Miami—In rough terms, the sun’s activity ebbs and flows in an 11-year cycle, with flares, coronal mass ejections, and other energetic phenomena peaking at what is called solar maximum and bottoming out at solar minimum. Sunspots, markers of magnetic activity on the sun’s surface, provide a visual proxy for the cycle’s evolution; they appear in droves at maximum and all but disappear at minimum. But the behavior of our host star is not as predictable as all that—the most recent solar minimum of late 2008 was surprisingly quiet and prolonged.
Solar physicists have offered a number of mechanisms to shed light on the solar cycle. Beyond improving fundamental scientific understanding, better predictions of solar behavior would help safeguard against electrical grid disruptions, damage to Earth-orbiting satellites and radiation threats to astronauts. In a press conference at the semiannual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in May, researchers laid out different approaches to tracking and predicting the sun’s activity, but the final explanation—or, more likely, explanations—for the sun’s curious recent lull remained opaque. “I think we’re almost in violent agreement that this is an interesting minimum,” said David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
By several measures the minimum was the deepest on record, although some of those records contain just a few cycles. Hathaway’s research focused on shifting speeds of the meridional flow, which moves from the solar equator toward the poles, finding that the flow was anomalously fast at the most recent minimum. But he cautioned against leaping to any conclusions based on a small number of cycles.
The solar jet stream, a slow current originating at solar midlatitudes that pushes toward both the equator and the poles, provides a different window into the sun’s roiling innards. Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory in Tucson examined the periodic nature of the jet stream, which seems to correspond to the onset and end of the solar cycle. With helioseismology data, which track acoustic oscillations on the sun, researchers can follow the development of the jet stream thousands of kilometers below the sun’s surface, potentially allowing for better forecasts of the timing of the solar cycle. But it is still too early to tell if the technique can robustly predict solar activity, Hill acknowledged, noting that the stream could be a cause or an effect of the cycle.
A third scientist used helioseismology to look at minima in acoustic oscillations that often correspond with sunspot minima. Yet another turned to magnetic maps to chart the shifting flux across the sun.
After hearing of all these approaches, Hill took stock of a field with many open questions. “My main impression of all this is I’m gratified to see that we all agree that this is an interesting minimum,” he said. “What’s not so gratifying is we have no clue why any of these effects are happening.”
This article was originally published with the title An Extra Quiet Sun.
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Add CommentGot links? I'd like to know more about these phenomena.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow do they effect the El Nino/El Nina events that seem to drive the hurricane cycles? Could this account for the unaccounted for lack of warming when CO2 levels indicate we should be warmer. Has the next solar max begun or are we still in an atypical quiescent period? Are satellites shut off when events become more frequent, or are they instantly dead silicon and metal space junk when solar storms happen at the speed of light? Does shutting off an electronic device even prevent destructive induced currents such as mass coronal ejections are prone to cause? How about satellites such a the recently launched Kepler which is outside the magnetosphere? As a Sciam subsciber I find these teasers for online subscriptions irritating. How come my magazine subscription abridges online articles? Somebody, Help me, Pleeeaase!
I have always wondered if the sun's activities could be responsible for, or at least what role it has played in the various ice ages and global extinctions experienced in our earth's history. Now that we have technology in space we should soon be able to answer these and other questions, perhaps ones we haven't thought to ask yet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisErrata: in reference to Scie Amer News Scan of Aug. 2010, An Extra Quiet Sun, by Matson, J. in which it was stated the scientific based reasons for the extended minimum are not known.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWith my having not attended the May 2010 press conference of the American Astronomical Society, the members were then unable to discover the whys of the extended and very quiet solar minimum period of the past few years.
The 2003 CME loosed much of the chromospheres and the upper coronas captured positive energied protons as well as some of those from the heliosphere when the CME ruptured upwards from the radiative zone. The CMEs release of those proton particles came about by temporarily destroying parts of the stars pressure-holding magnetic cap force-field of the chromosphere, by destroying one or more segments of the upper coronas magnetic toroid; of which there are 16 segments, and finally by blasting a hole in the great and newly discovered great solar-ring inside of the heliosphere, where arcing lights are found at the equator of that ring of positive energied protons. Why that ring of material is nested inside of the heliosphere, is because the heliosphere too has a magnetic cap of vibrating, standing magnetic waves (SMW). The discovered arcing points are produced by induced field-lines, which lines spiral out around the solar plane, one field-line from each equatorial swirl of ionized proton gas. Those spiraling equatorial field-lines are one half of the system that produces the heliospheres sphere of SMW. Three of those spiral field-lines images were captured by a back-shot picture taken from one of the voyager satellites after it had used Earth for a slingshot boost towards the heliosphere.
