Some experts believe the upcoming solar maximum could be more active and arrive sooner than previously expected. Here are 10 signs that they are right.
Roughly every 11 years, the sun slowly transitions from solar minimum, when our star is a smooth and calm ball of plasma, to solar maximum, when it becomes a chaotic, fiery mass littered with dark, planet-size sunspots that spew out solar storms.
Rising sunspot numbers The main way scientists track solar cycle progression is by counting the number of sunspots on our home star's surface. These dark patches are a sign that the sun's magnetic field is getting tangled, which ramps up solar activity. The number of X-class flares is on the rise. There have already been eight of these enormous flares in 2023, including a surprise X-class flare from the sun's far side in January, and another in February that launched a CME directly at Earth, triggering radio blackouts. In comparison, there were only seven X-class flares in the whole of 2022 and two in 2021.
So far in 2023, two G3 storms and three G4 storms have bombarded Earth. For context, there were only two G3 storms and no G4 storms in 2022 and only one of each in 2021, according to SpaceWeatherLive.com. The thermosphere naturally warms and cools in conjunction with the solar cycle. But the peak temperature, which occurred in March, was the highest for almost 20 years. This is a strong sign that the current solar cycle is more active than the previous one.
To further highlight the sun's restless state, the star also happened to belch out a large CME as the eclipse was taking place, which is clearly visible in the image. Fiery plasma waterfall Scientists recently spotted another unusual sight on the sun's surface: a"plasma waterfall," also known as a polar crown prominence , which rose above the surface of the sun on March 9 before raining plasma back onto the star.
The never-before-seen vortex was created when a massive tentacle of plasma snapped apart in the sun's atmosphere and fell back toward the sun, similar to how a PCP forms. But scientists don't know exactly why the plasma stayed above the sun's surface for so long.Butterfly CME The number of CMEs shooting out of the sun has increased alongside the rise in the number of solar flares.
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