8/18/2019 How Something is Happened
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The calm before the solar storm? NASA warns 'something
unexpected is happening to
the Sun'
'Something unexpected' is happening on the Sun, Nasa has
warned.
This year was supposed to be the year of 'solar maximum,' the
peak of the 11-year sunspot
cycle.
ut as this image re!eals, solar acti!ity is relati!ely low.
Sunspot numbers are well below their !alues from "#11, and
strong solar flares ha!e been
infre$uent, as this image shows - despite Nasa forecasting ma%or
solar storms
'Sunspot numbers are well below their !alues from "#11, and
strong solar flares ha!e been
infre$uent,' the space agency says.
The image abo!e shows the &arth-facing surface of the Sun on
ebruary "(, "#1), as
obser!ed by the *elioseismic and +agnetic mager *+ on N/S/'s
Solar 0ynamics
bser!atory.
t obser!ed %ust a few small sunspots on an otherwise clean face,
which is usually riddled
with many spots during peak solar acti!ity.
&xperts ha!e been baffled by the apparent lack of acti!ity -
with many wondering if N/S/
simply got it wrong.
*owe!er, Solar physicist 0ean 2esnell of N/S/3s 4oddard Space
light 5enter belie!es he
has a different explanation.
'This is solar maximum,' he says.
'ut it looks different from what we expected because it is
double-peaked.'
'The last two solar maxima, around 16(6 and "##1, had not one
but two peaks.'
Solar acti!ity went up, dipped, then rose again, performing a
mini-cycle that lasted about two
years, he said.
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7esearchers ha!e recently captured massi!e
sunspots on the solar surface - and belie!ed we
should ha!e seen more
The same thing could be happening now, as
sunspot counts %umped in "#11 and dipped in
"#1", he belie!es.
2esnell expects them to rebound in "#1)8 ' am comfortable in
saying that another peak will
happen in "#1) and possibly last into "#19.'
*e spotted a similarity between Solar 5ycle "9 and Solar 5ycle
19, which had a double-peakduring the first decade of the "#th
century.
f the two cycles are twins, 'it would mean one peak in late "#1)
and another in "#1:'.
THE SOLA !"!LE
5on!entional wisdom holds that solar
acti!ity swings back and forth like a simple
pendulum.
/t one end of the cycle, there is a $uiet
time with few sunspots and flares.
/t the other end, solar max brings high
sunspot numbers and fre$uent solar storms.
t3s a regular rhythm that repeats e!ery 11
years.
7eality is more complicated.
/stronomers ha!e been counting sunspots
for centuries, and they ha!e seen that the
