The calm before the solar storm? NASA warns 'something unexpected is happening to the Sun'

2013 was due to be year of the 'solar maximum'
As this picture shows, in fact the sun is incredibly calm - baffling experts

PUBLISHED: 11:54 EST, 8 March 2013 | UPDATED: 12:34 EST, 8 March 2013

'Something unexpected' is happening on the Sun, Nasa has warned.

This year was supposed to be the year of 'solar maximum,' the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle.

But as this image reveals, solar activity is relatively low.

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Sunspot numbers are well below their values from 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent, as this image shows - despite Nasa forecasting major solar storms

THE SOLAR CYCLE

Conventional wisdom holds that solar activity swings back and forth like a simple pendulum.

At one end of the cycle, there is a quiet time with few sunspots and flares.

At the other end, solar max brings high sunspot numbers and frequent solar storms.

It’s a regular rhythm that repeats every 11 years.

Reality is more complicated.

Astronomers have been counting sunspots for centuries, and they have seen that the solar cycle is not perfectly regular.

'Sunspot numbers are well below their values from 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent,' the space agency says.

The image above shows the Earth-facing surface of the Sun on February 28, 2013, as observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

It observed just a few small sunspots on an otherwise clean face, which is usually riddled with many spots during peak solar activity.

Experts have been baffled by the apparent lack of activity - with many wondering if NASA simply got it wrong.

However, Solar physicist Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center believes he has a different explanation.

'This is solar maximum,' he says.

'But it looks different from what we expected because it is double-peaked.'

'The last two solar maxima, around 1989 and 2001, had not one but two peaks.'

Solar activity went up, dipped, then rose again, performing a mini-cycle that lasted about two years, he said.

Researchers have recently captured massive sunspots on the solar surface - and believed we should have seen more

The same thing could be happening now, as sunspot counts jumped in 2011 and dipped in 2012, he believes.

Pesnell expects them to rebound in 2013: 'I am comfortable in saying that another peak will happen in 2013 and possibly last into 2014.'

He spotted a similarity between Solar Cycle 24 and Solar Cycle 14, which had a double-peak during the first decade of the 20th century.

If the two cycles are twins, 'it would mean one peak in late 2013 and another in 2015'.

Solar max sunspots from the Solar Dynamics Observatory

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Carbon taxes for all to help find the lifestyles of the rich ans famous !

- roscoe2-spokane , spokane, 10/3/2013 02:40

Click to rate Rating 4

This is Bush's fault

- jarhead53191 , Ghazni, Afghanistan, 10/3/2013 01:14

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when the "experts" realize that their esteemed jobs, like doctors of medicine, are fields of PRACTICE... You cant explain God, so stop trying to figure Him out too...

- Keeper Joseph , Valley Forge, United States, 10/3/2013 01:08

Click to rate Rating 10

. It is well know that the sun spot activity will diminish along a straight line graph projected to be lowest point at 2025 resulting in something of like the little ice age with colder summers and harsh winters. Just type mini age age 2025 into search engine and read and look at the graph. - P e r c i v a l , Kingdom of God, United Kingdom, 08/3/2013 19:38:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::I checked your claim out of curiosity and find it both as you claim and factual.

- John , Portsmouth, United Kingdom, 10/3/2013 00:32

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nasa are sending a manned space mission to the sun! as it is to hot to go by day they are going at night!

- edmund , Uk, 10/3/2013 00:18

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Don't worry it's perfectly normal for a star to stabilise before it enters the red giant phase of its life cycle should have a nice summer

- Laidbk , Swindon, 10/3/2013 00:06

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The sun is going into its red phase.

- Rosemary Hackney , USA, United States, 09/3/2013 23:33

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Sun spots are caused by Owlgore's armpit stains, oh, and your SUVs and, uhm, guns.

- piquerish , State College, 09/3/2013 23:27

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I think it's going to get very cold here over the next 5 years. It happens about every 110-120 years, just like when Niagra Falls froze over in 1910, or when Thames regularly froze so solid they had ice-markets on it in Winter. Our generation has never seen this before and few know it happens. Dalton, Maunder, Wolf Ort.... It's about to happen again, just like the Wolf minimum, which wiped out half of Europe in 1315. Dalton went unnoticed because of the combine harvester, and the railroads, which provided plenty of food and the means to ship it. But there weren't 6 BILLION people on the planet in 1910 either. Just 1.5.... It's coming...

- DavidDriver , Santa Clarita, 09/3/2013 23:17

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How discourteous of the Sun not to comply with the predictions of the alleged "experts".

- Jon Weiss , Radcliff KY, 09/3/2013 23:16

Click to rate Rating 27

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