The Sun is particularly active at the moment, unleashing
Sun activity increases and decreases in an 11-year cycle known as the
These sunspots are caused by changes in the magnetic field of the Sun, as the Sun’s equator rotates faster than the poles and
“The Sun’s magnetic fields rise through the convection zone and erupt through the photosphere into the chromosphere and corona,”
The magnetic field of the Sun flips during the cycle, like a
“The solar magnetic structure changes over the solar cycle. It has a dipole structure during solar minimum, where the open flux extends mainly from the polar regions into the interplanetary space,” one
It doesn’t remain in that dipole state for long, before the rotation of the Sun twists up its magnetic field, pushing on the cycle.
“During maximum, a complex structure is formed with low-latitude active regions,” the paper continues, “and weakened polar fields, resulting in spread open field regions.”
So where are we now in the cycle? At the moment, the Sun’s activity is increasing, with the next solar maximum predicted to be sometime between
However, one team believes they have a
This terminator event tends to happen up to two years after the minimum, and by focusing on these events, the team believed they could make better predictions about the solar cycles.
“If you measure how long a cycle is, not the minimum to minimum, but from terminator to terminator, you see that there is a strong linear relationship between how long one cycle is and how strong the next one is going to be,” NASA research scientist Robert Leamon told
Using these methods, they predict the magnetic field will flip in mid-2024, a few months before the solar maximum.
[H/T: