-
3814 - SOLAR
CYCLE - peaking its activity? On January 4, 2023, Earth
will reached its closest point to the sun all year in an annual event called “perihelion”. The precise distance
varies from year to year, but perihelion
2023 will see our planet orbiting 91.4 million miles from the sun, or roughly 3 million miles closer than
Earth's “aphelion”, its farthest point from
the sun, which will occur on July 6, 2023.
---------------- 3814 - SOLAR CYCLE - peaking its activity?
- On January 4 and 5, a slow-moving glob of
solar particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME) will slam into Earth's
magnetic field.
-
- The collision is expected to trigger a minor
“G1-class geomagnetic storm” that could briefly frazzle power grids, cause
radio blackouts and push colorful auroras much farther south than usual,
possibly as far south as Michigan and Maine in the United States.
-
- Earth doesn't orbit the sun in a perfect
circle but rather in a wobbly ellipse. This elliptical orbit naturally means
Earth moves closer to the sun during certain parts of the year and farther away
during others.
-
- For many years now, Earth's perihelion has
occurred within a few weeks of the
winter solstice, the official beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, when the North Pole is at its
farthest tilt away from the sun and the
South Pole tilts closer toward the sun.
-
- However, this marriage of solstice and
perihelion is just a coincidence; the solstice
is all about Earth's tilt toward or away from the sun, while perihelion is about the planet's physical distance
from the sun.
-
–
- The actual date of perihelion is always
shifting, changing by about two days
every century due to small quirks in our planet's orbit. In the year 1246, perihelion and the winter solstice
actually occurred on the same day. Thousands
of years from now, in the year 6430, perihelion will line up perfectly with the spring equinox on March
20.
–
-
- It's also pure coincidence that this year's perihelion lines up with a geomagnetic storm. These storms occur when charged solar
particles crash into Earth's magnetic
field ( the magnetosphere ), compressing it slightly and allowing some particles to rain down on the planet's upper atmosphere.
- -
–
- Most geomagnetic storms are minor, resulting
in clearer auroras and
occasional radio blackouts at high latitudes. But some, such as the
infamous Carrington Event of 1859, can push auroras from both poles all the way
down to the equator and cause mass electrical disruptions around the world.
-
- Geomagnetic
storms are triggered by “CMEs”, giant outbursts of charged particles released from the sun when
magnetic-field lines at the sun's surface
become too tangled and suddenly snap. These magnetic tangles are often associated with sunspots, dark
regions of intense magnetic activity
that periodically open and close on the sun's surface.
-
-
If a sunspot is pointed toward Earth during one of these magnetic snaps,
the resulting CME will blast toward us
over the course of several days. The CME
expected to hit Earth on January 4 and 5 burst out of an Earth-facing sunspot on December 30.
-
- The sun follows an 11-year cycle of
activity, with more sunspots and more magnetic disturbances appearing close to the
period of peak activity, known as
the solar maximum. NASA predicts that the next solar maximum will occur in July 2025. As this point approaches,
solar storms will become more frequent
and more intense.
-
- Jamuary 7, 2023 SOLAR
CYCLE - peaking its activity? 3814
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--- Sunday, January 8, 2023
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