Solar Storms

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Disclaimer - I am making generalizations in my description below. Don't pick my nits unless you just can't stand it!

Solar Cycle 25 is off to a quick start but is not expected to be an intense one. The solar cycle is essentially an observation solar activity via sun spots and intensity with observations recorded back to the 1700's. The cycle is a result of the sun's magnetic field flipping. The flip occurs around the peak of the cycle - roughly every 11 years. Recently, there have been some strong coronal mass ejections (CME) seen on the sun. Those events shoot out millions to billions of tons of material into space and if they happen to be pointed toward the earth, we see the radiation impact (like satellite communication interruption, northern lights, our magnetic field fluxuating, etc.). A large storm with direct earth impact would have much more significant consequences. If this interests you, go read about the Carrington Event of 1859. Our reliance on impacted technology today would make such an event pretty spooky (essentially everything electrical/electronic). A couple of storms have impacted/grazed the earth the past few days. Depending on the energy of the CME, the material can hit the earth in under a day but 3-4 days is more typical. 93 million miles is a long distance to travel! The ones this week took the typical several days.

I decided to take a photo of the sun yesterday (special filter) and we can see a lot of activity with multiple storms - seen as the dark spots in this photo.


The red line is the prediction.

Thanks,
Doug White

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