Solar Cycle Update: Twin Peaks?

03.01.13 – Something unexpected is happening on the sun. 2013 is supposed to be the year of Solar Max, the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle. Yet 2013 has arrived and solar activity is relatively low. Sunspot numbers are well below their values in 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent for many months.

The quiet has led some observers to wonder if forecasters missed the mark. Solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center has a different explanation:

“This is solar maximum,” he suggests. “But it looks different from what we expected because it is double peaked.”

>> Read More

Latest News Features

02.21.13 – Deciphering the Mysterious Math of the Solar Wind

02.09.13 – Earth-Directed CME Released by Long Duration Solar Flare

02.07.13 – The Sun Produces Two CMEs

01.31.13 – Building Four Spacecraft for One Mission

01.31.13 – SDO Provides First Sightings of How a CME Forms

01.24.13 – Sun Shoots Out 2 Coronal Mass Ejections

01.24.13 – Working on Four Spacecraft Simultaneously

01.14.13 – New Sunspots Producing Space Weather

01.08.13 – Cluster Finds Turbulent Eddies May Warm the Solar Wind

12.31.12 – Heliophysics 2012: Year in Review

>> Go to Newsroom