To see such a force field of SMW around a different star; one that is not cluttered up with a tachocline, convection zone or a corona of 16 segments; one should study the pulsar neutron star Vela, known as The Crossbow. It is those vibrating jagged lines; like those of a topographical map; that hold magnetically trapped proton gasses in-between their layers, and which gasses cloud up our view of the rest of that stars electromagnetic accoutrements. How that force-field is created is another easy to explain series of situations, which use many thousands of descriptive words and professional scientists created images.
On the CMEs path out to the heliosphere, some of the positive energied proton gas that was magnetically captured by the CMEs negative magnetics from the detritus of the chromosphere and from the upper corona; was stuffed beneath the magnetic cap of the Earths mesosphere, and because the mesospheres cap of the toroid only reaches out to the five-degree polar circles, and because the positive energied protons stuffed under that cap are attracted to negative energies, that explains why there are two clouds with donut holes, one at each negative energied polar area. The northern polar donut cloud is bigger as the Earths north magnetic field-line, or Coronal Axis, has more of a negative energy charge than does the southern half of the planets magnetic Coronal Axis. The coincidence of the sudden brightening of the night shining Noctilucent Clouds during the same period when the CME and its material charged past our planets magnetic fields is not really a coincidence.
Because it normally takes an eleven-year period to fill the solar upper-coronas 16 segments of the coronal toroid with hot proton gas jetted free from demised spicules, then it takes several years to refill the voided proton gasses of the one, or two and three segments with more fusion reactors effluent of hot protons. Meanwhile, those segments of the coronal toroid; not partially deflated; continued to magnetically attract more of the positive energied proton effluent, which mostly flowed; in the lower corona; towards the blasted upper coronas toroid segments just as does the one or more deflated segments attract proton effluent along their section of the upper coronas divided coronal field-lines. Those field lines are each composed of the twisted spiraled magnetic lines that would normally encompass a swirl of ionized plasma, of which there are 16 swirls in the solar convection zones equatorial area. Because there are no spaces in-between each of the neighboring swirls, the magnetic lines are caught in a twist from the swirling actions imposed by the faster rotating; and directly above; equatorial belt. The belt could be looked at as the outer race of a roller bearing with the inner race being the equatorial section of the helium tachocline, which has the swirls acting as rollers, which are confined by centrifugal force to remain at the equator. By then showing the slag-like photosphere as covering all of the convection zone, one can see that while the equatorial regions photosphere attempts to keep up with the belts revolutions, the polar areas, which rotate in tune with the dynamo swirls revolutions around the solar body show the slag-like material to have a decreasing rotational speed the closer to the poles one observes.
Would that there was; in those moments; a solar eclipse, then the balance bars and pendulums of the eclipse chasers would really react in a strange pattern every twenty-three to twenty-seven days. Naturally, a solar eclipse does not last for such a period, but their imaginations may bring a realistic account of the possible occurrences, after reading this brief explanation.
So, until the deflated segment or segments of the upper corona were again filled to capacity, the proton effluent still beneath the upper coronas segmented toroid would not come under more pressure and temperature from the puffs of Celestial Moss, which is really portions of the chromospheres hot and compressed gas that had been attracted into the negative magnetic segmented collimated streams of hundreds of short lived spicules. Spicules energy comes from the induction, opposed zones of the rotating and advancing towards the poles upper-latitude tapered-cells of the convection zone.
When each of the upper coronas 16 segments are filled to a large capacity by the hold-together energies of the magnetically wrapped segments, then the continuing transit of gasses from the photospheres bursting bubbles and the transport through the magnetic cap into the lower corona, has those gasses added up pressure and thus temperature squirting in steady narrow streams from in-between each of the upper corona toroids segments. Those actions create frictions and also cause action to the proton gasses trapped inside of each of the toroids segments, those actions create electromagnetic energy to be produced by the involved proton particals. Without the bulging toroid segments, and squirting free sheets of white compressed and very hot agitated gasses, those jetting and rotating around the Suns body, and its Coronal Axis, solar situations would not have the opportunity to bathe the solar plain with their solar wind gasses.
