Post your painted/custom seatbelt covers
Did Evan put you up to this...?
lol?
Originally Posted by Brian*
im just doin what i like.. dont judge me.... I saw some other people doin it.. so i figured, i would do it. Because thats what i do, i do stuff for me. Because i wanted to do it!
who wanted to do it??
i might try this/
ME!! because I seen someone else do it. so i figured i would do it, because i wanted to do it... because i seen someone else do it.
If you didn't see someone else do it, would you have done it? Because you liked it but you don't know if you liked it, if you didn't see someone else do it??
yeah, just do what you want to do because you seen someone else do it, thats original as hellME!! because I seen someone else do it. so i figured i would do it, because i wanted to do it... because i seen someone else do it.
i did it to be me, and to express myself the only way i know how. Im trying to step out of the box here.. and get new ideas. But after i saw it done, i knew it was something that "me" would do to be "ME".
THATS HOW ITS DONE!
gotcha...lol
well hell, do your thing dude!
i knew you all would understand.
hahahaha baller customization
i would do it to be me, but it would really be like being you, so if i do do it, i dnt know if i would be being me or being you, so i dnt know what to do.
.....NOT.
Follow your heart..
My heart is sayin purple, but then i would be like Got_purp.
.....its just too hard out here for a pimp these days.
lmao there is a thread for almost anything on import atlanta..
LOL, I painted mine crinkle black along with the pillars, just to be me cuz I didn't see someone else do it. Actually because Subaru's beige interior sucks.
dammit n¡gga you got me cryin over here!!!!
I'll post my painted AC knobs/Flashers button/windshield wiper arm tomorrow. I Really was just trying to express me as me, instead of expressing me as you or CGevan. Actually now that i think about it, For the price of the paint and labor I could have found an SRT-4 or WRX in that price range
Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus Trichechus) are large, fully aquatic marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. The name manatí comes from the Taíno, a pre-Columbian people of the Caribbean, meaning "breast".[1] They contain three of the four living species in the order Sirenia, the other being the dugong, which is native to the Eastern Hemisphere. The Sirenia are thought to have evolved from four-legged land mammals over 60 million years ago, with the closest living relatives being the Proboscidea (elephants) and Hyracoidea (hyraxes).[2]
Contents [hide]
1 Physical characteristics
1.1 Diet
2 Population
2.1 Habitat
2.2 Captivity
3 Vulnerability
3.1 Hunting
3.2 Disposition and boat collisions
4 Cultural depictions
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links
Physical characteristics
Manatees are mainly herbivores, spending most of their time grazing in shallow waters and at depths of 1-2 meters (3-7 ft). Much of the knowledge about manatees is based upon research done in Florida and cannot necessarily be attributed to all types of manatees. Generally, manatees have a mean mass of 400-550 kg (900-1200 lb), and mean length of 2.8-3.0 m (9-10 ft), with maximums of 3.6 meters and 1,775 kg seen (the females tend to be larger and heavier). When born, baby manatees have an average mass of 30 kg.
On average, most manatees swim at about 5 km/h to 8 km/h (1.4 m/s to 2.2 m/s; 3 to 5 miles per hour). However, they have been known to swim up to 30 km/h (8 m/s; 20 miles per hour) in short bursts. Manatees inhabit the shallow, marshy coastal areas and rivers of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico (T. manatus, West Indian Manatee), the Amazon Basin (T. inunguis, Amazonian Manatee), and West Africa (T. senegalensis, West African Manatee). A fourth species, the Dwarf Manatee (T. bernhardi) was recently proposed for a population found in the Brazilian Amazon,[3] although some have questioned its validity, instead believing it is an immature Amazonian Manatee.[4] Florida is usually the northernmost range of the West Indian Manatee as their low metabolic rate makes cold weather endurance difficult. They may on occasion stray up the mid-Atlantic coast in summer. Half a manatee's day is spent sleeping in the water, surfacing for air regularly at intervals no greater than 20 minutes.
