lightning as "dendritic avalanches" (+&-) as Michael has noticed. Lightning is fully connected to space (remember THEMIS and the "magnetic ropes connecting earth to the Sun). The earth's atmosphere then functions as an "insulating layer" via which the equilibrium is maintained between the "applied field" of the Sun and the 'induced' field of the earth; through which "dendritic avalanches", as lightning, manifest their "penetration depth". Which reminded me of Josephson Junction.
Meteorologists have a major problem. They acknowledge that the Earth's atmosphere acts like a leaky, self-repairing capacitor (condensor). However, they assume that this spherical capacitor is charged from within by thunderstorm activity because they have been told that the Earth is an uncharged body flying through an uncharged solar wind. But it has never been shown precisely how the thunderstorm charging process works. And it cannot explain the recent discoveries of strange discharge phenomena above thunderstorms, stretching up into space.

The electric universe model argues that the solar system is not electrically "dead." The Sun, like all stars, is a focus for a galactic discharge. Earth is a charged body that continually transfers charge from space to maintain equilibrium with the solar electrical environment. Thunderstorms are generated by a breakdown of the insulating layer of atmosphere between the Earth's surface and the ionosphere. Leakage currents CAUSE the vertical winds in a thunderstorm and the charge build-up in the cloud. Occasionally, a bolt of megalightning streaks from the top of a large storm instead of its base. This 10-kilometres-high short-circuit throws the switch for a further powerful discharge to the ionosphere. The result is a towering diffuse discharge at very high altitudes - a "red sprite" or "blue jet."
- "Columbia downed by Megalightning"
The "insulating layer" maintaining equilibrium between the two systems of "self organized" plasma (the earth's magneotsheath as it resides inside the sun's heliosphere) across, or through which, capacitive charge exchange occurs. The systems become heirachically integrated as plasma are known to be. When you couple this with the electrojet(s) and telluric currents possibly equating with "surface currents"/"screening currents" it looks as if superconductivity and diamagnetism demonstrate scalable electric principles that can be extrapolated to features of the earth. So it appears that a dielectric relationship is required and the electrical discharge, lightning, would be due to dielectric breakdown.

Look at this little tid bit:
The fundamental causes of telluric currents are now believed to be understood. They are produced either through electromagnetic induction by the time-varying, external-origin geomagnetic field or whenever a conducting body (such as seawater) moves (because of tides or other reason) across the Earth's permanent magnetic field. Both causes produce telluric currents, which in turn, produce magnetic fields of their own - fields that add to the external origin geomagnetic feild and produce feedback on the ionospheric current system...
.

It's not the specifics that I'm interested in but the fact that the connection is established between the two systems i.e. "time-varying external-orgin geomagnetic field" and "feedback on the ionospheric current system"

Makes me wonder if tornadoes are analogous to "pinned vorticies"?
"Our laws of force tend to be applied in the Newtonian sense in that for every action there is an equal reaction, and yet, in the real world, where many-body gravitational effects or electrodynamic actions prevail, we do not have every action paired with an equal reaction." — Harold Aspden

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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by StefanR » Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:15 am

Solar wrote:Dielectric

Well theorizing is fun, which is all we're doing. I don't think the fields are switched or inverted. They're dynamically linked and interacting to maintain equilibrium as hierarchically linked plasma systems are known to do.

I guess I'm a bit concerned or confused regarding the term "flux expulsion" in relation to 'induction'.

