Did the New Solar Cycle just begin?
I recently (Dec 6th) blogged about the Sun's inactivity and how it could counteract global warming. At that time, there was still no signs of the new incoming cycle 24. Well, according to NASA, it appears that Cycle 24 might have started on December 11th.
"New solar cycles always begin with a high-latitude, reversed polarity sunspot," explains David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. "Reversed polarity" means a sunspot with opposite magnetic polarity compared to sunspots from the previous solar cycle. "High-latitude" refers to the sun's grid of latitude and longitude. Old cycle spots congregate near the sun's equator. New cycle spots appear higher, around 25 or 30 degrees latitude.
Last Tuesday, a small region appeared in the higher altitudes of the sun (shown on the image above) and it was magnetically reversed, but there was no sunspot. If the fields coalesce into a dark sunspot, then scientists will declare that Solar Cycle 24 has officially begun, according to the Science@NASA article.
Latest image of the sun today still does not show any sunspots in the higher latitudes, at least from what I can tell.
Images courtesy of NASA.
Here is another link to this story.