Florida Manatees (T. m. latirostris) have been known to live up to 60 years, and they can move freely between different salinity extremes; however, Amazonian Manatees (T. inunguis) never venture out into salt water. They have a large flexible prehensile upper lip that acts in many ways like a shortened trunk, somewhat similar to an elephant's. They use the lip to gather food and eat, as well as using it for social interactions and communications. Their small, widely spaced eyes have eyelids that close in a circular manner. Manatees are also believed to have the ability to see in color.
They emit a wide range of sounds used in communication, especially between cows and their calves, yet also between adults to maintain contact and during sexual and play behaviors. They may use taste and smell, in addition to sight, sound, and touch, to communicate. Manatees are capable of understanding discrimination tasks, and show signs of complex associated learning and advanced long term memory.[5] They demonstrate complex discrimination and task-learning similar to dolphins and pinnipeds in acoustic and visual studies.[6]
Manatees typically breed only once every other year, since gestation lasts about 12 months, and it takes a further 12 to 18 months to wean the calf. Only a single calf is born at a time and aside from mothers with their young or males following a receptive female, manatees are generally solitary creatures.[7]
The clearest visible difference between manatees and dugongs is in the shape of the tail;[8] a manatee tail is paddle-shaped, while a dugong tail is forked, similar in shape to a that of a whale.
Diet
Manatees are herbivores and eat over 60 different plant species such as mangrove leaves, turtle grass, and types of algae, using their divided upper lip. An adult manatee will commonly eat up to 9% of its body weight (approx 50 kg) per day. Manatees have been known to eat small amounts of fish from nets.[9]
Like horses, they have a simple stomach, but a large cecum, in which they can digest tough plant matter. In general, their intestines are unusually long for animals of their size. The adults have no incisor or canine teeth, just a set of cheek teeth, which are not clearly differentiated into molars and premolars. Uniquely among mammals, these teeth are continuously replaced throughout life, with new teeth growing at the rear as older teeth fall out from further forward in the mouth. At any given time, a manatee typically has no more than six teeth.[7]
Population
Approximate distribution of Trichechus; T. manatus in green; T. inunguis in red; T. senegalenis in orangeThe population of manatees in Florida (T. manatus) is thought to be between 1,000 and 3,000, yet population estimates are very difficult. The number of manatee deaths in Florida caused by humans has been increasing through the years, and now typically accounts for 20%-40% of recorded manatee deaths.[10] There were 417 manatee deaths in Florida in 2006 with 101 attributed to human causes according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.
Accurate population estimates of the Florida manatee are notoriously difficult and have been called scientifically weak; with widely varying counts from year to year, some areas show possible increases yet others decreases, with very little strong evidence of increases except in 2 areas. However, population viability analysis studies carried out in 1997, found that decreasing adult survival and eventual extinction is a probable future outcome for the Florida manatees, unless they are aggressively protected.[11] Manatee counts are highly variable without an accurate way to estimate numbers:[12] in Florida in 1996, a winter survey found 2,639 manatees; in 1997 a January survey found 2,229; and a February survey found 1,706.[6] Fossil remains of manatee ancestors show they have inhabited Florida for about 45 million years.
The Amazonian Manatee (T. inunguis) is a species of manatee that lives in the freshwater habitats of the Amazon River and its tributaries. Their color is brownish gray and they have thick, wrinkled skin, often with coarse hair, or "whiskers." Its main predator is also man. The Brazilian government has outlawed the hunting of the Manatee since 1973 in an effort to preserve the species. Deaths by boat strikes, however, are still common.
The African Manatee (T. senegalensis) is the least studied of the three species of manatees. Photos of African Manatees are very rare; although very little is known about this species, scientists think they are similar to the West Indian Manatees. They are found in coastal marine and estuarine habitats, and in fresh water river systems along the west coast of Africa from the Senegal River south to the Kwanza River in Angola, including areas in Gambia, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Although crocodiles and sharks occasionally kill manatees in Africa, their only significant threats are from humankind due to poaching, habitat loss, and other environmental impacts. They live as high upriver on the Niger as Gao, Mali. Although rare, they occasionally get stranded as the river dries up at the end of rainy season and are cooked for a meal. The name in Sonrai, the local language, is "ayyu".