I went to "The Balloon goes up over lightning!". Although not stated as such this presents the atmospheric dynamic with which we can establish a theoretical relationship of lightning as "dendritic avalanches" (+&-) as Michael has noticed. Lightning is fully connected to space (remember THEMIS and the "magnetic ropes connecting earth to the Sun). The earth's atmosphere then functions as an "insulating layer" via which the equilibrium is maintained between the "applied field" of the Sun and the 'induced' field of the earth; through which "dendritic avalanches", as lightning, manifest their "penetration depth". Which reminded me of Josephson Junction.
Well, that is sort of what I meant. Let me pull a fast quote (not the best source, but it's the principle I'm after):
A dielectric is a nonconducting substance, i.e. an insulator. The term was coined by William Whewell[1] in response to a request from Michael Faraday. Whewell considered "dia-electric", from the Greek "dia" meaning "through", since an electric field passes through the material but felt that "dielectric" was easier to pronounce[citation needed]. Although "dielectric" and "insulator" are generally considered synonymous, the term "dielectric" is more often used when considering the effect of alternating electric fields on the substance while "insulator" is more often used when the material is being used to withstand a high electric field[citation needed]. Von Hippel, in his seminal book [2] takes this definition further. He states,

Dielectrics... are not a narrow class of so-called insulators, but the broad expanse of nonmetals considered from the standpoint of their interaction with electric, magnetic, of electromagnetic fields. Thus we are concerned with gases as well as with liquids and solids, and with the storage of electric and magnetic energy as well as its dissipation

Dielectrics is the study of dielectric materials and involves physical models to describe how an electric field behaves inside a material. It is characterised by how an electric field interacts with an atom and is therefore possible to approach from either a classical interpretation or a quantum one.

Many phenomena in electronics, solid state and optical physics can be described using the underlying assumptions of the dielectric model. This can mean that the same mathematical objects can go by many different names.
Dielectric model applied to vacuum
From the definition it might seem strange to apply the dielectric model to a vacuum, however, it is both the simplest and the most accurate example of a dielectric.

Recall that the property which defines how a dieletric behaves is the relationship between the applied electric field and the induced dipole moment. For a vacuum the relationship is a real constant number. This constant is called the permittivity of free space, ε0.
Applications

[edit] Capacitors
Commercially manufactured capacitors typically use a solid dielectric material with high permittivity as the intervening medium between the stored positive and negative charges. This material is often referred to in technical contexts as the "capacitor dielectric" [3] . The most obvious advantage to using such a dielectric material is that it prevents the conducting plates on which the charges are stored from coming into direct electrical contact. More significantly however, a high permittivity allows a greater charge to be stored at a given voltage. This can be seen by treating the case of a linear dielectric with permittivity ε and thickness d between two conducting plates with uniform charge density σε.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric
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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by StefanR » Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:36 pm

Magnetic fields are everywhere. They arise from the beating of a human heart and the fiery motion of the Earth's molten core. They issue from creatures large and small, and every star and planet in the heavens. Anywhere there is an electrical current flowing, there is a magnetic field surrounding it. Measuring the magnitude of a magnetic field or detecting unusual fluctuations can yield a wealth of valuable, even life-saving, revelations -- irregularities in the heartbeat of an unborn child; flaws within the steel supports of a highway overpass or bridge; the migration patterns of bacteria and microbes through the environment; faults in the crust of the earth, deep below the planet's surface; possibly even the identity of the invisible "dark" matter that seems to comprise the bulk of our universe.
Image
The most sensitive instruments used to measure magnetic fields feature circular or square-shaped devices called squids that are less than a millimeter across (about the size of the period at the end of this sentence). Not to be confused with the tentacled sea-creatures served raw in Japanese restaurants, this squid stands for Superconducting QUantum Interference Device and it is the most sensitive type of detector known to science. How sensitive? John Clarke, a physicist in Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division and a professor in the Physics Department on the University of California's Berkeley campus, says a convenient criterion for squid sensitivity is the smallest change in magnetic energy the device can detect in one second. For a typical squid, this energy is about 10-32 joule.

