On Dec 13, 2006, the sun itself provided a crucial clue, when a solar flare sent a stream of particles and radiation toward Earth. Purdue nuclear engineer Jere Jenkins, while measuring the decay rate of manganese-54, a short-lived isotope used in medical diagnostics, noticed that the rate dropped slightly during the flare, a decrease that started about a day and a half before the flare.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news201795438.html#jCp The unknown force from the sun must not only increase nuclear decay rates but reduce them. This is an important clue to the nature of this unknown factor. Radioactive decay rates must be embedded in an environment that defines its nature. That environment can be increased or decreased based on solar activity and in fact is defined by solar activity. The sun must provide an average background flux that directly affects the rates of decay. Various parts of the sun contribute to this background. This background comes from the core of the sun, but it can also be effected by localized regions on the sun’s surface. It must be magnetism. Here is why… The high magnetic fields in the sunspot-producing active regions also give rise to explosions known as solar flares. When the twisted field lines cross and reconnect, energy explodes outward with a force exceeding that of millions of hydrogen bombs. Temperatures in the outer layer of the sun, known as the corona, typically fall around a few million kelvins. As solar flares push through the corona, they heat its gas to anywhere from 10 to 20 million K, occasionally reaching as high as a hundred million. Because solar flares form in the same active regions as sunspots, they are connected to these smaller, less violent events. Flares tend to follow the same 11-year cycle. At the peak of the cycle, several flares may occur each day, with an average lifetime of only 10 minutes. Solar flares vary in size and power. The largest, X-class flares have the most significant effect on Earth. They can cause long-lasting radiation storms in the upper atmosphere, and trigger radio blackouts. Medium-size M-class flares can cause brief radio blackouts in the Polar Regions and the occasional minor radiation storms. C-class flares have few noticeable consequences. Absorbing X-rays affects the atmosphere. The increase in heat and energy result in an expansion of the Earth's ionosphere. Man-made radio waves travel through this portion of the upper atmosphere, so radio communications can be disturbed by its sudden unpredictable growth. Similarly, satellites previously circling through vacuum-free space can find themselves caught in the expanded sphere. The resulting friction slows down their orbit, and can bring them back to Earth sooner than intended. Despite their size and high energy, solar flares are almost never visible optically. The bright emission of the surrounding photosphere, where the sun's light originates, tends to overshadow even these explosive phenomena. Radio and optical emissions can be observed on Earth. What I am saying in so many words is that solar flares are very powerful. Clearly, a tremendous amount of magnetic energy is converted in an instant to all the aforementioned energetic phenomena at the expense of the magnetic output of the sun. The sun stores vast amounts of energy in its magnetic fields. A sudden release and conversion of that energy will reduce that magnetic energy storehouse and consequentially reduce the magnetic background around earth that defines the rate of radioactive decay.