Habitat
A group of 3 manatees
A manatee taken out of its habitat.Manatees typically inhabit warm, shallow, coastal estuarine waters and cannot survive below 15°C (288 K; 60°F). Their natural source for warm waters during the winter is warm-spring fed rivers. The West Indian Manatee migrates into Florida rivers such as the Crystal River, the Homosassa River, and the Chassahowitzka River. The head springs of these rivers maintain a water temperature of 22°C (299 K; 72°F) year round. During the winter months, November to March, approximately 400 West Indian Manatees (according to the National Wildlife Refuge) congregate in the rivers in Citrus County, Florida.
Manatees have been spotted as far north as Cape Cod, and as recently as the late summer of 2006, one made it up to New York City and Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay, as cited by The Boston Globe. According to Memphis, Tennessee's The Commercial Appeal newspaper, one manatee was spotted in the Wolf River harbor near the Mississippi River in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, on October 23, 2006, though it was later found dead ten miles downriver in McKellar Lake.[13] Manatees often congregate near power plants, which warm the waters. Some have become reliant on this source of artificial heat and have ceased migrating to warmer waters. Some power plants have recently been closing and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to find a new way to heat the water for these manatees. The main water treatment plant in Guyana has four manatees that keep storage canals clear of weeds, there are also some in the ponds of The National Park in Georgetown.
Studies in Florida suggest that Florida manatees must have some access to fresh water for proper osmoregulation.
Captivity
The oldest manatee in captivity is Snooty who is held at the South Florida Museum. He was born at the Miami Seaquarium on July 21, 1948 and came to the South Florida Museum in Bradenton, Florida in 1949.
Vulnerability
Antillean ManateeAlthough manatees have few natural predators (sharks, crocodiles, orcas, and alligators), all three species of manatee are listed by the World Conservation Union as vulnerable to extinction. The current main threat to manatees in the United States is being struck with boats or slashed with propellers. Sometimes manatees can live through strikes, and over fifty deep slashes and permanent scars have been observed on some manatees off the Florida coast.[6] However, the wounds are often fatal, and the lungs may even pop out through the chest cavity.[6] It is illegal under federal and Florida law to cause the manatees injury or harm.[6]
According to marine mammal veterinarians, "The severity of mutilations for some of these individuals can be astounding - including long term survivors with completely severed tails, major tail mutilations, and multiple disfiguring dorsal lacerations. These injuries not only cause gruesome wounds, but may also impact population processes by reducing calf production (and survival) in wounded females - observations also speak to the likely pain and suffering endured".[6] In an example, they cited one case study of a small calf "with a severe dorsal mutilation trailing a decomposing piece of dermis and muscle as it continued to accompany and nurse from its mother...by age 2 its dorsum was grossly deformed and included a large protruding rib fragment visible."[6] These veterinarians go on to state that "the overwhelming documentation of gruesome wounding of manatees leaves no room for denial. Minimization of this injury is explicit in the Recovery Plan, several state statutes, and federal laws, and implicit in our society's ethical and moral standards."[6]
One problem is that young Manatees are curious— this one is checking out a kayakManatees occasionally ingest fishing gear (hooks, metal weights, etc.) while feeding. These foreign materials do not appear to harm manatees, except for monofilament line or string. This can clog the animal's digestive system and slowly kill the animal.
Manatees can also be crushed in water control structures (navigation locks, floodgates, etc.), drown in pipes and culverts, and are occasionally killed from entanglement in fishing gear, primarily crab pot float lines. Manatees are also vulnerable to red tides—blooms of algae, often caused by pollution, which leach oxygen from the water.
Manatees were commonly hunted for their meat by natives of the Caribbean, although this is much less common today.[14]
On June 8, 2006, The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted to reclassify the manatee on Florida's list, to a "threatened" status in that state.[15] While none of the state laws protecting manatees have changed, many wildlife conservationists are not pleased with the removal decision. Manatees remain classified as "endangered" at the federal level.
