Articles Tagged "Solar News"

If you think Solar Cycle 24 is weaker and still progressing slower than previous solar cycles? You are correct. For a comparison of Solar Cycles 21, 22, 23 and 24, click here for more.

Our Sun continues to be very active, with most days revealing more sunspots. We saw one new sunspot group on October 9, another on October 10, two more on October 11 and two more on October 12. But that’s not all: There was another on October 13, two more on October 15, two more on October 17, one more on October 19 and three more on October 20. There have been 28 new sunspot groups making an appearance in the last 30 days. But the biggest news is the sunspot number yesterday, Thursday, October 20. The daily sunspot number was 195, a level not equaled or bettered since nearly eight years ago, on November 26, 2003, when it was 209. The closest the daily sunspot number came to equaling Thursday’s value was on July 4, 2005 when it was 192.

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Study measures sun's UV radiation to 'predict' seasons

First-ever 'high-resolution' scan of solar radiation

Cycle's effect on weather 'greater than first thought'

This year's low radiation makes for cold Easterly winds

It's been a lovely Indian summer - but it could come back to bite us.

That's what scientists predict after working out the first ever pattern of activity for the sun.

According to research, the sun runs on an 11-year cycle - and this affects winter weather over the northern hemisphere.

ISS Flies Above the Aurora Australis - YouTube.com


AURORAS UNDERFOOT: Solar activity is picking up, and no one has a better view of its effect on Earth than the crew of the International Space Station. During a geomagnetic storm on Sept. 17th, astronauts recorded a must-see movie of auroras dancing underfoot:

Note how the underbelly of the space station glows green from the reflected light of the auroras below. Also, in the distance, Sirius the dog star and Orion the Hunter can be seen rising feet-first into the night sky.

ScienceCasts: Secret Lives of Solar Flares



Sept. 19, 2011: One hundred and fifty two years ago, a man in England named Richard Carrington discovered solar flares.

It happened at 11:18 AM on the cloudless morning of Thursday, September 1st, 1859. Just as usual on every sunny day, the 33-year-old solar astronomer was busy in his private observatory, projecting an image of the sun onto a screen and sketching what he saw. On that particular morning, he traced the outlines of an enormous group of sunspots. Suddenly, before his eyes, two brilliant beads of white light appeared over the sunspots; they were so bright he could barely stand to look at the screen.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft captured this shot of the X1.8 solar flare on Sept. 7, 2011. CREDIT: NASA/SDO

The sun has continued its string of outbursts this week, unleashing two new, powerful solar flares in two days from a region on its surface that space weather experts have now dubbed "Old Faithful."

An X-class solar flare — the most powerful type of sun storm — erupted Wednesday (Sept. 7) at 6:37 p.m. EDT (2237 GMT). Another flare blazed up today at 11:44 a.m. EDT (1544 GMT). The latter flare appears to be somewhat less intense, but scientists are still taking its measure.

These solar storms follow closely on the heels of two other big flares this week, one Monday (Sept. 5) and one Tuesday. All four storms erupted from the same area, known as sunspot 1283. Sunspots are temporary dark patches on the solar surface caused by intense magnetic activity. [Photos: Sunspots on Earth's Closest Star]

X-flares of Solar Cycle 24: There have been only a handful of X-flares since the beginning of new Solar Cycle 24. Here is a complete list so far, all in 2011: Feb. 15 (X2), March 9 (X1), Aug. 9 (X7), Sept. 6 (X2), Sept. 7 (X2). Before these five, the previous X-flare occured on Dec.14, 2006, (X1) during old Solar Cycle 23.

This image taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory watching the sun shows a powerful solar flare (center right) just minutes after it erupted on 6:20 p.m. EDT (2220 GMT) on Sept. 6, 2011.
CREDIT: NASA/SDO/GSFC

This story was updated at 8:48 p.m. EDT.

Just as many Americans got back to work after the long Labor Day weekend, the sun jolted to life as well, unleashing a massive solar flare just one day after another sun storm sent a stream of particles racing toward Earth.

The X-class solar flare — the most powerful type of sun storm — erupted at 6:12 p.m. EDT (2212 GMT) on Tuesday (Sept. 6) and hit its peak strength eight minutes later, according to a space weather update by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The flare occurred less than 24 hours after another less intense but still dramatic solar storm.

Several different satellites watched the action unfold, including NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which constantly records high-definition videos of the sun in several different wavelengths. (Photo of the X-class solar flare)

If you think Solar Cycle 24 is weaker and still progressing slower than previous solar cycles? You are correct. For a comparison of Solar Cycles 21, 22, 23 and 24, click here for more.

Solar activity rose this week, with the average daily sunspot number rising more than 40 points to 66 points, while the average daily solar flux rose more than 13 points to 101.9. Sunspot numbers for August 18-24 were 53, 46, 59, 66, 82, 81 and 75, with a mean of 66. The 10.7 cm flux was 97.8, 98.2, 100.5, 100.9, 108.2, 103.7 and 104.1, with a mean of 101.9. The estimated planetary A indices were 3, 2, 5, 3, 7, 9 and 6, with a mean of 5. The estimated mid-latitude A indices were 1, 1, 4, 3, 5, 8, and 5, with a mean of 3.9.

The predicted solar flux for August 26 is 110, rising to 115 for August 27-28, 110 for August 29 to September 1, 105 for September 2-3, 100 for September 4-5, 95 on September 6-7 and bottoming out at 90 on September 8-12. The next peak of activity is predicted for September 22-23. The predicted planetary A index is 5 for August 26-27, 10 on August 28, 8 on August 29, and 5 on August 30-September 2, then 8 on September 3, 10 on September 4-6, 7 on September 7, and 5 on September 8-10. Geophysical Institute Prague predicts quiet conditions for August 26, unsettled on August 27-28, quiet to unsettled August 29 and quiet conditions on August 30 through September 1.

For the first time, a spacecraft far from Earth has turned and watched a solar storm engulf our planet. The movie, released today during a NASA press conference, has galvanized solar physicists, who say it could lead to important advances in space weather forecasting.

“The movie sent chills down my spine,” says Craig DeForest of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "It shows a CME swelling into an enormous wall of plasma and then washing over the tiny blue speck of Earth where we live. I felt very small.”



A wide-angle movie recorded by NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft shows a solar storm traveling all the way from the sun to Earth and engulfing our planet.

CMEs are billion-ton clouds of solar plasma launched by the same explosions that spark solar flares. When they sweep past our planet, they can cause auroras, radiation storms, and in extreme cases power outages. Tracking these clouds and predicting their arrival is an important part of space weather forecasting.

“We have seen CMEs before, but never quite like this,” says Lika Guhathakurta, program scientist for the STEREO mission at NASA headquarters. “STEREO-A has given us a new view of solar storms.”

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