The Watchers-3/03/13, Adonai
2013 was supposed to be the year of Solar Max, the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle yet now that it has arrived solar activity is relatively low. Sunspot numbers are well below their values in 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent for many months. There is something unexpected happening with the Sun, many scientists agree.
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2013 was supposed to be the year of Solar Max, the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle yet now that it has arrived solar activity is relatively low. Sunspot numbers are well below their values in 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent for many months. There is something unexpected happening with the Sun, many scientists agree.
Solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center offered an explanation:
“This is solar maximum,” he suggests. “But it looks different from what we expected because it is double peaked.”
From past observations we saw hat solar activity swings back and forth like a simple pendulum. At one end of the cycle, there is a quiet time with few sunspots and flares. At the other end, Solar Max brings high sunspot numbers and solar storms. It’s a regular rhythm that repeats every 11 years.
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