"This incredibly tiny amount is roughly equal to the mechanical energy required to raise a single electron one millimeter in the earth's gravitational field," Clarke says. "In fact, the best squids we have ever manufactured are 100 times more sensitive than that."
This quantum mechanical phenomenon is called the "Josephson effect" for Brian Josephson who first described it in 1962 when he was a graduate student at Cambridge University (the same time Clarke was an undergraduate there). The combination of superconducting material and insulating barrier -- two superconductors joined by a weak link -- is called a Josephson junction. A squid consists of a superconducting ring or square interrupted in two spots by Josephson junctions. When sufficient electrical current is applied to the squid, a voltage is generated across its body. In the presence of a magnetic field, this voltage will rise or fall as the strength of the field changes -- a key to a squid's extraordinary sensitivity.
Image
"A squid turns a change in a magnetic field, which is something very hard to measure, into a change in voltage which is something that is very easy to measure," says Clarke.

For application purposes, squids are almost always coupled to auxiliary components. In the case of an instrument called a magnetometer, for example, the squid is connected to a "flux transformer," a device consisting of a relatively large loop of superconducting material and a much smaller multiturn coil. A flux transformer functions as a sort of "hearing aid" because its large loop picks up a magnetic field over a much greater area than the squid. With the help of a flux transformer, the sensitivity of a squid to changes in the strength of the magnetic field being measured can be boosted a hundredfold.
One of the major problems that has to be overcome in the use of any squid is magnetic noise; e.g., from the earth's magnetic field, the electrical grid system, or the motion of elevators.
Image
This noise must be muffled for the squid to perform to its maximum capabilities. "External" magnetic noise can be blocked out with the use of Mumetal (an alloy of high magnetic permeability) shielding; however, for high-Tc squids there is also a problem with "intrinsic" magnetic noise.

Gene Dantsker, a former member of Clarke's group (now with TRW in Los Angeles) who worked with Saburo Tanaka and others on eliminating excess magnetic noise, says the intrinsic noise of a high-Tc squid can be a serious liability.

"We say that a high-Tc squid is only as good as its intrinsic noise," he says. "We now understand that the problem has largely been an artifact of design."

When a high-Tc squid is cooling down to its operational temperature, it can capture "flux vortices" -- the flowing lines of force generated in the material by ambient magnetic fields. Thermal activation can cause these vortices to move, generating magnetic noise that obliterates the signal being read by the squid.
What we have done is create a set of energy conditions in which it is unfavorable for the vortices to enter our material," says Dantsker.
Says Clarke, "It is a simple solution to a problem that has bugged our field for years."

The reduced intrinsic noise of high-Tc squids with slots and holes should make these devices a competitive technology for geophysical studies employing magnetotellurics -- the use of naturally occurring electromagnetic radiation to study the earth's crust. Magnetotellurics in combination with conventional seismic imaging enables geophysicists to locate potential earthquake hazards or petroleum and gas reservoirs despite the presence of salt, lava flows, or thick carbonate rock.
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Res ... index.html
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by junglelord » Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:59 am

I can see why after reviewing this material that the Gforce of APM must act like a perfect liquid, solid, gas, all at the same time. Very revealing stuff when you read the phase transition portions and apply this information to a quantum structure/function model.
:shock:
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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by StefanR » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:13 am

The Real Levitation



Leaving science fiction aside, science does know scores of different ways to levitate things. For instance, a helicopter can be considered as a very impressive levitation device that uses a stream of air to keep floating. Scientists have also found many ways to levitate things without any noise or the need for petrol or air, by using electromagnetic fields. Levitating trains and levitating displays are but two examples of electromagnetic levitation. However, in all such schemes, a source of energy (an engine or a battery at least) is always required to keep an object afloat. Remove the battery and the levitation inevitably stops.

Today's science knows only one way to achieve REAL levitation, i.e. such that no energy input is required and the levitation can last forever. The real levitation makes use of diamagnetism , an intrinsic property of many materials referring to their ability to expel a portion, even if a minute one, of an external magnetic field. Electrons in such materials rearrange their orbits slightly so that they expel the external field. As a result, diamagnetic materials repel and are repelled by strong magnetic fields.

