Annual Variation of Local Photon Emissions’ Spectral Power within the mHz Range Overlaps with Seismic-Atmospheric Acoustic Oscillations

doi:10.4236/ijg.2012.31021

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International Journal of Geosciences, 2012, 3, 192-194

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ijg.2012.31021 Published Online February 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ijg)

Annual Variation of Local Photon Emissions’ Spectral

Power within the mHz Range Overlaps with

Seismic-Atmospheric Acoustic Oscillations

Michael A. Persinger

Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada

Email: [email protected]

Received November 14, 2011; revised December 23, 2011; accepted January 25, 2012

ABSTRACT

Spheroidal modes of seismic and acoustic oscillation s in the atmosphere occur within the 2 to 7 mHz range with peak-

to-peak variations in the order of 10–12 to 10–11 m·s–2. Previous research indicated the amplitudes for 230 s and 270 s

periods peak during the summer months. In the present study the amplitudes of a reliably apparent 3 mHz increment

from spectral analyses of minute-to-minute measurements of background photon emissions by a photomultiplier tube

housed in a dark room were sampled for a one year period. The peak increase in the power of this increment was maxi-

mal dur ing the summer months and overlapped conspicuously with the annual variation in fundamental spheroidal modes

of seismic free oscillations. Quantitative estimates indicate that relative shifts in the order of 10–11 W/m2 for photon

emissions may reflect the annual variation in coupled oscillations between the earth and atmosphere.

Keywords: Photon Emissions; Earth Oscillations; Spheroidal Modes; Periodicity; Annual Variations

1. Introduction

Fundamental spheroidal modes or background free

oscillations within the earth have been firmly established

[1]. They occupy a relatively wide band, primarily within

the 2 - 7 mHz range [2], whose general peak-to-peak

amplitudes are ~0.5 nGal (nanogalileos) where 1 nGal =

10–11 m·s –2. This “earth hum” originates in the Pacific and

southern oceans depending upon season [3]. The sources

of these oscillations are not likely to be averaged forces

from cumulative amplitudes of many small earthquakes.

According to Nishida et al. [3] the excitation source is

not within the solid earth but emerges at the boundary

between the earth’s surface and the atmosphere.

Within this interface seismic free oscillations resonate

with acoustic free oscillations of the atmosphere. These

authors reported annual oscillations in the amplitude of

Raleigh waves, particularly around 230 s (4.3 mHz) and

270 s (3.7 mHz), over a nine year period. These peaks

corresponded to fundamental spheroidal mode 0S29 and

0S37, respectively. The annual variation in amplitude ranged

from 0.4 to 0.6 nGal with a peak during the summer

months. The equivalent annual variation in infrared flux,

which overlapped significantly with the annual variations

in model amplitudes, ranged from about 232 to 242 W/m2.

The coincidence was interpreted as evidence that the

dynamic pressure from some source within the at mos p her e

excites the Earth’s free oscillations.

For the last three years minute-to-minute measures of

background photon emission have been recorded by the

station’s (Sud bury, Ontario) photomultiplier tub e (PMT).

We [4] have found conspicuous increases in photon

emission several days before the major (M > 8.0) global

earthquakes in Japan and Chile during the last two years

and smaller but statistically significant increases in

background ph ot o n e mi s si o n du r in g th e d a ys b ef or e 7. 0 <

M < 8.0 seismic events. To discern if more subtle

changes in photon emissions occurred over the year,

spectral analyses of the power of photon emissions were

sampled. A 3 mHz peak in power was consistently noted in

daily records whose amplitudes changed systematically

over months. Here I report a remarkably similar annual

variation the amplitude of power within a specific

frequency similar to the frequency reported by Nishida et

al. [3] for free earth oscillations.

2. Methods and Materials

A model 15 Photometer from SRI Instruments (Pacific

Photometric Instruments) with a PMT housing (BCA

IP21) for a RCA electron tube (no filters) has been housed

in the same locus for over three years. It is located in a

dark room in the basement of the Classroom Building at

Laurentian University. Th e PMT is connected to a digital

voltmeter; continuously fluctuating values are sampled

and stored once per min, 24 hr/ day by a IBM ThinkPad

M. A. PERSINGER 193

laptop (Windows 95) computer ( i.e., total of 1440 samples/

day). Calibration by several methods indicated that 1 unit

of change along the 1 to 100 unit PMT scale is

approximately 5 × 10–11 W/m2 when referenced to the

midrange, i.e., 50 units [5]. The data for the quietist day,

judged by visual inspection of printed daily records, and

for the day when global seismic activity was minimal for

several days before and afterwards was extracted for each

month between July 2009 and June 2010 . Spectral a nal yse s

were completed by SPSS PC-16 software and Plotter for

con- firmation. The relative power for the 3 mHz peak,

tha t r ang ed f rom 0 .2 to 0. 6, w as obt ain ed f or each month.

