Welcome 2 SYNxronisation

by Michael Asher @ dailytech.com

Drop in solar activity has potential effect for climate on earth.

The sun has reached a milestone not seen for nearly 100 years: an entire month has passed without a single visible sunspot being noted.

The event is significant as many climatologists now believe solar magnetic activity – which determines the number of sunspots -- is an influencing factor for climate on earth.

According to data from Mount Wilson Observatory, UCLA, more than an entire month has passed without a spot. The last time such an event occurred was June of 1913. Sunspot data has been collected since 1749.

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A new sunspot has appeared on the sun's northern hemisphere and it has the correct magnetic signature.There is no doubt that Solar Cycle 24 is beginning.

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration) has confirmed the new solar cycle.

Articles:

noaanews.noaa.gov

news.yahoo.com

solarmonitor.org new sunspot region 10981

check out previous articles related to this topic:

Is a new solar Cycle beginning ?

The Coming of Solar Cycle 24

Strange Space Weather Over Africa

~~Welcome 2 the Dawn~~

I keep u updated. Here are the last news on the upcoming Cycle. This is an interesting article with some explanations as regards the parameters to be observed for an old ending cycle and for a beginning one. Parameters such as "reverse polarity sunspot" and "high latitude sunspot".

From sidc.be: Welcome to Solar Cycle 24, an area in the northern hemisphere of the solar disk at a rather high latitude with a leading negative and trailing positive polarity is spotted: this could be the first indication of the start of solar cycle 24!

From solarcycle24.com : "A non-sunspot plage region rotated into view on the northeastern limb around Dec 11 and was reverse magnetic polarity, therefore falling into the Solar Cycle 24 category. It was never classified a sunspot, but some pictures show that it was very close".

From KN4LF.com : "Anecdotal evidence points to solar cycle 23 minimum in October 2007 with a monthly International Sunspot Index (ISSI) number of 0.9. The lowest daily solar flux reading since July 1996 of 64.4 occurred on September 28, 2007. The lowest maximum daily Solar Flux Index (SFI) reading since October 1996 of 71 occurred on September 01, 2007.

However a brand new Coronal Hole #299 formed on 11/14/2007, then #301 on 11/24/2007 and #302 on 11/30/2007. We have also seen new sunspot group activity on 11/06/2007, 11/13/2007, between 11/24-26/2007 and 12/01-07-2007. All of these recent sunspot groups carry a solar cycle 23 magnetic polarity.

This put’s in doubt the anecdotal evidence that solar cycle #23 bottomed out in 10/2007. However we will have to see what the Smoothed Sunspot Number (SSN) is for September and October 2007.

Some good news for pending solar cycle 24 is a new mid latitude plage/sunspot group that rose above the eastern horizon of the Sun on Wednesday 12/12/2007. It has a magnetic polarity of a cycle 24 sunspot group."

SYS

Are you ready for this one ? The Solar activity of this Cycle will most probably culminate around 2012. It will surely be the most monitored Solar Cycle ever !

The Sun, our star, is the principal actor as regards what is called Space Weather. Space weather do influence communications, transportation, and electrical power systems on Earth but it influences also biological life and Human Society as well !

From: windows.ucar.edu

"Although space weather forecasts are not normally featured on the evening news, space weather does impact life on Earth in many ways. Our modern, technologically complex systems - including communications, transportation, and electrical power systems - can be disrupted and damaged by space weather storms. Exposure to radiation can threaten astronauts and commercial air travellers alike, and has affected the evolution of life on Earth. Space weather probably alters the weather and climate on our planet, though we don't yet have a precise understanding of those influences"

Word is spreading that the Sun has finally begun its new cycle ...

Check out a complete Solar Cycle with related solar activity:

Solar Cycle Activity Overview, courtesy SOHO (NASA/ESA)

Solar activity is indicated by the Sunspot Number, Solar flux and Solar Flares:

- Sunspot number : Sunspot number varies in phase with the solar flux. Sunspot numbers can vary between zero (for sunspot minimum periods) to values in excess of 350 or 400 (in the very active "solar max" period of the suns 11 year cycle).

Sunspot Activity, Image courtesy SOHO (NASA/ESA)

- Solar flux: amount of solar light emitted by the sun at 10.7cm wavelenght radiowaves (2800 MHz). It can vary from values below 50 to values in excess of 300 (representing very low solar activity and high to very high solar activity respectively). Values in excess of 200 occur typical during the peak of the solar cycles.

- Solar flares: violent explosion in the Sun's atmosphere with an energy equivalent to tens of millions of hydrogen bombs

Check out solarcycle24.com , solarmonitor.org , SOHO.gov , spaceweather.com  for more information.

Akhenaten worshipping the Sun disk

~~ Welcome 2 the Dawn ~~

A phenomenon known as Ion plume is occuring right now in the upper atmosphere (ionosphere) above Africa. The ion plumes are made of electrified particles and may appear during geomagnetic storms.

Geomagnetic storms are often associated with Solar Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and Solar Wind. CME eject out of the Sun's corona billion of charged particles (up to 10¹³kg mostly of e^-and p⁺) into the Solar Wind that propagates throughout the Solar System. The Solar Wind is a energetic stream of charged particles permanently emanating from the Sun. Solar wind velocity is in the range from 300 to 600 km/s, but some impulsive events like solar flares or CME's can produce speeds over 1000 km/s! At that speed it takes about 2 days for the energetic wind to reach the Earth'sneighborhood.

Well known effects of a geomagnetic storm are the aurorae phenomena, disturbances of communication and navigation systems, changes in the human biological systems ...

Lately though there has been no known CME and so no induced geomgnetic storm ...

Solar Wind propagating as a Parker Spiral

Solar Wind - Earth Magnetosphere interaction

CME compared to Earth size

Aurora phenomenon
 

SYS

Article by Dr Tony Philips | science.nasa.gov

Nov. 13, 2007: Something strange is happening in the atmosphere above Africa and researchers have converged on Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the phenomenon. The Africa Space Weather Workshop kicked off Nov. 12th with nearly 100 scientists and students in attendance.

The strange phenomenon that brings all these people together is the ion plume—"a newly discovered form of space weather," says University of Colorado atmospheric scientist and Workshop co-organizer Tim Fuller-Rowell.

Researchers liken the plumes to smoke billowing out of a factory smokestack—except instead of ordinary ash and dust, ion plumes are made of electrified gas floating so high above ground they come in contact with space itself. "The plumes appear during geomagnetic storms and they can interfere with satellite transmissions, airline navigation and radio communications," says Fuller-Rowell. Indeed, it is their effect on GPS signals that led to the discovery of plumes over North America just a few years ago.

continued on: science.nasa.gov

check also: Airline navigation threatened by plasma plumes at space.newscientist.com

Quite an old information but still good 2 have in mind. The 11 years cycle of the Sun (Wikipedia: Solar Cycle) was discovered around 1840. It's a very important cosmic cycle 4 Us here on Earth. Just look at the size of the Sun in comparison with Earth and u will understand the influence the Sun can have on climatic changes on Earth. Global warming would  not b only man-made but also Sun-made - or so it seems... This Solar Cycle should culminate near 2012(don't u know this date... ?).

SYS

"Just like the countless bodies
That revolve around the sun
Planet Earth must now come into balance with the one,
That caused it all to be
Then we'll see His kingdom come,
So shall it be written, so shall it be sung"

Prince - "Planet Earth" 2007

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Article By Dr. Tony Phillips - Science@NASA

Dec. 21, 2006: Evidence is mounting: the next solar cycle is going to be a big one.

An Erupting Solar Prominence from SOHO