While humans are allowed to swim with manatees in one area of Florida,[16] there have been numerous charges of people harassing and disturbing the manatees in various ways, in addition to the concern about repeated motorboat strikes causing the maiming, disfiguring, and death of manatees all across the Florida coast, and this privilege of swimming with wild manatees may be soon repealed.[17]
Hunting
Trichechus sp.Manatees were traditionally hunted by indigenous Caribbean people. When Christopher Columbus arrived in the region, manatee hunting was an established trade. Native Americans hunted manatees to make war shields, canoes, and shoes, though the manatee was predominantly hunted for its abundant meat. The primary method of hunting the manatee was somewhat crude, as the hunter would use dugout canoes to approach targeted manatees. The hunter would then use various methods of baiting to attract a manatee close enough to hit the animal near the head with an oar-like pole, temporarily stunning the prey. Many times the creature would flip over, leaving it vulnerable to further attacks.
Manatees were also hunted for their valuable bones, which were used to make "special potions." Up until the 1800s, museums paid as much as $100 for manatee bones or hides. Though hunting manatees was banned in 1893, poaching continues today.
Disposition and boat collisions
A sign advising boaters of no-wake manatee zoneManatees are slow-moving, non-aggressive, and generally curious creatures. They enjoy warmer waters and are known to congregate in shallow waters, and frequently migrate through brackish water estuaries to freshwater springs.
Their slow-moving, curious nature, coupled with dense coastal development, has led to many violent collisions with propellers from fast moving recreational motor boats, leading frequently to maiming, disfigurement, and even death. As a result, a large portion of manatees exhibit propeller scars on their backs and they are now even classed by humans from their scar patterns. Some are concerned that the current situation is inhumane, with sometimes upwards of 50 scars and disfigurements from boat strikes on a single manatee.[6][18] Often the cuts lead to infections, which can prove fatal. Internal injuries stemming from hull impacts have also been fatal.
In 2003, a population model was released by the U.S. Geological Survey that predicted an extremely grave situation confronting the manatee in both the Southwest and Atlantic regions where the vast majority of manatees are found. It states, “In the absence of any new management action, that is, if boat mortality rates continue to increase at the rates observed since 1992, the situation in the Atlantic and Southwest regions is dire, with no chance of meeting recovery criteria within 100 years.”[19]
In 2007, a University of Florida study found that more than half of boat drivers in Volusia County, Florida sped through marked conservation zones despite their professed support for the endangered animals, and little difference was found between the driving speeds of ski boats, pontoons, and fishing vessels. In the study, 84 percent of the 236 people who responded said they fully obeyed with speed limits in manatee zones during their most recent boating experience, but observers found that only 45 percent actually complied. "Hurricanes, cold stress, red tide poisoning and a variety of other maladies threaten manatees, but by far their greatest danger is from watercraft strikes, which account for about a quarter of Florida manatee deaths," said study curator John Jett.[20]
Cultural depictions
The manatee has been linked to folklore on mermaids. Native Americans ground the bones to treat asthma and earache. In West African folklore, it was sacred and thought to have been once human. Killing one was taboo and required penance.[21]
'92 C2500 6.5 Turbo Diesel | '96 240sx
A magnetosphere is a highly magnetized region around and possessed by an astronomical object. Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere, as are the magnetized planets Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Jupiter's moon Ganymede is magnetized, but too weak to trap solar wind plasma. Mars has patchy surface magnetization. The term magnetosphere has also been used to describe regions dominated by the magnetic fields of celestial objects, e.g. pulsar magnetospheres.
Artistic rendition of Magnetosphere.Contents [hide]
1 History of magnetospheric physics
2 Earth's magnetosphere
3 General properties
4 Radiation belts
5 Magnetic tails
6 Electric currents in space
7 Classification of magnetic fields
8 Magnetic substorms and storms
9 See also
10 References
11 External links
[edit] History of magnetospheric physics
Main article: Magnetosphere history
The Earth's magnetosphere was discovered in 1958 by Explorer 1 during the research performed for the International Geophysical Year. Before this, scientists knew that electric currents existed in space, because solar eruptions sometimes led to "magnetic storm" disturbances. No one knew, however, where those currents were and why, or that the solar wind existed. In August and September of 1958, Project Argus was performed to test a theory about the formation of radiation belts that may have tactical use in war.
