University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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THE REDWOOD 15 How the Sun Spots Work By J. Howard Ziemann, ' 2G. T is not without cause that the Rev. Jerome S. Ricard, S. J., Director of the Observatory of the University of Santa Clara, is called the Padre of the Rains , for his weather predictions for years have been so unfailing that it seems as though the rains come at his bid- ding. It was Father Ricard who first observed the influence exerted upon our earth by the phenomena called Sun Spots, and it was he who discovered that by following out certain calculations he could determine long in advance the changes in barometric pressure, thus being able to fore- cast the weather much further ahead than the ordinary weather-man who pre- dicts only after the barometer has registered a rise or fall in atmospheric pressure; and it is needless to say that the change in the weather follows almost immediately upon such predictions. The Sun Spot Theory as promulgated by Father Ricard embraces a two- fold proposition, for it regards both the origin of the sun spot and its effect upon our weather. It is. perhaps, the latter theory which is the more inter- esting of the two, but since the latter is merely an application of the first, it is essential in order to speak intelligently of it that something of the cause of the sun spots be first known. Before proceeding further, let us see what a sun spot looks like. When an image of the sun is projected through a tele- scope upon a sheet of paper so that it appears as a bright disk about twelve inches in diameter, if there be a visible sun spot at that time, it is seen as a black dot considerably smaller than a pea. Or there may be several of these dots gathered in a group or dispersed in the vicinity of a somewhat larger one, and it is this little dot or group of dots, as the case may be, which is the sun spot itself. It is really enormous, for one of these little black dots may be a hundred thousand miles in diameter and could swallow with ease a score of worlds like ours. In determining the causes of sun spots, only the eight planets of our solar system are considered, since, as far as is known up to the present, these are the only ones close enough to the sun to exert any notable influence upon it. These planets, to name them in the order of their proximity to the sun, the central point about Avhich they revolve, are Mercury, Yenus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, Mercury being the closest to the sun and making one complete trip around it about every eighty days ; the Earth is third in nearness and makes a complete trip once a year, while Neptune is the most distant and requires about one hundred and sixty-nine years to make the trip. These planets, with only comparatively slight variations, are all on the same plane ; that is to say, if the sun and these eight planets revolv- ing around it Avere represented by buoyant balls floating upon a smooth pond of water, they would all be about half submerged and half exposed. Mercury and Venus, the two planets closest to the sun, are in a small degree exceptions to this general rule for they are rather erratic in their courses, but their eccen-

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14 THE REDWOOD An Empty Song By Paul D. Bean, ' 24. Evening findeth the wood Hollow and deep, Blue-paved with celandine In scented sleep. Water courseth here ' Mid roots most pale: From fall to fall she telleth A mountain tale. To her sole thread of song The wild wood listeth, Till down the drippling aisles Sweet morning misteth. Leaning larches old, Hearing this note Through years of crumbled wings, Have it by rote. Very old are the songs Of drear black rills, Harping upon the old Lifting of hills.

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16 THE REDWOOD tricities never vary from the rule sufficiently to make any notable disturbance. It is now necessary to define two astronomical terms — conjunction and opposition, for a frequent use of them will be indispensable. A conjunction takes place when any two of the eight planets mentioned above are so situated on the same side of the Sun that they and the Sun are all in a straight line, as for example, Saturn, the Earth and the Sun, all situated in a vertical plane and in the order named. An opposition takes place when two of the planets are in a straight line with the sun but on opposite sides of it, as for example, to state them again in the order of their positions, Saturn, the Sun and the Earth. One might think that the phenomena of oppositions and conjunctions ought to be rather regularly recurrent, but this is not true because of the many forces at play among the planets. Observations show that outside of a rough period- icity running through a stretch of eleven or twelve years there is no regularity whatsoever. That the planets exert a relatively great infhience of a magnetic nature upon each other is an established fact, for when a planet is in a favorable position it can and does draw another planet towards it, whenever a conjunc- tion or opposition occurs the combined influence of the two planets taking part in the phenomenon produced a decided effect upon the siin in the form of these gigantic black areas called Sun Spots. This effect is first a field of faculae, which is the cradle of a sun spot and may mature into either a visible sun spot or an invisible sun spot. The observatory at Mount Wilson in South- ern California, working entirely independently of Father Ricard upon sun spot phenomena, has but recently announced that certain areas of the sun have the same characteristic effects as sun spots and has called them Invisible Sun Spots , which has been Father Ricard ' s contention for some time. By means of what physicists call the Zeeman Effect, it has been determ- ined that sun spots possess relatively tremendous magnetic power, and it is held that this power exerts a marked influence upon the terrestrial atmosphere as observed by the barometer ; the earth feels the force of this magnetism only for a period of about three or four days, the fullest effect being during the day that the lines of magnetism emanating from the sun spot are parallel to our line of sight. Since the sun rotates upon its axis at about the rate of once in twenty-seven days, the lines of magnetism from the sun spot move slowly into a direct line with the earth and slowly out of it, and hence there is only a gradual atmospheric change effected rather than an abrupt one. It is upon this atmospheric change caused by sun spots that Father Ricard bases his weather predictions. By means of his theory he is able to predict the changes in barometric pressure and hence can foretell th e weather long before the barometer has reg- istered any change. By mathematical processes, it is possible to calculate years ahead just when a conjunction or opposition will occur and to locate exactly upon the sun ' s surface the position where the sun spot will be formed and the intensity of its influence, and to ascertain how many days, since the sun makes hut one rotation in twenty-seven days, will elapse after the sun spot is formed before it will he in a, position to affect our world. Quite obvi-