© Lloyd

==CATHODE SPOTS
__LK: I copied Brant's entire Cathode Spots paper without the illustrations etc here: http://sci2.lefora.com/2012/07/19/1-43/.
__And I found some illustrations of cathode spots. Here are two from: http://www.shm-cz.cz/en/technical-information/pvd-technology-shm called "cathode spot movement" and "cathode spot schema".
__LK: Here's another cathode spot image from: http://bangaloreplasmatek.com/plasma.html.
__Fig. 4. Schematic illustration and static images of the cathode spots motion under different magnetic field intensities:
__See also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0257897206009571.
__Fig. 7. Photographs of arc discharges showing the bending trajectory of the cathode spot produced plasma flux (a–d) straight-line macroparticle trajectories (c) and a luminescent spot on the anode (d).
__BC: Did you get the Cathode paper that I sent out? [http://plasma.mem.drexel.edu/publications/documents/ISPC-564-GA.pdf
==ACTIVE REGIONS
__The discharge process is primarily spread homogeneously around the surface but active regions tended to congregate near the 'bumps" in Birkeland's terrella experiment.
__I think that is true of the sun's surface as well.
__we need to discuss how the SDO images tie back to coronal loops sunspots and penumbral filaments.
__CC: I think that the persistence of the coronal loops is just a function of the persisten[ce] of the active regions.
__These IMO are places where the solar-heliospheric electric current has gotten vigorous enough for electrodynamics.
__The iron lines IMO are telling us not that the iron is extremely hot but rather that it is highly ionized by the powerful electric field and by the current flowing through it.
==SOLAR MOSS
__Alfven's basic approach is virtually useless when it comes to explaining some types of solar images particularly shock wave type images and running difference and running average images.
__Features can remain persistent for days and even weeks in RD images.
__That's rather difficult to reconcile with a "plasma" [only] solar model particularly since the photosphere structures tend to come and go in roughly 8 minute intervals.
__BC: #234- Discharges originate from these structures [mounds of iron slag?] because they are high points just like in cathode thermionic emission observations.
==SUNSPOTS ARE CATHODE SPOTS
__The cathode actually sits on a current divider where the electrons are pulled down by their attraction to a layer of liquid ions below and pulled upward toward the heliosphere by its positive charge.
__Specifically the electrons rise in the presence of the Sun's overall magnetic field.
__they are rising (because they are attracted to the heliosphere) in the presence of the Sun's overall magnetic field which generates a Lorentz force that induces rotation.
__there is a steady stream of electrons from the cathode through the positive double-layer on top.
__In the quiet Sun these slow-moving electrons are evenly dispersed by their own electrostatic repulsion but the stronger currents in sunspots produce electrodynamic effects.
__Specifically the electrons rise in the presence of the Sun's overall magnetic field.
__The clash between that field and the fields generated by the rising electrons produces a Lorentz force that puts the electrons into a spiraling motion.
__The spiral then accentuates the Sun's magnetic field cranking it up to over 4000 Gauss and establishing solenoidal lines of force centered on the sunspot.
__In this framework 3000 K in the umbra makes perfect sense.
__The electric current flowing up through the photosphere toward the heliosphere typically generates 6000 K of ohmic heating
__but if it falls into a spiraling pattern there is less ohmic heating in the center of the spiral because there are fewer electrons there.
__CC: I have concluded that any B-field density greater than the background 1 Gauss is being generated by the cathode spot itself.
__In the weak overall field the solar-heliospheric current in an active region experiences a Lorentz force that sends the electrons into a spiral around the B-field lines.
__The spiral itself is self-stabilizing so it generates a much more powerful field (> 4000 Gauss) with its axis lining up with the overall field.
__Where the solenoidal field from that spot dives back into the Sun the polarity is reversed from the overall field.
__If another spot forms in the presence of that polarity the electrons will spin in the opposite direction.
__So the second spot generates its own solenoidal field just with the opposite polarity.
__Then you have two solenoidal fields of opposite polarity near each other and they get coupled with the axial lines going out one and into the other.