Welcome to Space News from the Electric Universe,
brought to you by The Thunderbolts Project™
at Thunderbolts.info
Scientists on Earth are again being reminded
of the awesome power of dust storms on Mars.
The first stirrings of what has become a globe-encompassing phenomenon
began on June 17th
when a dust storm touched down on the famous Gale Crater.
For several decades such remarkably energetic Martian storms
have posed enigmas that meteorologists have yet to resolve.
Mars's atmosphere is only slightly more than 1/2 of 1% as dense as Earth's
yet Mars has towering dust tornadoes
some the size of Mount Everest
and global dust storms that dwarf anything ever witnessed on our own planet.
In such a tenuous atmosphere,
how is dust removed from the soil and accelerated into massive clouds
circling the planet up to 40 miles or more above the surface?
What holds the dust aloft?
What accelerates the winds and dust across the near vacuum of Mars's upper atmosphere
to speeds greater than 250 miles per hour?
NASA scientists first witnessed such an awesome event in 1971
when Mariner 9 became the first space probe to orbit Mars.
In the subsequent nearly half century,
mainstream planetary science has shown little progress
in deciphering the many mysteries
these and many others strange natural events on the red planet present.
For many years, The Thunderbolts Project has offered detailed analysis
on the role of electricity in our solar system
and its connection to planetary atmospheric and weather phenomena.
This analysis has made many predictions
which continue to receive stunning confirmation.
To understand the global Martian dust storms
it's first necessary to explore the undeniable electrical nature
of another type of dramatic dust raising event,
a Martian dust devil.
The so-called dust devils on Mars are truly alien
when compared to dust devils on our own planet.
These monstruous formations are typically kilometers high and hundreds of metres wide
or approximately ten times larger than any earthly tornado.
The tremendous electric fields associated with the phenomena
have been acknowledged by NASA for well over a decade.
In 2005, the Space Agency issued a news release which declared,
"When humans visit Mars,
they'll have to watch out for towering electrified dust devils."
Unfortunately, mainstream planetary scientists can only theorize
that the electric fields are ultimately caused by the mechanical energy of air convection.
The NASA release states,
"Dust devils get their charge from grains of sand and dust rubbing together in the whirlwind.
When certain pairs of unlike materials rub together,
one material gives up some of its electrons
(negative charges) to the other material...
Smaller dust particles tend to charge negative
taking away electrons from the larger sand grains."
And here we see a fundamental confusion of cause and effect.
As physicist Wal Thornhill wrote in 2004,
"...in an electrified universe charge is already separated on the macroscopic scale
and the movement of air in a dust devil is an effect of charge recombination,
not a cause of charge separation."
With such low atmospheric pressure
how does one account for the dust particles leaving the surface?
For decades, the Electric Universe community
has developed experimental research on electrostatic dust transport
which can provide great insights into everything
from the collimated jet seen exploding from comets
to the dust storms on Mars and other worlds.
In 2001 Thornhill wrote,
"When I was doing experiments on electric discharges to a clay surface
there was an electric wind effect that would blow away all of the dust
and loose particles from the surface before any arcing took place.
When the diffuse discharge is big enough
it will rotate causing a tornado effect.
We have seen but not recognized electric winds on Mars.
Mars has no counterpart of thunderclouds
to provide a convenient path to ground for electrical differences
between the ionosphere and the planet.
As a result more diffuse and very tall discharges must occur,
giving rise to an electrical vortex
that manifests by the material rays from the surface into the thin atmosphere."
In June of 2001 the greatest dust storm ever witnessed on Mars began
and did not start to subside for a full 4 months.
In 2005 the Thunderbolts.info website published a Picture Of the Day article
that made two completely unconventional predictions about such dust storms.
As noted in the 2007 article
'Martian Dust Devils ― Prediction Confirmed'
taking a pointer from Wallace Thornhill
we asserted that the global dust storm that engulfed the planet Mars
in August and September of 2001 involved a packed assembly of dust devils
carrying great volumes of Martian dust into billowing clouds.
Since publication of that TPOD,
a review of dust storm images from the Mars Global Surveyor and from THEMIS
together with the systematic study of related phenomena on Mars
has confirmed that our statement was accurate
and yet it is also clear that the concept of compact "dust devil congregations"
could only appear absurd to conventional schools.
