The Size Of A Sunspot At The Moment Makes It Visible Without A Telescope

You can see Sunspot AR3310 with solar viewing glasses, the snazzy, disposable sunglasses you foolishly tossed away after the previous eclipse. Sunspots are regions of the Sun that seem darker because their temperature is a little lower.

The National Weather Service notes that sunspots are regions on the sun where the magnetic field is significantly stronger than anyplace else, at a rate of around 2,500 times that of Earth. "The strong magnetic field causes the magnetic pressure to rise while the air pressure outside falls. The strong magnetic field prevents hot, fresh gas from flowing from the Sun's center to the surface, which reduces the temperature in relation to its surroundings.

The Schwabe cycle is an 11-year cycle in which solar activity increases and drops. Heinrich Schwabe, a German amateur astronomer, watched the Sun from 1826 to 1843 and found that it spins on its axis once every 27 days. He observed how the Sun changes from tranquil times, during which no sunspots are visible, to the peak phase, during which 20 or more groups of sunspots are visible.

Currently, the Sun is becoming more active, and NASA predicts that the next solar maximum will occur around July 2025. However, another team thinks they have a more accurate forecast after examining magnetic donuts that occur at 55 degrees of latitude on the Sun's hemispheres. The scientists named one of these structures, which migrates toward the equator where it meets and cancels itself out, a Hale cycle terminator.

The scientists reasoned that by concentrating on these episodes, which often occur up to two years after the minimum, they may improve their forecasts of the solar cycles.

According to NASA research scientist Robert Leamon, there is a significant linear link between how long one cycle is and how powerful the following one will be if you measure the length of a cycle from terminator to terminator rather than from minimum to minimum. They estimate that the next solar maximum will occur using the method a year early, in the middle of 2024. However, you won't have to wait long to view a spectacular sunspot.

We won't be completely safe from the threat of disruptive space weather occurrences just because the solar maximum has arrived. Strong solar flares and eruptions usually occur on the downside of cycles with odd numbers, as the current Cycle 25, according to statistics, Leamon added. When a cycle has an even number, the early half of the cycle is when hazardous solar storms are most likely to occur.

Since Cycle 25 is unusual, Leamon suggested that the most impactful occurrences may occur in 2025 and 2026, following the maximum. "This is due to the way that the sun's poles rotate every 11 years. For maximum damage and the optimum coupling from the solar wind through the Earth's magnetic field, you want the poles of the sun and Earth to be in the same position.

Leamon continued that it is thus most likely that the largest solar storms of the present cycle would occur after the maximum. About another five years of vigilance are required, he added. The most recent prediction made by the group was published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences in January.