Emily Chan
Recently, a record number of sunspots were visible on the surface of the sun. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has captured images of hundreds of individual sunspots that indicate increased solar activity.
Sunspots appear dark in images. They also look incredibly tiny, but in reality, they are around the size of our entire planet.
Sunspots release strong magnetic fields that can launch solar flares, letting loose electromagnetic radiation pulses into space and creating explosions that cause coronal mass ejections (CMEs). This process can trigger solar storms on Earth that may disrupt GPS and communication signals.
According to the measurements taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), the daily sunspot number has reached 337, which is the highest it’s been since March 2001.
“It is based on a standard calculation that we used based on United States Air Force (USAF) solar observations that report sunspots to us at SWPC. But our sunspot number is not the official number; that comes later from Belgium and the Solar Influences Data Center (SIDC),” said Shawn Dahl, the Service Coordinator for NOAA’s SWPC.
“Meanwhile, we analyze every group of spots visible on the sun and calculate their potential for solar flare and energetic particle events, and we also produce a daily summary of all the active regions each day.”
The final daily sunspot number will be confirmed by the end of August. Currently, the number varies, as many observatories have reported different figures.
The World Data Center – Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations (WDC-SILSO) and the SIDC in Belgium say that the count is at 299, which would be the highest since July 2002.
Due to intense solar activity, there have been several solar flare and CME events. As of August 18, there were 45 CMEs, 26 M-class flares and one X-class flare, which triggered a geomagnetic storm on Earth, according to NASA’s weekly space weather report.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
