Showing posts with label Michael Bevington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Bevington. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Playing the Field | Lunar Effects on Mood and Biology

Michael Bevington (2015) - The Earth’s magnetosphere is formed by the Sun’s wind passing the Earth. It surrounds the Earth but is much larger on whichever part forms its local ‘shadow’ or ‘night’ side, where it forms a tail, or magnetotail. The magnetotail extends over 6,300,000 km. 
 

 
[...] Every month, at full moon, the Moon crosses the magnetotail for 6–7 days at about 348,000 km from the Earth. As revealed by recent space exploration, when the Moon traverses the magnetotail’s electromagnetic plasma sheet, it attracts a large electrical charge, thus disturbing the plasma sheet. Ions from the Moon’s surface transfer to the Earth’s magnetosphere. This in turn can influence the Earth’s electric and magnetic field by a form of magnetospheric feedback, since the thin current sheet of the magnetotail has an earthward electric field.
 

[...] The Moon affects the Earth’s magnetosphere differently at new moon compared with full moon. At new moon, on the Sun’s side of the Earth, the Moon does not cross through the magnetosphere. Instead its lunar wake, formed from the solar wind, is blown downstream towards the Earth’s magnetosphere in a relatively narrow pathway, but in a varied way because of the Sun’s 11-year sun-spot cycle and the Sun’s rotating magnetic field. The latter has two effects. Firstly, Earth experiences reversed solar polarity when crossing sectors in the interplanetary magnetic field, typically twice in about 27 days. Secondly, the solar wind travels in a spiral, so the lunar wake is not usually in direct alignment from the Sun. The new moon effect from the lunar wake on the Earth’s magnetosphere can be considered comparable to magnetotail effects at full moon, with evidence of electric fields, and magnetic fluctuations of up to 5 Hz from the plasma of the penumbra surrounding the lunar wake."

The greatest change in the electric field potential occurs as the moon crosses into and out of the magnetotail plasma, which occurs 2-3 days before the full moon and 3-4 days after the full moon.

Some of the reported effects of the full moon on animal and plant biology: tree diameter variation reflects a lunar rhythm; reproduction; changes in the stress hormone; epileptic seizures and unexpected deaths increase during full moon; increase of violent and acute behavioral disturbances during full moon, etc.

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