Jamie Carter is an award-winning reporter and experienced stargazer who covers the night sky, astro-tourism, the northern lights and space exploration. He received the 2023 Popular Media Award from the American Astronomical Society's Solar Physics Division and is the author of A Stargazing Program for Beginners. Writing for Forbes.
The sun's magnetic activity waxes and wanes through an 11-year solar cycle, and its level is calculated daily by counting sunspots. Sunspots are magnetic disturbances on the sun’s surface that can be as big as Earth. The number of sunspots on any day indicates how magnetically active the sun is., with Solar Cycle 25 more active than Solar Cycle 24, which occurred from 2009 through 2019. It's now approaching the strength of Solar Cycle 23, which occurred from 1996 to 2008.
In July, the SIDC announced that the monthly average sunspot number for July 2024 reached 196.5, itself far higher than the peak of 115 initiallycaused aurora displays worldwide and was rated as G5—the most intense. That had not been seen since Oct. 31, 2000.Sunspots are important because that's where solar flares—an intense blast of radiation that travels at light speed—originate.
As charged particles strike Earth's magnetic field, they accelerate down its magnetic field lines at the north and south poles to create ovals of green and red. They're typically visible in the northern hemisphere to those near the Arctic Circle at 65 degrees north—which includes Alaska, northern Canada and or northern Scandinavia —but intense geomagnetic storms can push that oval down to 40 degrees north or even lower.
Northern Lights Solar Maximum Northern Lights When Northern Lights Where What Time Aurora What Time Northern Lights Sun Where Northern Lights Aurora Borealis
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