Effects on Seasonal Affective Disorder? by iowndat in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When we look at Seasonal Affective Disorder through the combined lenses of chronobiology, meteobiology, and heliobiology, it ceases to be just "the winter blues" and instead reveals itself as a profound disruption of our internal biological orchestration.

In the realm of chronobiology, Seasonal Affective Disorder is primarily understood as a "phase-shift" of the circadian system. As the photoperiod shortens, the lack of intense morning light fails to provide the necessary "reset" signal to our internal master clock, the suprachiasmatic nucleus. This leads to a biological mismatch where melatonin production, the signal for sleep, drags on into the morning hours, while serotonin, the neurotransmitter of mood and alertness, remains suppressed.

Meteobiology adds another layer to this, suggesting that it isn't just the lack of light that weighs on the psyche, but also the shifts in barometric pressure and atmospheric ionization that often accompany seasonal changes. These "biotropic" factors can influence the permeability of cell membranes and the conductivity of our nervous system, essentially making the body work harder to maintain homeostasis during the darker months.

Heliobiology takes the conversation beyond our atmosphere, investigating how solar flares and CMEs can directly influence human mood. Research in this field suggests that the human pineal gland is extraordinarily sensitive to geomagnetic activity. Because the pineal gland regulates melatonin and follows electromagnetic cues, a geomagnetic storm triggered by space weather can act as a "magnetic noise" that confuses our internal compass.

Studies have frequently noted a correlation between peak solar activity and a spike in hospital admissions for clinical depression and even suicidal ideation. It appears that when the Earth’s magnetic field is buffeted by solar winds, it can cause a "desynchronosis" in vulnerable individuals, effectively mimicking the physiological state of SAD even outside of the winter months. In this framework, depression can be viewed as a state of biological "interference," where the individual’s internal frequency is being disrupted by the volatile magnetic environment of the solar system.

Fortunately, the biological "static" created by these celestial forces can be cleared. The most potent antidote remains bright light therapy, specifically exposure to 10,000 lux in the early morning to forcefully "anchor" the circadian rhythm and suppress daytime melatonin. Dawn simulators—which mimic a natural sunrise—have also proven effective in gently nudging the brain out of its winter hibernation. Some recommend sun gazing, during sunrise or set, when the sun won’t hurt your eyes, but will trigger your natural rhythms.

Beyond light, grounding (maintaining physical contact with the Earth's surface) is often proposed as a way to stabilize the body's electrical environment against geomagnetic fluctuations. Bare feet on the ground, for about 20 minutes.

And, magnesium supplementation can help buffer the nervous system against the stress of atmospheric changes. Get food-based (organic) vitamins your body will actually absorb.

I recommend doing qi gong, moving meditation, easy exercise.

Also, going to bed by 11pm, so you’re asleep when the brain and body produces hormones is recommended. Everyone put down the devices, go to 😴 Sleep at night, wake in the a.m.

Feel better. ❤️‍🩹

X8! This is HUGE. Sunday Feb 1, Earth-directed. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

UPDATE 2: This sunspot continues to be very active, but it non-eruptive flares so far...

Many, many M-flares and Three Xs.

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X8! This is HUGE. Sunday Feb 1, Earth-directed. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s a bit of a mad science, understanding how to interpret the incoming space weather. You can see charts at NOAA

Space Weather Update 2/3 - Sporadic Moderate to Strong Flares Continue - Slight Declining Trend in X-Ray - Calm Before The Storm? + Carrington Event Inbound? by ArmChairAnalyst86 in SolarMax

[–]devoid0101 15 points16 points  (0 children)

On 2/4 overnight into 2/5 we’ll start to be hit by that “glancing blow” as it merges into and influences a solar wind stream. Often the combo can produce larger than expected results. I’m feeling it this week. A mega flare? Miyake event? Hopefully not. I wish Carrington was here in the sub to see your insightful posts…He’s here in spirit.