Three basic schemes using various aspects of diamagnetism allow the true levitation:

Image
http://www.hfml.ru.nl/levitate.html
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by MGmirkin » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:35 am

Solar wrote:So the question is: As with superconductivity and diamagnetism can the earth's magnetic field be primarily the result of induction from the Sun's ("applied") magnetic field as opposed to the iron core/dynamo theory etc? When coupled with ground-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning demonstrating the "penetration depth" of dendritic avalanches (positive and negative) the induced magnetic field of the earth so "opposes" the "applied magnetic field" of the Sun.

All of which would demonstrates the "self organizing" characteristics of electro-plasma dynamics. Or something to that effect.
An interesting question, but if one attempts to extrapolate a similar hypothesis to other planets, one encounters Mars which has no "magnetosphere" to speak of. Only what amounts to remnant crustal magnetism, and then only in the southern hemisphere to any large extent. How would the theory account for that? Does Mars have telluric currents as well?

Just a thought. Any theory of the like should be consistent across the multiple disparate bodies in the solar system. Is there something which would cause Mars to no longer have a magnetic field in any large extent? Is Mars electrically "damaged," as someone had asked once upon a time, such that it no longer functions correctly electrically? Or is something else going on?

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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by MGmirkin » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:49 am

StefanR wrote:
Solar wrote:I had the exact same thought regarding "dendritic avalanches" and cloud -to-ground and ground-to-cloud lightning
Yes indeed, the visual resemblance is quite.... well....fascinating
Solar wrote:So the question is: As with superconductivity and diamagnetism can the earth's magnetic field be primarily the result of induction from the Sun's ("applied") magnetic field as opposed to the iron core/dynamo theory etc? When coupled with ground-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning demonstrating the "penetration depth" of dendritic avalanches (positive and negative) the induced magnetic field of the earth so "opposes" the "applied magnetic field" of the Sun.
But the atmosphere of Earth and space itself is not superconductive of course. But how can it be characterized then? Is it dielectric or something else?
Well, yes, the atmosphere is generally a dielectric (an insulator). Lightning is dielectric breakdown due to electrical field strength (opposing clouds of charges rooted in the cloud and in the Earth; the voltage or electric field strength falls under the purview of electrostatics, I think). Once the charges start moving, we're dealing with an electric current (falling under the purview of electrodynamics). Once the lightning quenches, the atmosphere eventually goes back to a more neutral state acting as an insulator (dielectric) again. That's more or less the self-repairing leaky-capacitor aspect of the Earth. IE, the atmosphere is USUALLY an insulator, unless electric field strength is sufficient to start charges flowing, at which point the atmosphere gets a bit ionized (conductive), a discharge happens (sometimes several discharges happen once one or more conductive paths are opened up), and then the ionized channel dissipates, neutrals rush back in, and the "leak" in the capacitor's dielectric is fixed.

(Earth: A Self-repairing Capacitor)
http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch ... acitor.htm

Geez, where'd that lecture come from? Apparently I've been doing too darn much reading for my own good. ;)

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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by junglelord » Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:15 am

Then consider that the Fair Weather Current is operating all the while the air is acting as a dielectric
http://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/forum/phpB ... ?f=4&t=563
Atmospheric electricity involves phenomena which are connected with the separation of electric charges in the sub-ionospheric atmosphere (below about 100 km height). In the ionosphere and magnetosphere there occur strong electric currents originating directly from the solar-terrestrial interaction; in the lower atmosphere, there flows a much weaker electric current in the so-called global circuit, which is maintained by the thunderstorm activity. "When you measure the fair weather electric field, you're measuring the effects of all the thunderstorms on the Earth,"

Atmospheric electricity is like a massive photographic flash. An electrical charge is built up, a switch is closed, and electrons barge across a gas, ionizing it and producing light. But a flash is a complete circuit. In the case of the Earth, Ruhnke explained, the atmosphere completes the circuit.

Thunderstorm charge generation happens inside clouds. Current flows out of the tops of clouds - blue jets and red sprites may play a role - and connects with the upper atmosphere and the ionosphere. Ultimately, the current returns to Earth through the clear atmosphere. Because it's diffused over most of the globe, it's also quite weak at any given point.

