Here comes the Sun
Dec. 12th, 2007 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienIt's not official yet, as far as I know, but we may have the first active region of Solar Cycle 24.
Here's a magnetic map of the Sun today:
FTP link
See that faint black-and-white patch at about 10 o'clock, near the edge? Notice that the black is ahead (right) of the white, just as it is in the big region just south of the middle? That's what we call new-cycle polarity, and it might just grow up to be the first numbered region of the new cycle. (In any given eleven-year cycle, one hemisphere has one polarity leading and the other has it following in each active region/sunspot; they start at about 40 degrees latitude and migrate towards the equator, getting stronger until solar maximum when the polarity of the polar caps flips, then gradually fading away. The next cycle has the opposite pattern. (A bit more detail in the Wikipedia article here ).
We had clear skies today, too, after the fog lifted. That was quite dramatic; at 10am I was taking a photo from the bus stop of the fog-bank where the mountains were supposed to be, but by the time the bus came the tip of the highest peak was poking out, snow-dusted, and by the time I got to campus the whole range was clear.
Here's a magnetic map of the Sun today:
FTP link
See that faint black-and-white patch at about 10 o'clock, near the edge? Notice that the black is ahead (right) of the white, just as it is in the big region just south of the middle? That's what we call new-cycle polarity, and it might just grow up to be the first numbered region of the new cycle. (In any given eleven-year cycle, one hemisphere has one polarity leading and the other has it following in each active region/sunspot; they start at about 40 degrees latitude and migrate towards the equator, getting stronger until solar maximum when the polarity of the polar caps flips, then gradually fading away. The next cycle has the opposite pattern. (A bit more detail in the Wikipedia article here ).
We had clear skies today, too, after the fog lifted. That was quite dramatic; at 10am I was taking a photo from the bus stop of the fog-bank where the mountains were supposed to be, but by the time the bus came the tip of the highest peak was poking out, snow-dusted, and by the time I got to campus the whole range was clear.
re-Sun
Date: 2007-12-13 09:46 pm (UTC)SIDC confirms "Magnetograms now show that it has a reversed polarity and thus belongs to the new solar cycle."
http://sidc.oma.be/html/SWAPP/dailyreport/2007/meu347
Radio conditions already improving here. excited too