Wednesday, July 22, 2020

There's a Little Black Spot On The Sun Today

It appears the the new solar cycle is definitely under way.
From SpaceWeather:
A NEW SUNSPOT: A sunspot has appeared and, according to its magnetic polarity, it is a member of new Solar Cycle 25. The sunspot's Earth-sized dark core is inset in this magnetic map from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
This new spot is another sign of life from strengthening Solar Cycle 25. So far this year there have been 13 sunspots--ten of them (77%) coming from the new solar cycle. This compares to only 17% in 2019 and 0% in 2018. The sun is clearly  tipping from one solar cycle to the next.
It is too soon to know if this new sunspot will become a source of solar flares. That depends on its magnetic complexity, which will reveal itself in the days ahead as the sunspot turns toward Earth. Stay tuned!
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By themselves sunspots don't mean much but as visible evidence of what's going on (and in) the big glowing ball-of-fusion in the sky they are handy little (huge) things.
And they give me an opportunity to roll out a gritty cover of King of Pain by the Police:


Last seen in April's "Sunspots and Agricultural Production (William Herschel does a driveby)"