Every 11 years, our sun becomes a chaotic sphere that shoots out huge bursts of energy towards Earth – a period known as the ‘solar maximum’.
These energy bursts are responsible for the stunning Northern Light displays we’ve been treated to in recent months.
However, they can also disrupt internet and GPS satellites orbiting Earth – with blackouts for weeks.
Unfortunately, scientists have confirmed that solar maximum has officially arrived, and it could continue for the next 12 months.
So while opportunities to see the aurora will ramp up, so will the chance of a global internet blackout.
In a teleconference this, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel confirmed that the sun has reached its solar maximum period, which could continue for the next year.
‘During solar maximum, the number of sunspots, and therefore, the amount of solar activity, increases,’ said Jamie Favors, director of NASA’s space weather programme.
About every 11 years, the sun goes through what’s known as ‘solar maximum’, when many bizarre dark spots appear on its surface
‘This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star, but also causes real effects at Earth and throughout our solar system.’
However, when exactly during this solar maximum activity on the sun will peak is yet to be known.
Elsayed Talaat, director of space weather operations at NOAA, added: ‘While the sun has reached the solar maximum period, the month that solar activity peaks on the sun will not be identified for months or years.’
It’s not just essential light and warmth that Earth receives from the sun, which is an average of 93 million miles away.
Our star is a huge ball of electrically-charged hot gas that moves, generating a powerful magnetic field, officially known as the dipole field.
This dipole field – which stretches from one pole of the sun to the other much like Earth’s – goes through a cycle, called the solar cycle.
Roughly every 11 years or so, the sun’s magnetic field completely flips, meaning the north and south poles switch places.
At the beginning of the solar cycle (just after the flip), the sun’s surface has the fewest black spots on its surface, known as ‘sunspots’.
Every 11 years, the sun’s magnetic dipole field (which stretches from one pole of the sun to the other much like Earth’s) completely flips, meaning the sun’s north and south poles switch places. This marks the start of the solar cycle, lasting roughly 11 years. Each solar cycle starts with few sunspots, before progressing to the most number of sunspots (solar maximum) and back to having hardly any again
The middle of the solar cycle is the solar maximum, when the sun has the most sunspots.
And it’s during this solar maximum when the most violent space weather is expected, commonly known as solar storms.
Fortunately, solar storms aren’t dangerous to humans.
Howeer, they can impact satellites in orbit as well as power grids on Earth.
‘The chances of these solar storms increases when the number of sunspots are high,’ Dr Dibyendu Nandi, a physicist from the IISER Kolkata Center of Excellence in Space Sciences in India, told MailOnline.
‘The most intense storms can sometimes result in catastrophic orbital decay of low Earth orbiting satellites and disrupt satellite based services such as communications and navigational networks.
‘They can also induce strong disturbances in the geomagnetic field tripping electric power grids located in high latitude regions.
‘Of course, they also create beautiful auroras so we can expect 2024 to be a good year for aurora hunters.’
This graph plots the number of sunspots on the surface of the sun as we enter and exit ‘solar maximum’
A 2021 study published by a University of California Irvine scientist found the internet could be crippled for weeks in the wake of a severe solar storm.
This is due to vulnerabilities in the world’s massive network of submarine communications cables.
The electromagnetic fluctuations caused by intense solar storms cannot directly harm the fibre optic cables that make up the backbone of the internet.
However, they do have the potential to take out the signal boosters dotted along undersea cables that are necessary to maintain connections over large distances.
The study predicted the likelihood of solar storm capable of causing catastrophic disruption occurring in the next 10 years is between 1.6–12 per cent.
In 1859, a massive solar storm known as the Carrington event sent a powerful solar ejection toward Earth, disrupting communications on the ground.
If such an event were to happen in today’s world, the effects would be catastrophic on our communications systems.
Lesser storms hit in 1921 and 1989 – the latter of which notably knocked out the power grid ran by Hydro-Québec, causing a nine-hour blackout in the northeast of Canada.
Scientists will not be able to determine the exact peak of this solar maximum period for many months because it’s only identifiable after they’ve tracked a consistent decline in solar activity after that peak.
However, scientists have identified that the last two years on the sun have been part of this active phase of the solar cycle, due to the consistently high number of sunspots during this period.
Scientists anticipate that the maximum phase will last another year or so before the sun enters the declining phase, which leads back to ‘solar minimum’ – at the start of the solar cycle when the sun has the fewest sunspots.
WHAT IS THE SOLAR CYCLE?
The Sun is a huge ball of electrically-charged hot gas that moves, generating a powerful magnetic field.
This magnetic field goes through a cycle, called the solar cycle.
Every 11 years or so, the Sun’s magnetic field completely flips, meaning the sun’s north and south poles switch places.
The solar cycle affects activity on the surface of the Sun, such as sunspots which are caused by the Sun’s magnetic fields.
Every 11 years the Sun’s magnetic field flips, meaning the Sun’s north and south poles switch places. The solar cycle affects activity on the surface of the Sun, increasing the number of sunspots during stronger (2001) phases than weaker (1996/2006) ones
One way to track the solar cycle is by counting the number of sunspots.
The beginning of a solar cycle is a solar minimum, or when the Sun has the least sunspots. Over time, solar activity – and the number of sunspots – increases.
The middle of the solar cycle is the solar maximum, or when the Sun has the most sunspots.
As the cycle ends, it fades back to the solar minimum and then a new cycle begins.
Giant eruptions on the Sun, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, also increase during the solar cycle.
These eruptions send powerful bursts of energy and material into space that can have effects on Earth.
For example, eruptions can cause lights in the sky, called aurora, or impact radio communications and electricity grids on Earth.