The power was superimposed over the annual v aria tio n i n

free oscillations and infrared flux in Figure 2B of

Nishada et al’s data [3] that were replotted for this paper.

Because the PMT measurements began in July 2009 the

first part of the year wa s for the following year 2010.

3. Results

The relative spectral power for the 3 mHz peak over the

12 months (January = 1) is indicated by the large black

circles in Figure 1. The solid square (0S20) an d thin solid

line (0S45) reflect the 9 year data averages for free earth

oscillations from Nishada et al. [3 ]; the ver tical b ars wer e

their fitting errors. The circles and dashed line indicate

the infrared flux at the top of the atmosphere. It is clear

that the annual variation of the spectral power for 3 mHz

oscillation in background photon emissions peaked dur-

ing the summer months (for that year) and overlapped

with the amplitude variations of earth oscillations.

4. Discussion and Implications

There is classic theoretical and empirical evidence that

photon emissions can originate from the types of silicates

contained within crustal structures. Presumably the source

Figure 1. Monthly amplitudes in ngals (10–11 m·s–2) for earth

oscillations in two modes (open circles and squares) and in-

frared flux densities (solid squares) from Nishada et al. in

comparison with the spectral powers of photon emission os-

cillations (large solid circles) around 3 mHz.

of such emissions would be subtle mechanical pressures

or electromagnetic stimuli. According to Nishada et al.

[3 ] dynamic pressure of atmospheric origin is a likely ma-

jor source to excite Earth’s free oscillations. One par-

ticular conspicuous spectral frequency, around 3 mHz, from

measurements for one year of background photon emis-

sions in a darkened basement room in the Sudbury Basin

displayed an annual variation that was remarkably simi-

lar to the amplitudes of both free earth oscillations and

infrared flux density.

For Nishada et al’s [3] data the amplitude of variation

for the major 0S29 mode was 40% with the remaining

modes about 10%. In comparison the infrared flux den si ty

variation was about 5%. The amplitude of variation for

the photon emission amplitudes at 3 mHz would be more

approximate because of the relative measures. However

considering the peak higher frequencies with values around

2.0 to 2.5, the range of 0.4 relative power units would be

equivalent to a variation between 16% and 20%. With a

mean background PMT measurement of 5 × 10–11 W/m2

and +/– 2 standard deviations (range) of ~5 units during a

quiet period over a 24 hr interval, this would be equi-

valent to between 1 and 2 × 10–11 W/m2. For comparison

the equivalent magnetic energy derived from B2 = J 2 µ/m3

would be about 5 nT. This magnitude is similar to

geomagnetic pulsations arising in the earth-solar wind

environment at surface midlatitude locations and is also

within the range of the mean value for the solar wind [6].

Although the effects of subtle geophysical forces and

energies upon the hu man observer are often no t co n si d er e d

in traditional geophysics, the 0.5 nGal (0.5 × 10–11 m/s2)

free oscillations may be more important than assumed. F or

a 70 kg mass (the average human being), the resulting

force would be 3.5 × 10–10 N which is within the range of

forces for cell-to-cell adhesion [7]. When applied to the

volume of a person with a cross section of 0.25 m2 the

resulting pressure would be ~1.4 × 10–9 Pa which is

remarkably similar to the averaged universal p ressure [8].

When multiplied by the person’s volume (assuming 7 × 10–2

m3) the energy would be 9.8 × 10–11 J. If the variation

was 1 Hz, the power density would be ~3.9 × 10–10 W/m2.

Interestingly, this is the same order of magnitude as “spon-

taneous” photon emission from the right hemisphere of

cerebrums during visualization of light by some dark-

adapted human volunteers sitting in the dark [9] and cell

cultures when removed from optimal thermal environments

[5].

If the temporal distribution of the energy change in-

volved the 270 s or 230 s periods from the earth oscilla-

tions the energy would be in the range of 1.4 to 1.7 ×

10–12 W/m2 which is within the range generated by tissue

slices from the hippocampus [10], the area of the brain

involved with memory consolidation. Interesting, the pho-

ton emissions measured from the body surface are ~107

M. A. PERSINGER

194

photons/s·m2 [11]. Assuming the emitted photons are

within the visible wavelengths, each with the unit energy

of 10–19 J, the resulting power density is within the order

of 10–12 W/m2. Traditionally calculated radial currents

values from the spherical harmonic coefficients for the

non-potential geomagnetic field within which seismic

and atmospheric oscillations are immersed are in the or-

der of 10–9 A/m2 [12] and when applied across potential

differences of 10–3 V, the interface between the domains

of cerebral steady potential shifts and electroencephalogra-

phic activity, would be ~ 10–12 W/m2.

5. Acknowledgements

Thanks to Professors Stanley Koren and Blake T. Dotta

and Mr. Brendan Lehman for technical assistance.

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