"Ever since, we've been waiting for solar activity to pick up," says Richard Fisher, head of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. "It's been three long years."

Quiet spells on the sun are nothing new. They come along every 11 years or so-it's a natural part of the solar cycle. This particular solar minimum, however, was lasting longer than usual, prompting some researchers to wonder if it would ever end.

News flash: The pot is starting to boil. "Finally," says Fisher, "we are beginning to see some action."

As 2011 unfolds, sunspots have returned and they are crackling with activity. On February 15th and again on March 9th, Earth orbiting satellites detected a pair of "X-class" solar flares--the most powerful kind of x-ray flare. The last such eruption occurred back in December 2006.

Another eruption on March 7th hurled a billion-ton cloud of plasma away from the sun at five million mph (2200 km/s). The rapidly expanding cloud wasn't aimed directly at Earth, but it did deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field. The off-center impact on March 10th was enough to send Northern Lights spilling over the Canadian border into US states such as Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan.

"That was the fastest coronal mass ejection in almost six years," says Angelos Vourlidas of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC. "It reminds me of a similar series of events back in Nov. 1997 that kicked off Solar Cycle 23, the solar cycle before this one."

"To me," says Vourlidas, "this marks the beginning of Solar Cycle 24."

The slow build-up to this moment is more than just "the watched pot failing to boil," says Ron Turner, a space weather analyst at Analytic Services, Inc. "It really has been historically slow."

There have been 24 numbered solar cycles since researchers started keeping track of them in the mid-18th century. In an article just accepted for publication by the Space Weather Journal, Turner shows that, in all that time, only four cycles have started more slowly than this one.

"Three of them were in the Dalton Minimum, a period of depressed solar activity in the early 19th century. The fourth was Cycle #1 itself, around 1755, also a relatively low solar cycle," he says.

In his study, Turner used sunspots as the key metric of solar activity. Folding in the recent spate of sunspots does not substantially alter his conclusion: "Solar Cycle 24 is a slow starter," he says.

Better late than never.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Aegis BMD System Engages Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile For First Time Netanyahu thanks Obama for 'Dome' missile funding 'Most challenging' US missile defense test a success Obama urged to limit Russia missile shield sway LockMart To Respond To Joint Air-To-Ground Missile Request MBDA Demos VL Mica Proficiency Against Stand-Off Weapons Pakistan test fires nuclear-capable missile Answering The Warfighter's Call For Joint Air-To-Ground Missile Unmanned military aircraft get a boost US drones kill six militants in Pakistan: officials Drone 'friendly fire' kills two US troops: officials Northrop Grumman Fire Scout Hits New Single-Day Endurance Flight Record Preparations Underway As US Army Gears Up For Large-Scale Network Evaluations Global Military Communications Market In 2010 Raytheon BBN Technologies To Protect Internet Comms For Military Abroad Gilat Announces New Military Modem For Robust Tactical Satcom-On-The-Move Northrop Grumman T-38 Talon Honored For 50 Years Of Service New Warhead Reduces Size Of Raytheon Small Tactical Munition Next Gen Helicopter Operations Surveillance System (HOSS) Camera Comes To US Navy Raytheon Receives Best Value Thermal Weapon Sight Delivery Order Republic Of Korea Air Force Receives First LockMart Sniper Pods E-2D Advanced Hawkeye Program Completes DAB Review Israel eyes used F-15s to fill for F-35s Pentagon probe clears McChrystal after sacking Senior US senators launch week-long China trip Clinton vows full support for disaster-hit Japan Weakened America a 'laughingstock,' Trump laments US shares Georgia concerns on Russia: Clinton MLD Test Moves Navy A Step Closer To Lasers For Ship Self-Defense US Navy And Northrop Grumman Accomplish Goals For At-Sea Demonstration Of Maritime Laser Scientists Build World's First Anti-Laser Yale scientists build 'anti-laser'