Satgen297 Our Changing Sun by GM4IHJ 3 Dec 94 BID of this msg is SGEN297 Please use this BID if you retransmit this msg Solar Astronomy is awash with new observations , which are totally overturning many old established theories. Last year , J Goslins paper about Coronal Mass Emissions CMEs, raised a storm of protest from old time observers who protested that Solar Flares cause most of everything we on earth experience from our Sun. But all recent observations seem to be solidly in favour of the suggestion that we can ignore flares as relatively unimportant byproducts of some CMEs, and concentrate on the shock waves in the Solar wind where the high speed CME material , overtakes and compresses the slower moving steady solar wind. Relating Aurora and other phenomena to these shock waves seems to be far more productive than as most observers know, relating auroras to some flares but then getting confused when other flares produce no major effects in Earth space. Now in 1994, it seems we have also been misinterpreting the Solar Magnetic field. Up to now, opinion has been that the Sun had a dipolar field roughly like that of the Earth, but that this Solar field switched polarity every second solar sunspot cycle. However, it had been known for years that this did not tie in with the behaviour of the Solar Corona. Back in the 1970s Takao Saito pointed out that the Corona was not behaving as one would expect ,in that its major activity was not always coincident with the Solar equator. Now in 1994 several lines of evidence have shown that the Solar magnetic field is not a simple dipolar one. In fact it has two components one resembling a dipolar field but another located in the outer photosphere of the Sun which has a strong equatorial component. Considering the combined effect of these fields we get a field which is quite different from that of the Earth , whereby the resolved Solar magnetic field poles rotate through a full circle over two successive solar cycles , and more important between Solar cycle maximums the field poles are no where near the rotation poles of the Sun. Right on cue, the Solar Polar Ulysees mission of the European space agency has just overflown the Suns south pole . According to the press "Astronomers were amazed to find the south rotation pole was not a magnetic pole". In fact of course the press have not been keeping up to date, as there was a good explanation of why this would be so in Sky and Telescope two issues ago. So much for our up to date ? press. What is important however is that this also explains why dense emission is possible from the Solar rotation poles at some times, because there is very little magnetic field to restrain it. Ulysees is now on its way to look at the Suns northern rotation pole in 1995 and again this being solar cycle minimum we can expect reports of only weak magnetism, and, contrary to old fashioned theory plenty of Solar wind emission. Then, if we are lucky there is also a possibility that cash will be found to continue tracking Ulysees through 200 and 2001 when it will again fly over the solar rotation poles, but with the extra prize that it will then be Solar sunspot cycle maximum, so we may get both 1994/1995 sunspot min data and, 2000/2001 sunspot max data when the rotation pole magnetic field configuration should be much stronger. 73 de GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN