Solar scientists have found signs that the next solar cycle is beginning, even though it’s only six years away and the current solar cycle (cycle 25) is still ongoing.
Even as cycle 25 prepares to peak, it seems like cycle 26 is just waiting to begin. The signs of the beginning of the next 11-year solar cycle are:Starquake “, the sound waves bounce off Inside the Sun It was discovered by researchers at the University of Birmingham.
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“It’s exciting to see the first signs that this pattern is repeating itself again. Cycle 26 “It is expected to start in approximately six years’ time,” team leader Rachel Howe from the University of Birmingham said in a statement.
Wait your turn, Cycle 26!
To find signs of this excessive solar activity cycle, Howe and his colleaguesHelioseismic ” is a satellite that measures starsquakes of our Sun.
Just like seismologists use Seismic waves Just as we on Earth can use the vibrations of the Sun to reveal things about the Earth’s interior, including its structure and composition, helioseismologists can do the same thing using sound waves and the Sun.
Helioseismic The sun rotates The sun is a swirling ball of hot gas, plasma It does not rotate like a solid object, but instead undergoes a form of rotation called “differential rotation,” in which different layers of the Sun move at different angular velocities.
This creates a visible pattern of bands, some of which rotate faster and some slower, called the “solar torsion oscillation.” During a solar cycle, these bands Solar Poles And its equator. The faster rotating belts usually appear when the next solar cycle is about to begin.
Diagram showing the entire solar cycles 23 and 24, and the first half of cycle 25. In each cycle, the fast rotation band begins well before the magnetic activity of that cycle. The small red area on the far right of the diagram may indicate the beginning of the fast rotation band for cycle 26. (Image courtesy of Rachel Howe)
A team of researchers from the University of Birmingham have found faint signs that Cycle 26 is beginning to emerge in the rotational zone data they have been analysing.
“If we look back in this chart to one solar cycle, 11 years ago, we see something that appears to match what we saw in 2017, which became the signature of our current solar cycle, cycle 25,” Howe said. “We’re probably seeing the first traces of cycle 26, which doesn’t officially begin until around 2030.”
Coronal mass ejections occur from the Sun, and as we approach solar maximum, the frequency of these events increases. (Image courtesy of NASA/STEREO-A/COR2)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of Solar Observatory (SDO) It has been observing the sun since 2010, using its onboard Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) to collect helioseismic data that helps scientists like Howe study the sun’s twisting vibration signals.
In addition to this, the researchers have similar data going back to 1995, thanks to the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) onboard. Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).
This means that Howe and his colleagues have a diagram of the ascending phase of cycles 23, 24 and 25. In fact, Howe began his research when scientists only had partial data for cycle 23 and has been tracking the changes in the sun’s rotation for about 25 years.
This revealed that fast-moving material and sunspots were moving towards the Sun’s equator, a pattern that has been repeated throughout Cycle 24 and again during the development of Cycle 25. Now, Howe suggests that the same pattern is occurring again ahead of Cycle 26.
“With more data, we hope to gain a better understanding of the role these flows play in the complex dance of plasma and magnetic fields that shapes the solar cycle,” she concluded.
The team’s research Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting 2024 (NAM 24) in Hull .