Note: There are several of sciences images that will explain all of the above, one of which shows the channels used by the flow of plasma between the equator and the poles, as well as showing many of the spicules energy bases . But, as some of those science institutions deny my use of their images for the explanations that would meld all of the above into a moving scenario for the minds of man, and would have done that by September of 2004, then it is best to not use any of their coveted and copyright protected images.
Edgar R. McCarvill: Retired pipe fitter of the United Associations very well educated trades people.
One question I can answer by describing the situation that produces radiant heat to our upturned face, as well as to the planet's various surfaces:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile there are 16 segments to a magnetic toroid that grows larger over an eleven year period, and which toroid is located in the upper corona, each of the segments is a magnetic entity of its own. One could look on the 16 segments as having a donut of 16 croisants side by side, c/w a space in-between each neighbor pair. The space grows smaller as more hot protons that were delivered to the lower corona; by the jetting free of demised and short lived spicules gasses of positive energied protons; become magnetically attracted into the croissant shaped segments. That swells the segments, which bulge upwards, thus creating risen higher clouds of intensely hot and compressed gasses whose outer sphere covers a larger area as the eleven-year period advances. From those very hot cloud's upper surfaces thermal energy is radiated outward in an almost spherical form. The polar areas would have little direct radiated energy emitti ng outward from those portions. The spaces between each neighbor pair of croissant shaped magnetic segments allow thin sheets of proton streams
Of course we live mostly in the plane. So, the rain we receive comes from heated waters of any water body receiving those emitted thermal rays. Yes, those do create the El Nino warm waters, which create swirling actions, which create nice little storms for our lower atmospheres.
Sorry, but most of your other questions answers must come from elsewhere, unless you wanted to know about the trail of events that cause the Northern and Southern Lights. But, that subject is much longer than is found in these little boxes, so... one must convince Scientific American authors to give me an article's space in their magazine. Would that occur, then we would be looking to investigate the image produced by the Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe, because I would suggest that image is a mere slice of the universe, such as if one took a very thin slice from a roll of garlic sausage. Why is that image a flattened down circle. My supposition says the circular sausage ring has an active Barycenter, and which site has a very strong magnetic draw on each point of the circle, which would produce such a shape.
One must be cautious, because to truly describe the universe, one has to dismiss the fictitious names of: Dark Matter and Dark Energy.
Sincerely Eddie R. A retired pipe fitter who has read more science articles than you may have seen.
If the meridional flow is in the convection zone and is moving faster than normal, the answer to that is...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf the 3rd. paragraph s mentioned meridional flow is in the solar convection zone and the flow is moving faster than normal, the explanation for the excess speed is simple if one realizes that one must use electromagnetics (EM) as a base to work on in regards to what it is that makes the flow of material move. 1. The material consists of positive energied protons. 2. The EM field line conductor and its accoutrements of segments of electron groupings in the convection zone portion; wherin is found the meridional flow; are a negative energy. 3. The +protons would be attracted into the negative magnetic segments. 4. Being on a conductor from one of the 16 equatorial swirl generators of ionized plasma beneath the equatorial belt, and being in the north magnetic hemisphere of the convection zone, those segments are being pushed; in one eleven year period; towards the negative pole, but the closer to the pole then the tighter are the spaces each segment is forced to move into. That squeezes the trapped proton gas, thus heating it. 5. Upon coming to the spot where the field line is forced to bend up and enter into the upper corona on a great loop that ends up entering the convection zone at the opposed pole, and returning to the same proton swirl; the proton gas is stripped free; by gravity; from the field line to return to the equator to be again attracted into an EM segment, known as a tapered cell.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo, once the energy is up on the coronal portion of the EM field-line, and because most of the previously proton, tenuous gasses that had been filling the coronal toroid segments; before being blasted free by the 2003 CME; were not there any more, so the energy that is boosted up there is not all used to compress those missing clouds of proton gas. That means that the south end of the conductor; which returns to the generator; is partially charged, which then poses less of an energy draw to charge up the negative end of the conductor and push its segmented loads of protons to the northern pole.
With an easier task, then the flow has less resistance, and therefore; like it is stated in paragraph 3; the flow is faster in the meridional flow. Eddie R.