In standard theory an atmospheric vortex requires a vastly larger circulation of wind,
a condition that precludes what seems clearly to be seen
in edge-on pictures of "storm fronts" on Mars.
This image shows apparent vortices,
a word that would not be used by NASA scientists
rising into billowing clouds from the margins of the south polar ice cap in the Martian summer.
The caption accompanying the release reads,
"Like billowing smoke from a brush fire,
clouds of dust are seen streaming off the edge of the Martian south polar cap."
The same 2005 Thunderbolts article summarized the electrical cause
of the massive Martian dust storms as follows,
"Since Mars has no thunderstorms to 'charge up its ionosphere',
it should present a good case study of the Electric Universe.
The electrical model predicts that the Martian ionosphere is indeed charged,
and it posits no isolated dynamo to 'separate charge'.
On Mars, electrical effects will reach directly from the ionosphere to the surface
without the ameliorating leakage via storm clouds that we see on Earth.
Unlike radiant energy from the Sun,
electrical energy can accumulate in the planetary capacitor for some time,
with the potential for planet altering events
when the atmosphere finally breaks down
and massive discharge activity is initiated...
At the same time the electric currents flowing in the Martian ionosphere
will drive the high-speed winds in the upper atmosphere."
The article then offered a second extremely radical prediction
about global Martian dust storms. It stated,
"There is also another aspect to the interplanetary circuitry affecting Mars.
The greatest storm on Mars in 2001 occurred when the planet was nearing perihelion
and was the closest it had been to Earth in about 12 years.
At that time it was also being 'tickled' by the Earth's plasma sheath,
establishing a temporary electrical connection between Earth and Mars
for the transfer of charge.
It seems that Mars responded with an outburst of atmospheric discharges,
these taking the form of monstrous dust devils
- or more accurately, electrical tornados."
Today as massive dust storms are again encircling the Red Planet
science headlines have announced another crucial fact about Mars
though no one outside of the Electric Universe community
appears to have noticed the connection.
Just as in 2001, today Mars is again approaching perihelic opposition
and by late July it will make its closest approach to Earth in 15 years.
One such convergence of circumstances could be considered coincidence
but a second instance demands closer examination.
Of course the Electric Universe also predicts that dramatic solar activity
in the form of coronal mass ejections
can provoke electrical discharges from celestial bodies
that move within the Sun's electrical domain
including comets and even planets.
Such a display was in fact seen on Mars in recent years
to planetary scientists' complete bafflement.
In March of 2012
amateur astronomers spotted enormous plumes jetting from the Martian surface.
The plumes were more than 250 km high
and several hundreds of kilometers in length.
As the lead author of a scientific paper on the discovery stated,
"At about 250 km, the division between the atmosphere and outer space is very thin,
so the reported plumes are extremely unexpected."
In 2016, scientists using data from the Mars Express spacecraft
discovered something equally unexpected.
Immediately before the plume was first spotted
Mars appeared to be hit by a coronal mass ejection.
David Andrews of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics stated,
"It's very surprising that was affecting Mars right before the plume was first observed."
The implications of electrical phenomena are obvious
even to mainstream scientists.
A New Scientist report of the discovery stated,
"One possibility is that plasma could be interacting with ice grains or dust
lower down in the atmosphere and electrically charging them, boosting them higher,
but it's not clear how the effect would be big."
It must also be noted that in 2012
just days before scientists noted that baffling plumes,
Mars was again at opposition
and at the time was at its closest proximity to Earth in over two years.
As we've noted several times,
it's been known for many years that when the Earth's magnetotail passes over the moon
it causes electrostatic dust storms and visible electrical discharges.
As noted by NASA scientist Tim Stubbs,
"Earth's magnetotail extends well beyond the orbit of the moon
and, once a month, the moon orbits through it.
This can have consequences ranging from lunar 'dust storms' to electrostatic discharges."
It is a poignant commentary on institutional science
that decade after decade of similar discoveries
continue to provoke only surprise and perplexity.
Yet the surprises are only met with ad-hoc amendments to existing theories
rather than the development of promising alternatives.
Alternatives which have been waiting for many decades
in the fields of plasma physics and electrical engineering.
Planets are "organisms" that interact with their plasma environments
in incredibly dynamic ways.
A fact which only confirms that we live in an electrically alive
and connected universe.