1st Sign of Spring in Space–Solar Cycle 24
Last spring the NOAA, NASA, and ISES Solar Cycle 24 prediction has been sent out through an official Prediction Panel. This group involved NOAA, NASA, ISES and many other representatives from the United States and around the world. This group plans on making an annual prediction regarding this space phenomena from now on.
The prediction will begin in March 2008, with the solar cycle 24 reaching its peak within the years 2010 to 2011. In December of 2006, solar physicist David Hathaway at the Marshall Space Flight Center is predicting that this period will be “one of the most intense cycles since record-keeping began almost 400 years ago.”
The way the predictions are being made is with historical records of previous geomagnetic storms. Observations of geomagnetic activity have been looked over for the past 150 years, with patterns being discovered. One pattern shows that the amount of geomagnetic activity shows the scientists what the solar cycle will be like in the next six to eight year future.
For the past year, the sun has been rather sluggish in its solar activity, which has showed the end of the Solar Cycle 23. That cycle had serious solar storms, peaking in 200-2003. The only thing the matter with such a peaceful time is right around the corner, the next solar cycle is upon us—which it is now. Signs of a high-latitude and reversed polarity sunspot start the new solar show.
What reversed polarity means is that a particular sunspot will be compared to previous sunspots from previous solar cycle—with the sunspot having opposite magnetic polarity. The phrase high-latitude is the sun’s latitude and longitude grid. While the sun’s equator gathers the old sunspots, the new ones will develop around the 25 to 30 degree latitude.
Once the solar storm begins to gather strength, it will have the ability to disable satellites for weather forecasts and GPS navigation. Cell phone receptions will be tremendously altered through coronal mass ejections when they hit earth, which will cause electrical power outages.
“Solar storms have a big effect on polar regions of our planet,” says Steve Hill of the Space Weather Prediction Center. “When airplanes fly over the poles during solar storms, they can experience radio blackouts, navigation errors and computer reboots all caused by space radiation.” Avoiding the poles during solar storms solves the problem, but it costs extra time, money and fuel to “take the long way around.”
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 1:47 am and is filed under Public Relations, Space Agency News, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
