Atmospheric Dynamo

Scientists say that the magnetic field protects the atmosphere of earth, shielding us from the solar wind that tries to blow away the atmosphere that we breathe. They also say that the magnetic field is weakening and will someday disappear for a while as it flips. (http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/29dec_magneticfield/)

Should we fear the end of life on earth, or are scientists WRONG?

Let's question the basic "facts." Are science teachers wrong when they tell us that the earth's magnetic field is generated by the iron core of the earth?

 Nobody has ever sampled the core of the earth.

There are no known geological layers of solid iron.

As far as we know, volcanoes have never spewed molten iron.

However, deep-ocean ridges have produced iron-rich material which cooled into magnetized rocks. These rocks have alternating magnetic orientation indicating that the earth's magnetic field has flipped many times in the past. Nasa says that the last flip happened 780,000 years ago and the weakening of the magnetic field may indicate that another flip is imminent.  (http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012-poleReversal.html)

If the magnetic field of the earth has flipped so many times, how does that  happen? The earth has too much angular momentum to stop spinning and rotate the other way. The core of the earth also has tremendous angular momentum and there is no known mechanism for it to stop spinning and begin spinning backwards.

It is possible that scientists are WRONG because they started from the assumption that the earth's magnetic field is caused by metal deep underground.

Has anybody considered the possibility that the magnetic field could be caused the movement of ions in the atmosphere? There is a reason why the outer atmosphere is called the ionosphere. It is highly ionized by solar radiation, but more so on the daylight side of the earth. (http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/ionosphere)

Since the earth's ionosphere is rotating with the earth, a slight excess of positive or negative ions would create electric and magnetic fields. Nasa says there is a layer of atmosphere called a 'magnetosphere,' where the solar wind pushes against earth's outermost atmosphere and the magnetic field of earth acts as a giant shield. (http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/29dec_magneticfield/)

If the magnetic field were generated by an atmospheric dynamo, then we would expect the atmosphere to maintain angular momentum in spite of fluctuation in ionic concentration. An excess of positive ions could dissipate and be replaced by an excess of negative ions. The ions would continue to rotate with the earth, but the earth's magnetic field would flip.

One implication is that a magnetic flip could occur rapidly. Maybe it could be triggered by a solar flare impacting our magnetosphere. Or perhaps a comet strike or giant meteor or supervolcano might induce a magnetic field to flip. There is no evidence that a flip would take thousands of years and there is no evidence that the atmosphere gets blown away during a magnetic flip.

Another implication is that terraforming might be as simple as introducing a photosynthetic bacteria to a planet that rotates fast enough to maintain an atmospheric dynamo that generates a protective magnetic field. This means that the moon probably can't be terraformed because it rotates slowly. Mars has a rotation about the same as earth, but it has a weak magnetic field. If photosynthetic bacteria produced oxygen on Mars, would an atmospheric dynamo generate a stronger magnetic field? It would be far easier than trying to start a molten iron dynamo at the core.

Either we are we on the edge of extinction, or we will terraform barren planets into lush new worlds. Our future depends on whether we believe that our salvation is in the center of the earth or in the heavens.