In 1959 Thomas Gold proposed the name "magnetosphere", when he wrote:
"The region above the ionosphere in which the magnetic field of the earth has a dominant control over the motions of gas and fast charged particles is known to extend out to a distance of the order of 10 earth radii; it may appropriately be called the magnetosphere [Gold, Journal of Geophysical Research, volume 64, page 1219, 1959].
[edit] Earth's magnetosphere
Schematic of Earth's magnetosphere. The solar wind flows from left to right.Main article: Earth's magnetic field
The magnetosphere of Earth is a region in space whose shape is determined by the extent of Earth's internal magnetic field, the solar wind plasma, and the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). In the magnetosphere, a mix of free ions and electrons from both the solar wind and the Earth's ionosphere is confined by magnetic and electric forces that are much stronger than gravity and collisions. In spite of its name, the magnetosphere is distinctly non-spherical. On the side facing the Sun, the distance to its boundary (which varies with solar wind intensity) is about 70,000 km (10-12 Earth radii or RE, where 1 RE=6371 km; unless otherwise noted, all distances here are from the Earth's center). The boundary of the magnetosphere ("magnetopause") is roughly bullet shaped, about 15 RE abreast of Earth and on the night side (in the "magnetotail" or "geotail") approaching a cylinder with a radius 20-25 RE. The tail region stretches well past 200 RE, and the way it ends is not well-known.
The outer neutral gas envelope of Earth, or geocorona, consists mostly of the lightest atoms, hydrogen and helium, and continues beyond 4-5 RE, with diminishing density. The hot plasma ions of the magnetosphere acquire electrons during collisions with these atoms and create an escaping "glow" of fast atoms that have been used to image the hot plasma clouds by the IMAGE mission. The upward extension of the ionosphere, known as the plasmasphere, also extends beyond 4-5 RE with diminishing density, beyond which it becomes a flow of light ions called the polar wind that escapes out of the magnetosphere into the solar wind. Energy deposited in the ionosphere by auroras strongly heats the heavier atmospheric components such as oxygen and molecules of oxygen and nitrogen, which would not otherwise escape from Earth's gravity. Owing to this highly variable heating, however, a heavy atmospheric or ionospheric outflow of plasma flows during disturbed periods from the auroral zones into the magnetosphere, extending the region dominated by terrestrial material, known as the fourth or plasma geosphere, at times out to the magnetopause.
[edit] General properties
Density and temperature of plasma in the magnetosphere and other areas of space. Density increases upwards, temperature increases towards the right. The free electrons in a metal may be considered an electron plasma[1]Two factors determine the structure and behavior of the magnetosphere: (1) The internal field of the Earth, and (2) The solar wind.
The internal field of the Earth (its "main field") appears to be generated in the Earth's core by a dynamo process, associated with the circulation of liquid metal in the core, driven by internal heat sources. Its major part resembles the field of a bar magnet ("dipole field") inclined by about 10° to the rotation axis of Earth, but more complex parts ("higher harmonics") also exist, as first shown by Carl Friedrich Gauss. The dipole field has an intensity of about 30,000-60,000 nanoteslas (nT) at the Earth's surface, and its intensity diminishes like the inverse of the cube of the distance, i.e. at a distance of R Earth radii it only amounts to 1/R³ of the surface field in the same direction. Higher harmonics diminish faster, like higher powers of 1/R, making the dipole field the only important internal source in most of the magnetosphere.
The solar wind is a fast outflow of hot plasma from the sun in all directions. Above the sun's equator it typically attains 400 km/s; above the sun's poles, up to twice as much. The flow is powered by the million-degree temperature of the sun's corona, for which no generally accepted explanation exists as yet. Its composition resembles that of the Sun—about 95% of the ions are protons, about 4% helium nuclei, with 1% of heavier matter (C, N, O, Ne, Si, Mg... up to Fe) and enough electrons to keep charge neutrality. At Earth's orbit its typical density is 6 ions/cm3 (variable, as is the velocity), and it contains a variable interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) of (typically) 2–5 nT. The IMF is produced by stretched-out magnetic field lines originating on the Sun, a process described in the article Geomagnetic storm.