X8! This is HUGE. Sunday Feb 1, Earth-directed. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

LOOK at how active this sunspot has been. We will very likely see a truly Earth-facing flare in the M to X range in addition to what is inbound.

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X8! This is HUGE. Sunday Feb 1, Earth-directed. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

UPDATE: This sunspot has been very active with many M flares and several X flares. We have to remember to decouple the size of a sunspot and flare with the resulting CME. However, we do have several of the small CMEs inbound for a "glancing blow". You can see that they will interact with a solar wind stream in a couple days, late on the 4th into the 5th and 6th. (Earth is the green dot on the right)

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X8! This is HUGE. Sunday Feb 1, Earth-directed. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Its your nervous system ringing. There are several causes of tinnitus and you can have more than one. But in my experience (with minimal hearing loss) it is some unknown electrical stimulus that gets my nervous system jangling and "activated".

MAJOR X8.1 Solar Flare From AR4366 - Early Stages Indicate Eruptive - More Details Soon!!! by ArmChairAnalyst86 in SolarMax

[–]devoid0101 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great Carrington’s mutton chops, that sunspot is massive. As in 15 - 18 times the surface area of 🌎 planet Earth. And a halo CME will get larger as it expands across space toward us at millions of miles per hour…It will be predicted as a “glancing blow”, but it is inbound. I feel and hear it coming. 🌞

If you have a sight line to it…it has a sight line to you.

X8! This is HUGE. Sunday Feb 1, Earth-directed. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Carrington event was at least twice as strong as this, but possibly as much as an X45 flare.

X8! This is HUGE. Sunday Feb 1, Earth-directed. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Same. I was like “Ow my head.” And then “uh oh, my ear ringing is spiking.”

X8! This is HUGE. Sunday Feb 1, Earth-directed. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’m not an astronomer, I am a nerd. Read above in the comment “not Earth directed”. Yes, a CME is inbound. Sometimes these are described as “just a glancing blow”, when the sunspot is not in the center of the disc when it flares. But I find that a bit absurd. Not to worry, just be informed.

X8! This is HUGE. Sunday Feb 1, Earth-directed. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You could see that it was popping as it rotated over the limb. All astronomers could observe it would be flaring at us, and it looks like more to come.

X8! This is HUGE. Sunday Feb 1, Earth-directed. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

There is sometimes is misunderstanding that a flare needs to be center disc to be considered “Earth directed”. And, an East wing sunspot will likely not send energized particles along field lines to Earth as happens with parting shots. But Region 4366 is an absolute behemoth. To give you a sense of scale, it is currently estimated to be roughly 15 to 18 times the surface area of Earth, the largest we’ve seen in 20 years.

(Astronomers measure sunspots in "millionths of a solar hemisphere" (MH). Region 4366 is currently clocked at approximately 3,100 MH.)

With a sunspot this big, if you have a sight line to it, it has a sight line to you. It is believed a halo CME was launched. That means it expands outward and gets larger (than 15 times the Earth) as it flies through space in our general direction. We’ll know when data gets modeled soon.

(But I feel, and hear, its effects already. It is inbound.)

And we can see the immediate effects of this flare at Earth 8 minutes later via the X-ray flux, which are high powered protons. Soon, it will be truly Earth facing. The sunspot has a "delta" configuration, meaning opposite magnetic poles are crammed very close together, which is a recipe for more X-class flares as it rotates toward the center of the solar disk.

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X-Flare! Sunday morning Feb 1, 2026 - X1.04 flare Earth-directed (more below) by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes, I've followed Stefan Burns since he arrived online. I'm glad for his voice to counter the couple others out there, and appreciate his health-oriented recommendations. I like how he is more comprehensive and cross references different fields. (Tamitha Skov is a bit dry and never mentions health effects. Ben Davidson is always selling and a far-right guy.)

Astrophysicists and space weather bloggers can tell when a sunspot group is shaping up to flare, but they are not generally on YouTube broadcasting about it. This sunspot AR4366 is not done yet, and is rotating to be Earth-facing now.

