Solar Flare from Solar Cycle 25, It’s Way Beyond Experts’ Forecast
Written by Reananda Hidayat PermonoCompleted Master of Science - MS, Petroleum Geology from Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
With several solar flare events occurring in the last weeks, the sun has had an active period as the current solar cycle gathers momentum.
The Solar Cycle 25 is exceeding experts’ predictions in terms of activity.
In 2019, Solar Cycle 25 was forecast to have a similar activity level to the previous cycle.
However, the sun has outperformed the forecast for more than 24 consecutive months, with countless sunspots released solar flares here and there.
According to NOAA data, the number of sunspots in January and February 2023 was high in the last ten years.
There were 143 sunspots in January, while February had 110.
The latest highest-scoring month was during the peak of Solar Cycle 24 in February 2014, with 146 sunspots.
The solar cycle has an 11-year activity period; the record began in 1755.
The cycle increases towards the solar maximum in the middle of each solar cycle.
The last solar minimum occurred in 2019, and scientists predict the next solar maximum in 2025.
Increased sunspot levels led to higher activity frequencies, including coronal mass ejections and solar flares.
These events produced spectacular aurora as far south as France and several geomagnetic storms that trigged radio blackouts.
When the magnetic fields of sunspots realign, the sun releases huge amounts of solar flares containing electromagnetic radiation.