Apparently, the most intense solar maximum in fifty years – is coming! According to the Science & NASA site – The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). “The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one,” she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.
In 1958 the northern lights could be seen as far as Rome – and reports indicate that it lit up the sky so brightly that people could read a newspaper outside in the night!
Wikipedia describes a Solar Max as: “Solar maximum is contrasted with solar minimum. Solar Maximum is the period when the sun’s magnetic field lines are the most distorted due to the magnetic field on the solar equator rotating at a slightly faster pace than the solar poles. The sun takes about 11 years to go from one solar maximum to another and 22 years to complete a full cycle (where the magnetic vharge on the poles is the same.”
This is fascinating and scary at the same time.There’s also a documentary film about this called Solarmax. Below is the documentary broken up into 4 parts…
Part 1 of 4
Part 2 of 4
Part 3 of 4
Part 4 of 4
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