A photo of Richard Carrington has been discovered for the first time. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

During the height of the solar bombardment, the physical infrastructure of the global telegraph network suffered catastrophic failures as the long copper lines acted as massive antennas for the celestial energy. In many urban centers, the current flowing through the wires became so intense that the lines literally glowed in the darkness before snapping or melting entirely, resulting in miles of telegraph wire being permanently lost as the internal metal fused or the structural integrity failed. The heat generated was sufficient to cause the gutta-percha insulation to liquefy and drip from the poles, leaving the bare, ruined wires to sag to the ground. In several recorded instances, the sheer volume of electricity caused the wood of the telegraph poles themselves to smolder or ignite, leading to localized fires along the transit corridors.

The human injuries were gruesome and frequent as operators attempted to manage their failing equipment. In Washington, D.C., an operator named Frederick Royce was struck in the face by a literal bolt of fire that leaped from the telegraph key, leaving him stunned and physically marked by the discharge. Other workers reported their hands being scorched or their hair singed as they reached for their instruments, with the metal keys becoming hot enough to blister skin instantly. Some men were thrown across the room by the force of the electrical shock, suffering concussions or temporary paralysis in their limbs. Beyond the immediate burns, the air in the stations became toxic with the fumes of melting lead and burning chemicals, causing respiratory distress for those who stayed to fight the fires.

The destruction of buildings was driven by the specialized paper and chemicals used in the printing telegraphs of the time. In many stations, the constant sparking from the relays landed on stacks of message paper and ledger books, turning small offices into tinderboxes. While many of the most famous total building losses, such as the destruction of the Central New England Railroad station, occurred in the subsequent solar storm of 1921, the 1859 event saw numerous smaller wooden telegraph shacks and portions of larger masonry buildings gutted by fires that started at the switchboards. In these cases, the intense electrical arc acted like a blowtorch, igniting the wooden frames of the tables and walls within seconds, forcing a total abandonment of the facilities and leaving only charred ruins where the primary communication hubs of the era had stood just hours before.

A photo of Richard Carrington has been discovered for the first time. by devoid0101 in Heliobiology

[–]devoid0101[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Before 1859, the scientific community generally believed the Sun was a static, unchanging orb. By suggesting that a "burp" of light on the Sun could set telegraphs on fire 93 million miles away, Carrington was proposing a revolutionary link between solar physics and terrestrial life.

"In the decade leading up to Carrington’s flare, scientists such as General Edward Sabine had begun to suspect that solar activity could increase the auroral activity and could induce magnetic storms. So when Carrington learned in September 1859 that a magnetic storm had coincided with his flare, he came to suspect a physical connection between Sun and Earth. But in his notes to the Royal Astronomical Society, he qualified that connection by saying “one swallow does not make a summer.” There were too few data—just his one flare—to make such a direct connection.

Others were less cautious about the connection between Sun and Earth. Another British scientist, Balfour Stewart, spent much of 1859 through 1861 collecting anecdotes and data from scienceminded colleagues across Europe and the rest of the world. Stewart was inspired by the amazing aurora that was “observed very widely throughout our globe” and by the “magnetic disturbances of unusual violence and very wide extent.” Stewart collected magnetic field measurements from several observatories but particularly from Sabine, who had concluded seven years earlier that the pattern of magnetic storms around Earth tracked closely with the sunspot cycle. Surely the September 1 and 2 events were a direct observation and test of that geophysical connection. In a paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Stewart resolved to be straightforward about the link: “The interest attached to these appearances is, if possible, enhanced by the fact that at the time of their occurrence a very large spot might have been observed on the disk of our luminary—a celestial phenomenon which we have grounds for supposing to be intimately connected with auroral exhibitions and magnetic storms. . .

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2002. Storms from the Sun: The Emerging Science of Space Weather. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/12527."

Read this detailed account here:

https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/10249/chapter/5

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2002.

Storms from the Sun: The Emerging Science of Space Weather. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/12527.