Topband: Moonlight & K-sums

[Ford Peterson]

I have a new explanation for the "Boring" reports in October.  Chuck Hutton touched on it earlier today.

If there is one thing most of us agree on, it is that the earth's magnetic field plays a significant role in Topband propagation.  The Auroral Oval is a visible 'symptom' of one of the onerous effects.  Launching a signal over the pole through the Aurora is generally considered impossible, except for Tree of course.

At this annual point in the solar / lunar cycle, the moon rises simultaneous to the sun setting.  This is evidence of the earth being directly in between the two bodies.  There was a partial lunar eclipse on Monday night, additional evidence in support of this fact.

Imagine 3 very big bar magnets laying on a table.  The middle magnet is the earth, the left is the sun, the right is the moon.  I don't know the field intensity of the sun and moon magnetic fields on earth, but they are there.  Neither do I understand the polarity of the three bodies.  I suspect the sun out "fields" the moon by quite a margin.  So the sun "magnet" would be placed closer to the middle (earth) magnet.  In any event, these three magnets will interact in unusual ways.  If the sun's magnet is north facing up, and the earth's is north facing up, the two fields will oppose one another--the field lines will distort accordingly.  Likewise, if the sun's "north" is facing down, the two magnets will be attracted to one another, distorting the field lines accordingly.

Now take a globe and position Boring Oregon in front of you.  Identify the north magnetic pole is pretty much in line with EU--particuarly northern EU (Finland for example).  Now draw in the terminator (this is easy to do using DXATLAS).  At the time when Tree was working over the pole, the Sun was directly west and the moon directly east with the earth in the middle.  I propose that for this short window in the solar / lunar cycle, the earth's magnetic field lines do not look much like a standard torus.  I suspect the field lines get split into a form more akin to a dipole's field in free space.  Instead of beaming into the 'iron curtain' that is the Auroral Oval, a trough forms over the magnetic pole.  Tree happens to be located in a place that can take full advantage of the trough and still enjoy darkness at both ends.  For a short window of over an hour, he happens to sit in the middle of the terminator.

If the moon had been directly at zenith for the same event, the field lines would be far more complex than a pristine dipole looking arrangement.  If this trough forms every time the three bodies are in alignment at this time of day, then we can expect to have enhanced propagation happen EVERY October, on or about the full moon.

It would be interesting to get Alex at DXATLAS to draw in the terminator for the moon.  At this instant, the two terminators coincide.  While I do NOT believe the enhancement is due to reflectivity of the moon changing the ionosphere, I DO believe the magnetic fields of the two bodies is the source of "The Boring Effect."  The coincidence of the two terminators is indicative of the two bodies being on opposite sides of the earth, and at the right time of day for Boring > EU propagation.

Ford-N0FP
ford at cmgate.com