Scientists are expecting the sun to reverse its magnetic field, something it does on average every 11 years. Last week, the sun unleashed its biggest solar flare of the year and scientists are concerned the increased activity may be affect satellites, power grids, navigation equipment as well as other electronics and communications systems.
ListenSun having a “temper tantrum”
“You can really consider it as a temper tantrum that the sun’s undergoing,” says Canadian, Andrew Fazekas, an astronomy contributor with National Geographic. “It’s based on a natural cycle of activity that the sun undergoes. It’s the closest thing the sun has to our having seasons.
“There’s this peak in the cycle that we’re undergoing now. It’s called the solar maximum…and associated with that the sun breaks out in freckles. We call these freckles sun spots. They’re basically cooler regions on the sun where these twisters of magnetic field are exposed on the surface of the sun. That’s where solar flares happen—these explosions on the sun that hurl billion-ton clouds of charged particles out into space.”
Pole switch is a mystery
At the same time the sun is flipping its magnetic field from one orientation to the exact opposite. The north becomes the south, and the south becomes the north. This happens in fits and starts and at different rates in the northern and southern hemisphere. Once that stabilizes, the sun’s violent activity will settle down.
It’s a bit of mystery why the poles flip. This is only the fourth reversal that scientists have been able to observe. “While we understand the broad strokes of the physics of what’s going on the surface of the sun, it’s the interior that’s really a mystery that’s buried hundreds of thousands of kilometers within the heart of this giant ball of gas,” says Fazekas.
It may have to do with the “inner electromagnetic dynamo” basically produced by the rotation of hot gases and an outward flow of energy.
Cosmic storms can “fry” satellites
Scientists are monitoring the activity carefully. “If there’s a huge, what are called, cosmic storms that occur with the sun where… the sun belches out this cloud of charged particles that, if it’s hitting the earth’s magnetic field straight on…it can really knock out satellites, it could fry the circuit boards if it’s strong enough.”
Satellites can be powered down if it looks like such activity is about to occur.
Northern lights may be more active
The sun’s increased activity means there will be more frequent and more vivid northern lights dancing across the sky and that they perhaps will be visible further south than normal. In the past they have been sighted as far south as Florida and Mexico. Anyone who wants to find out if they can see northern lights in their own region can sign up to a site run by NASA scientists who collect data from the space agency to predict when and where sightings will occur.
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