"All three values are very difficult to measure," Ruhnke said. The current is 10-12 amps per square meter - "almost nothing." The field is about 100 volts per meter, meaning that the electric potential increases by about 200 volts from the ground to the top of Michael Jordan's head when he's standing still. Finally, air is an excellent insulator, so its conductivity is close to zero. Because of all this, you don't feel anything," Ruhnke said. Even though you're standing in an electric field, your hair does not stand on end.

Charge separation takes place in three ways:thermodynamically, radiation ionization, collision ionization. Ruhnke noted that fair weather conditions also are affected by the magnetosphere in the polar regions where the Earth's magnetic field leaves the upper atmosphere exposed to space.

Why does not the (fair-weather) atmospheric electric field cause a shock of 200 V to a standing human? Because the human is grounded in practice; the poorly conducting air cannot charge up a grounded object. Below a thundercloud, where the ground-level electric field may be tens of kV/m, the situation is different - but then the threat comes from a lightning strike. It should be noted that the notion "dirt increases electric conductivity" is valid for surfaces, for example insulators, but the matter is contrary for air: dirty (dusty) air has poorer conductivity. However, if the "dirt" is a radioactive pollutant, the higher ionization increases the electric conductivity. Such an episode happened in May 1986, when an iodine cloud from the Chernobyl emission arrived at southern Finland: the electric conductivity grew tenfold, but returned to a lower level in a few days, because the half-life of radioactive iodine is 8 days.
:D

Just when you thought it was all starting to make sense
:lol:
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StefanR
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Re: SuperConductivity: Research & Findings & Thoughts

Unread post by StefanR » Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:57 pm

When a high-Tc squid is cooling down to its operational temperature, it can capture "flux vortices" -- the flowing lines of force generated in the material by ambient magnetic fields. Thermal activation can cause these vortices to move, generating magnetic noise that obliterates the signal being read by the squid.
This is from the SQUID-post above. It briefly summarizes what the dendritic fluxes are.
Where I also see some connection is with the whistler waves, so prominent in the aurora and reconnection research.
MGmirkin wrote:An interesting question, but if one attempts to extrapolate a similar hypothesis to other planets, one encounters Mars which has no "magnetosphere" to speak of. Only what amounts to remnant crustal magnetism, and then only in the southern hemisphere to any large extent. How would the theory account for that? Does Mars have telluric currents as well?

Just a thought. Any theory of the like should be consistent across the multiple disparate bodies in the solar system. Is there something which would cause Mars to no longer have a magnetic field in any large extent? Is Mars electrically "damaged," as someone had asked once upon a time, such that it no longer functions correctly electrically? Or is something else going on?
Directly going to Mars will make it rather difficult maybe, in trying to extrapolate. I thought the magnetic/electric field of the earth was the combination of dynamo and induced. Didn't we have a thread about that, somewhere?
Well, yes, the atmosphere is generally a dielectric (an insulator). Lightning is dielectric breakdown due to electrical field strength (opposing clouds of charges rooted in the cloud and in the Earth; the voltage or electric field strength falls under the purview of electrostatics, I think). Once the charges start moving, we're dealing with an electric current (falling under the purview of electrodynamics). Once the lightning quenches, the atmosphere eventually goes back to a more neutral state acting as an insulator (dielectric) again. That's more or less the self-repairing leaky-capacitor aspect of the Earth. IE, the atmosphere is USUALLY an insulator, unless electric field strength is sufficient to start charges flowing, at which point the atmosphere gets a bit ionized (conductive), a discharge happens (sometimes several discharges happen once one or more conductive paths are opened up), and then the ionized channel dissipates, neutrals rush back in, and the "leak" in the capacitor's dielectric is fixed.
In a way it is possible to say the reverse of diamagnetics. Also a insulator (only of magnetic fields as opposed to the shielding of electric fields by the dielectric). But what creates the conductive path for the discharge?
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

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