Physical reasons make it difficult for solar wind plasma with its embedded IMF to mix with terrestrial plasma whose magnetic field has a different source. The two plasmas end up separated by a boundary, the magnetopause, and the Earth's plasma is confined to a cavity inside the flowing solar wind, the magnetosphere. The isolation is not complete, thanks to secondary processes such as magnetic reconnection —otherwise it would be hard for the solar wind to transmit much energy to the magnetosphere—but it still determines the overall configuration.
An additional feature is a collision-free bow shock which forms in the solar wind ahead of Earth, typically at 13.5 RE on the sunward side. It forms because the solar velocity of the wind exceeds (typically 2–3 times) that of Alfvén waves, a family of characteristic waves with which disturbances propagate in a magnetized fluid. In the region behind the shock ("magnetosheath") the velocity drops briefly to the Alfvén velocity (and the temperature rises, absorbing lost kinetic energy), but the velocity soon rises back as plasma is dragged forward by the surrounding solar wind flow.
To understand the magnetosphere, one needs to visualize its magnetic field lines, that everywhere point in the direction of the magnetic field—e.g., diverging out near the magnetic north pole (or geographic southpole), and converging again around the magnetic south pole (or the geographic northpole), where they enter the Earth. They can be visualized like wires which tie the magnetosphere together—wires that also guide the motions of trapped particles, which slide along them like beads (though other motions may also occur).
[edit] Radiation belts
When the first scientific satellites were launched in the first half of 1958--Explorers 1 and 3 by the US, Sputnik 3 by the Soviet Union--they observed an intense (and unexpected) radiation belt around Earth, held by its magnetic field. "My God, Space is Radioactive!" exclaimed one of Van Allen's colleagues, when the meaning of those observations was realized. That was the "inner radiation belt" of protons with energies in the range 10-100 MeV (megaelectronvolts), attributed later to "albedo neutron decay," a secondary effect of the interaction of cosmic radiation with the upper atmosphere. It is centered on field lines crossing the equator about 1.5 RE from the Earth's center.
Later a population of trapped ions and electrons was observed on field lines crossing the equator at 2.5–8 RE. The high-energy part of that population (about 1 MeV) became known as the "outer radiation belt", but its bulk is at lower energies (peak about 65 keV) and is identified as the ring current plasma.
The trapping of charged particles in a magnetic field can be quite stable. This is particularly true in the inner belt, because the build-up of trapped protons from albedo neutrons is quite slow, requiring years to reach observed intensities. In July 1962, the United States tested an H-bomb high over the South Pacific at around 400 km in the upper atmosphere, in this region, creating an artificial belt of high-energy electrons, and some of them were still around 4–5 years later (such tests are now banned by treaty).
The outer belt and ring current are less persistent, because charge-exchange collisions with atoms of the geocorona (see above) tends to remove their particles. That suggests the existence of an effective source mechanism, continually supplying this region with fresh plasma. It turns out that the magnetic barrier can be broken down by electric forces, as discussed in MSPF. If plasma is pushed hard enough, it generates electric fields which allow it to move in response to the push, often (not always) deforming the magnetic field in the process.
[edit] Magnetic tails
A view from the IMAGE satellite showing Earth's plasmasphere using its Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) imager instrument.A magnetic tail or magnetotail is formed by pressure from the solar wind on a planet's magnetosphere. The magnetotail can extend great distances away from its originating planet. Earth's magnetic tail extends at least 200 Earth radii in the anti-sunward direction well beyond the orbit of the Moon at about 60 Earth radii, while Jupiter's magnetic tail extends beyond the orbit of Saturn. On occasion Saturn is immersed inside the Jovian magnetosphere.
The extended magnetotail results from energy stored in the planet's magnetic field. At times this energy is released and the magnetic field becomes temporarily more dipole-like. As it does so that stored energy goes to energize plasma trapped on the involved magnetic field lines. Some of that plasma is driven tailward and into the distant solar wind. The rest is injected into the inner magnetosphere where it results in the aurora and the ring current plasma population. The resulting energetic plasma and electric currents can disrupt spacecraft operations, communication and navigation.
