Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016
The Earth's atmosphere and the Earth's magnetic field protects local life by shielding us against Solar particle flows, just like the sun's magnetic field deflects cosmic particle radiation. Generally, magnetic fields can affect terrestrial life such as migrating animals. Thus, terres...
Published in: | International Journal of Astrobiology |
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Cambridge University Press
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ftdlr:oai:elib.dlr.de:113401 2023-07-23T04:21:03+02:00 Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016 Vanselow, Klaus Heinrich Jacobsen, Sven Garthe, Stefan Hall, Chris 2017-08-15 application/pdf https://elib.dlr.de/113401/ https://elib.dlr.de/113401/1/solar_storms_may_trigger_sperm_whale_strandings_explanation_approaches_for_multiple_strandings_in_the_north_sea_in_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1017/S147355041700026X de ger Cambridge University Press https://elib.dlr.de/113401/1/solar_storms_may_trigger_sperm_whale_strandings_explanation_approaches_for_multiple_strandings_in_the_north_sea_in_2016.pdf Vanselow, Klaus Heinrich und Jacobsen, Sven und Garthe, Stefan und Hall, Chris (2017) Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016. International Journal of Astrobiology, 17 (4), Seiten 336-344. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/S147355041700026X <https://doi.org/10.1017/S147355041700026X>. ISSN 1473-5504. SAR-Signalverarbeitung Zeitschriftenbeitrag PeerReviewed 2017 ftdlr https://doi.org/10.1017/S147355041700026X 2023-07-02T23:20:09Z The Earth's atmosphere and the Earth's magnetic field protects local life by shielding us against Solar particle flows, just like the sun's magnetic field deflects cosmic particle radiation. Generally, magnetic fields can affect terrestrial life such as migrating animals. Thus, terrestrial life is connected to astronomical interrelations between different magnetic fields, particle flows and radiation. Mass strandings of whales have often been documented, but their causes and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We investigated the possible reasons for this phenomenon based on a series of strandings of 29 male, mostly bachelor, sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in the southern North Sea in early 2016. Whales’ magnetic sense may play an important role in orientation and migration, and strandings may thus be triggered by geomagnetic storms. This approach is supported by the following: (1) disruptions of the Earth's magnetic field by Solar storms can last about 1 day and lead to short-term magnetic latitude changes corresponding to shifts of up to 460 km; (2) many of these disruptions are of a similar magnitude to more permanent geomagnetic anomalies; (3) geomagnetic anomalies in the area north of the North Sea are 50–150 km in diameter; and (4) sperm whales swim about 100 km day-1, and may thus be unable to distinguish between these phenomena. Sperm whales spend their early, non-breeding years in lower latitudes, where magnetic disruptions by the sun are weak and thus lack experience of this phenomenon. ‘Naïve’ whales may therefore become disoriented in the southern Norwegian Sea as a result of failing to adopt alternative navigation systems in time and becoming stranded in the shallow North Sea. Article in Journal/Newspaper Norwegian Sea Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale German Aerospace Center: elib - DLR electronic library Norwegian Sea International Journal of Astrobiology 17 4 336 344 |
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German Aerospace Center: elib - DLR electronic library |
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German |
topic |
SAR-Signalverarbeitung |
spellingShingle |
SAR-Signalverarbeitung Vanselow, Klaus Heinrich Jacobsen, Sven Garthe, Stefan Hall, Chris Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016 |
topic_facet |
SAR-Signalverarbeitung |
description |
The Earth's atmosphere and the Earth's magnetic field protects local life by shielding us against Solar particle flows, just like the sun's magnetic field deflects cosmic particle radiation. Generally, magnetic fields can affect terrestrial life such as migrating animals. Thus, terrestrial life is connected to astronomical interrelations between different magnetic fields, particle flows and radiation. Mass strandings of whales have often been documented, but their causes and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We investigated the possible reasons for this phenomenon based on a series of strandings of 29 male, mostly bachelor, sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in the southern North Sea in early 2016. Whales’ magnetic sense may play an important role in orientation and migration, and strandings may thus be triggered by geomagnetic storms. This approach is supported by the following: (1) disruptions of the Earth's magnetic field by Solar storms can last about 1 day and lead to short-term magnetic latitude changes corresponding to shifts of up to 460 km; (2) many of these disruptions are of a similar magnitude to more permanent geomagnetic anomalies; (3) geomagnetic anomalies in the area north of the North Sea are 50–150 km in diameter; and (4) sperm whales swim about 100 km day-1, and may thus be unable to distinguish between these phenomena. Sperm whales spend their early, non-breeding years in lower latitudes, where magnetic disruptions by the sun are weak and thus lack experience of this phenomenon. ‘Naïve’ whales may therefore become disoriented in the southern Norwegian Sea as a result of failing to adopt alternative navigation systems in time and becoming stranded in the shallow North Sea. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vanselow, Klaus Heinrich Jacobsen, Sven Garthe, Stefan Hall, Chris |
author_facet |
Vanselow, Klaus Heinrich Jacobsen, Sven Garthe, Stefan Hall, Chris |
author_sort |
Vanselow, Klaus Heinrich |
title |
Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016 |
title_short |
Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016 |
title_full |
Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016 |
title_fullStr |
Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016 |
title_sort |
solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the north sea in 2016 |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://elib.dlr.de/113401/ https://elib.dlr.de/113401/1/solar_storms_may_trigger_sperm_whale_strandings_explanation_approaches_for_multiple_strandings_in_the_north_sea_in_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1017/S147355041700026X |
geographic |
Norwegian Sea |
geographic_facet |
Norwegian Sea |
genre |
Norwegian Sea Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Norwegian Sea Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
op_relation |
https://elib.dlr.de/113401/1/solar_storms_may_trigger_sperm_whale_strandings_explanation_approaches_for_multiple_strandings_in_the_north_sea_in_2016.pdf Vanselow, Klaus Heinrich und Jacobsen, Sven und Garthe, Stefan und Hall, Chris (2017) Solar storms may trigger sperm whale strandings: explanation approaches for multiple strandings in the North Sea in 2016. International Journal of Astrobiology, 17 (4), Seiten 336-344. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/S147355041700026X <https://doi.org/10.1017/S147355041700026X>. ISSN 1473-5504. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/S147355041700026X |
container_title |
International Journal of Astrobiology |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
336 |
op_container_end_page |
344 |
_version_ |
1772186211330293760 |