The sun is going nuts

Hell of alot of flares coming out, Is this amount and size of them normal?
sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov...


stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov...

or go to:

sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov...

Choose:

Image Type: Lasco C2

Latest images: 50

on Lasco C2
@11-18-11 :48 comet below SOL
@11-18-11 -5:00 another comet from bottom so maybe they are adjusting SOL

reply to post by haven123


pretty normal. i check it quite often. maybe a little more activity then normal but nothing outrageous.

www.solarham.com...

this website updates the lasco about every 3 days or so. i dunno why we cant get a constant feed of it for real but alas i dont have a billion dollars to spend on my own lasco satellite so i guess every three days it is.

There are about half a dozen sunspots, maybe a little bit more than that but they are low in activity at the moment but that can always change. The sun will peak with solar activity in the next year. So the threat of an X-Class flare is still out there, at least for the next year. 2012 will be a very interesting year.

There is no significant flares, just lot of small dark spots. Sun is pretty calm for active season atm. No coronal holes on earth side.

Just look this SOHO magnetogram:
sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov...

But Sun looks pretty cool in AIA 171:
sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov...

reply to post by haven123


The Sun is in what is known as it's 'active phase' so this amount of activity is not necessarily abnormal considering. It is becoming more active though.

Originally posted by Thebel
There is no significant flares, just lot of small dark spots. Sun is pretty calm for active season atm. No coronal holes on earth side.

Here's a historical graph of the number of sunspots in the 11 year (aka 22 year) cycle.

science.nasa.gov...
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7a84229d52e3.gif[/atsimg]

We still haven't peaked yet so the number of spots should increase to something like the numbers shown in this historical graph to be normal. The peak might happen in a little over a year from now. I think the last prediction I saw for the next peak was in March 2013, so that will be about 16 months from now if that was correct.

reply to post by Arbitrageur

The prediction is for sunspot maximum in May of 2013. The number of sunspots is predicted to be below average, the lowest in 8 decades.
solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov...

reply to post by Phage


I'm not sure that's below the average in the graph I posted.

So it depends on what time period you're using to calculate the average.

You could say the last 8 decades have been a bit above normal and it's returning to normal, at least that's what the graph suggests, though it also suggests that "normal" is probably an elusive concept given events such as the maunder minimum.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
reply to post by Phage

 

I'm not sure that's below the average in the graph I posted.

So it depends on what time period you're using to calculate the average.

You could say the last 8 decades have been a bit above normal and it's returning to normal, at least that's what the graph suggests, though it also suggests that "normal" is probably an elusive concept given events such as the maunder minimum.

Phage is right, in fact after this maximum it has been seriously discussed as to whether there will be any more sunspots, at least for some period of time. This is from 2008,

wattsupwiththat.com...