[edit] Electric currents in space
Magnetic fields in the magnetosphere arise from the Earth's internal magnetic field as well as from electric currents that flow in the magnetospheric plasma: the plasma acts as a kind of electromagnet. Magnetic fields from currents that circulate in the magnetospheric plasma extend the Earth's magnetism much further in space than would be predicted from the Earth's internal field alone. Such currents also determine the field's structure far from Earth, creating the regions described in the introduction above.
Unlike in a conventional resistive electric circuit, where currents are best thought of as arising as a response to an applied voltage, currents in the magnetosphere are better seen as being caused by the structure and motion of the plasma in its associated magnetic field. For instance, electrons and positive ions trapped in the dipole-like field near the Earth tend to circulate around the magnetic axis of the dipole (the line connecting the magnetic poles) in a ring around the Earth, without gaining or losing energy (this is known as Guiding center motion). Viewed from above the magnetic north pole (geographic south), ions circulate clockwise, electrons counterclockwise, producing a net circulating clockwise current, known (from its shape) as the ring current. No voltage is needed--the current arises naturally from the motion of the ions and electrons in the magnetic field.
Any such current will modify the magnetic field. The ring current, for instance, strengthens the field on its outside, helping expand the size of the magnetosphere. At the same time, it weakens the magnetic field in its interior. In a magnetic storm, plasma is added to the ring current, making it temporarily stronger, and the field at Earth is observed to weaken by up to 1-2%.
The deformation of the magnetic field, and the flow of electric currents in it, are intimately linked, making it often hard to label one as cause and the other as effect. Frequently (as in the magnetopause and the magnetotail) it is intuitively more useful to regard the distribution and flow of plasma as the primary effect, producing the observed magnetic structure, with the associated electric currents just one feature of those structures, more of a consistency requirement of the magnetic structure.
As noted, one exception (at least) exists, a case where voltages do drive currents. That happens with Birkeland currents, which flow from distant space into the near-polar ionosphere, continue at least some distance in the ionosphere, and then return to space. (Part of the current then detours and leaves Earth again along field lines on the morning side, flows across midnight as part of the ring current, then comes back to the ionosphere along field lines on the evening side and rejoins the pattern.) The full circuit of those currents, under various conditions, is still under debate.
Because the ionosphere is an ohmic conductor of sorts, such flow will heat it up. It will also give rise to secondary Hall currents, and accelerate magnetospheric particles--electrons in the arcs of the polar aurora, and singly-ionized oxygen ions (O+) which contribute to the ring current.
[edit] Classification of magnetic fields
Schematic view of the different current systems which shape the Earth's magnetosphereRegardless of whether they are viewed as sources or consequences of the magnetospheric field structure, electric currents flow in closed circuits. That makes them useful for classifying different parts of the magnetic field of the magnetosphere, each associated with a distinct type of circuit. In this way the field of the magnetosphere is often resolved into 5 distinct parts, as follows.
The internal field of the Earth ("main field") arising from electric currents in the core. It is dipole-like, modified by higher harmonic contributions.
The ring current field, carried by plasma trapped in the dipole-like field around Earth, typically at distances 3–8 RE (less during large storms). Its current flows (approximately) around the magnetic equator, mainly clockwise when viewed from north. (A small counterclockwise ring current flows at the inner edge of the ring, caused by the fall-off in plasma density as Earth is approached).
The field confining the Earth's plasma and magnetic field inside the magnetospheric cavity. The currents responsible for it flow on the magnetopause, the interface between the magnetosphere and the solar wind, described in the introduction. Their flow, again, may be viewed as arising from the geometry of the magnetic field (rather than from any driving voltage), a consequence of "Ampére's law" (embodied in Maxwell's equations) which in this case requires an electric current to flow along any interface between magnetic fields of different directions and/or intensities. The system of tail currents. The magnetotail consists of twin bundles of oppositely directed magnetic field (the "tail lobes"), directed earthwards in the northern half of the tail and away from Earth in the southern half. In between the two exists a layer ("plasma sheet") of denser plasma (0.3-0.5 ions/cm3 vs. 0.01-0.02 in the lobes), and because of the difference between the adjoining magnetic fields, by Ampére's law an electric current flows there too, directed from dawn to dusk. The flow closes (as it must) by following the tail magnetopause--part over the northern lobe, part over the southern one.
