link to Home Page

Re: The Sun has no South Pole


Per a NASA web site I referenced,  
Ulysses was slung out toward Jupiter in 1991 and back toward the Sun for
a pass of the South Pole in 1994 and then the North Pole the next year. 
They found, and have long reported since 1994 and 1995, apparently:

==> The Sun has a magnetic South Pole pointing in 
    the SAME DIRECTION as Earth, and a North 
    Pole likewise pointing in the SAME DIRECTION 
    as Earth. <===

JPL May 1991
    The Ulysses spacecraft is presently cruising through the
    ecliptic plane - the plane in which the planets of the solar
    system orbit - on a trajectory that will use the gravity of
    Jupiter to deflect Ulysses out of the ecliptic plane and 
    onward to the polar regions of the sun.

JPL December 5, 1994
    The solar wind fields bear the imprint of magnetic 
    fields originating on the Sun, which increase in 
    strength toward the poles, just like the magnetic 
    field of the Earth. Surprisingly, however, Ulysses's
    observations have not revealed the expected 
    increase from the equator to the poles. ... Another 
    major result involving magnetic fields is the
    continual presence in the polar cap of very strong 
    waves. ... However, the strong waves being reported 
    by the Ulysses magnetic field investigators are now
    thought ... [new theory replacing debunked theory] ... 
    Ulysses is now leaving the south polar region of the
    Sun

JPL June 1995
    Plasma waves - electrical and magnetic fields that 
    result from unstable distributions in the particles 
    making up the solar wind - play a role in regulating 
    the behavior of solar wind particles and were 
    expected to be found at nearly identical levels in 
    both hemispheres of the Sun. However, as Ulysses 
    crossed the Sun's equator and entered the northern 
    hemisphere, observations revealed significantly 
    higher levels of several varieties of plasma waves 
    in the northern region of the Sun, compared to their 
    presence in the southern hemisphere. ... 

ESO, June 6 1995
    Data from science experiments on board the spacecraft 
    also revealed the strong influence of the Sun's 
    magnetic equator, which is inclined, or tilted, with 
    respect to the Sun's rotational equator. ... "Magnetic 
    fields characteristic of the north solar hemisphere, 
    which point outward from the Sun, are seen 
    interspersed with inward-directed fields from the 
    southern hemisphere," Smith said.

In Article <9sesqq$442$1@merope.saaf.se> Paul Schlyter 
> Does the Sun have a significant overall magnetic field 
> at all?  Isn't any such field much weaker than local 
> magnetic fields in the vicinity of sunspots and other 
> active regions?  With a weak overall magnetic field,
> it's meaningless to try to define some magnetic "poles".

Wrong.  Paul is wrong too.  Wrong wrong wrong.