The Birkeland current field (and its branches in the ionosphere and ring current), a circuit is associated with the polar aurora. Unlike the 3 preceding current systems, it does require a constant input of energy, to provide the heating of its ionospheric path and the acceleration of auroral electrons and of positive ions. The energy probably comes from a dynamo process, meaning that part of the circuit threads a plasma moving relative to Earth, either in the solar wind and in "boundary layer" flows which it drives just inside the magnetopause, or by plasma moving earthward in the magnetotail, as observed during substorms (below).
[edit] Magnetic substorms and storms
Earlier it was stated that "if plasma is pushed hard enough, it generates electric fields which allow it to move in response to the push, often (not always) deforming the magnetic field in the process." Two examples of such "pushing" are particularly important in the magnetosphere. The THEMIS mission is a NASA program to study in detail the physical processes involved in substorms.
The more common one occurs when the north-south component Bz of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is appreciable and points southward. In this state field lines of the magnetosphere are relatively strongly linked to the IMF, allowing energy and plasma to enter it at relatively high rates. This swells up the magnetotail and makes it unstable. Ultimately the tail's structure changes abruptly and violently, a process known as a magnetic substorm.
Magnetic reconnection in the near-Earth magnetotail, producing a disconnected "plasmoid"One possible scenario (the subject is still being debated) is as follows. As the magnetotail swells, it creates a wider obstacle to the solar wind flow, causing its widening portion to be squeezed more by the solar wind. In the end, this squeezing breaks apart field lines in the plasma sheet ("magnetic reconnection"), and the distant part of the sheet, no longer attached to the Earth, is swept away as an independent magnetic structure ("plasmoid"). The near-Earth part snaps back earthwards, energizing its particles and producing Birkeland currents and bright auroras. As observed in the 1970s by the ATS satellites at 6.6 RE, when conditions are favorable that can happen up to several times a day.
Substorms generally do not substantially add to the ring current. That happens in magnetic storms, when following an eruption on the sun (a "coronal mass ejection" or a "solar flare"—details are still being debated, see MSPF) a fast-moving plasma cloud hits the Earth. If the IMF has a southward component, this not only pushes the magnetopause boundary closer to Earth (at times to about half its usual distance), but it also produces an injection of plasma from the tail, much more vigorous than the one associated with substorms.
The plasma population of the ring current may now grow substantially, and a notable part of the addition consists of O+ oxygen ions extracted from the ionosphere as a by-product of the polar aurora. In addition, the ring current is driven earthward (which energizes its particles further), temporarily modifying the field around the Earth and thus shifting the aurora (and its current system) closer to the equator.
'92 C2500 6.5 Turbo Diesel | '96 240sx
Am I the only one that thinks this is ricey as hell???
Sorry.
as a matter of fact ur not
Orly?
'92 C2500 6.5 Turbo Diesel | '96 240sx
Orly #2
'92 C2500 6.5 Turbo Diesel | '96 240sx
Thank goodness.as a matter of fact ur not
I was starting to wonder where IA's integrity was going when people are giving props to someone who spray-painted their interior pieces.
Sorry OP.
all im saying is wow....................................
It's a joke thread, he's making fun of this one:
Post your painted/custom ECU covers
And JITB: EL- OH-fucking EL!!!!!!!!!!!
^^ Yeah, I drew a frame of a man running on each fan blade. That is him running at idle
Oh....
Guess I've been underway for too long.
x_X
This thread has had me laughing my ass off hahahaha.
courtesy of whoever posted this before I stole it.
Da Nastyist Whipz Member #9
"Muh fuggas don kno, got dat gangsta green biniss maikin tha dirtlegs say HAY. Da Naystiezt whipz, rillis crew in da A"
I dont have any pics of the seat belt covers but here is my ecu lid......
I've been searching ebay and craigslist all night for clear seat belt covers...or maybe transparent with a pink or purple tint.
I dont think I'm experienced enough to pull this mod off.
....right.
Got a MINI?Don't talk to me.
FUCK your FADS
looks good! keep up the good work!
Next mod?
Epic thread is epic.
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