List of solar cycles
The following is a list of solar cycles (sometimes called sunspot cycles), tracked since 1755.
Cycle Started Finished Duration (years) Maximum (monthly SSN (Smoothed Sunspot Number)) Minimum (monthly SSN; end of cycle) Spotless days (end of cycle)
Solar cycle 1 1755 August 1766 March 11.3 86.5 (June 1761) 11.2
Solar cycle 2 1766 March 1775 August 9.0 115.8 (Sep 1769) 7.2
Solar cycle 3 1775 August 1784 June 9.3 158.5 (May 1778) 9.5
Solar cycle 4 1784 June 1798 June 13.7 141.2 (Feb 1788) 3.2
Solar cycle 5 1798 June 1810 September 12.6 49.2 (Feb 1805) 0.0
Solar cycle 6 1810 September 1823 December 12.4 48.7 (May 1816) 0.1
Solar cycle 7 1823 December 1833 October 10.5 71.5 (Nov 1829) 7.3
Solar cycle 8 1833 October 1843 September 9.8 146.9 (Mar 1837) 10.6
Solar cycle 9 1843 September 1855 March 12.4 131.9 (Feb 1848) 3.2 ~654
Solar cycle 10 1855 March 1867 February 11.3 98.0 (Feb 1860) 5.2 ~406
Solar cycle 11 1867 February 1878 September 11.8 140.3 (Aug 1870) 2.2 ~1028
Solar cycle 12 1878 September 1890 June 11.3 74.6 (Dec 1883) 5.0 ~736
Solar cycle 13 1890 June 1902 September 11.9 87.9 (Jan 1894) 2.7 ~938
Solar cycle 14 1902 September 1913 December 11.5 64.2 (Feb 1906) 1.5 ~1019
Solar cycle 15 1913 December 1923 May 10.0 105.4 (Aug 1917) 5.6 534
Solar cycle 16 1923 May 1933 September 10.1 78.1 (Apr 1928) 3.5 568
Solar cycle 17 1933 September 1944 January 10.4 119.2 (Apr 1937) 7.7 269
Solar cycle 18 1944 January 1954 February 10.2 151.8 (May 1947) 3.4 446
Solar cycle 19 1954 February 1964 October 10.5 201.3 (Mar 1958) 9.6 227
Solar cycle 20 1964 October 1976 May 11.7 110.6 (Nov 1968) 12.2 272
Solar cycle 21 1976 May 1986 March 10.3 164.5 (Dec 1979) 12.3 273
Solar cycle 22 1986 March 1996 June 9.7 158.5 (Jul 1989) 8.0 309
Solar cycle 23 1996 June 2008 January 11.7 120.8 (Mar 2000) 1.7 821
Solar cycle 24 2008 January[9] Still ongoing 81.9 (Apr 2014)
Mean 11.1 114.1 5.8
From : https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/List_of_solar_cycles.html
List of solar cycles From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2016)
The following is a list of solar cycles (sometimes called sunspot cycles),
tracked since 1755 following the original numbering proposed by Rudolf Wolf in the mid-19th century [1][2] The source data are the revised International Sunspot Numbers (ISN v2.0), as available at SILSO.[3] Sunspot number counts exist since 1610 [4] but the cycle numbering is not well defined during the Maunder minimum [5]. It was proposed than one cycle might have been lost in the late 18th century [6], but this still remains not fully confirmed.
The smoothing was done using the traditional SIDC smoothing formula.
Other smoothing formulas exist,
and they usually give slightly different values for the amplitude and timings of the solar cycles.
An example is the Meeus smoothing formula,[8] with related solar cycles characteristics available in this STCE news item.[9]
In table underneath, the number of spotless days is the number between the maximum of the previous solar cycle and the maximum of the new solar cycle.
As an example, there were 817 spotless days during the transit from solar cycle 23 to solar cycle 24.
Solar Cycle Start Smoothed minimum ISN Maximum Smoothed maximum ISN Time of Rise (years) Duration (years) Spotless days [10][11][12]
Solar cycle 1 1755 February 14.0 1761 June 144.1 6.3 11.3
Solar cycle 2 1766 June 18.6 1769 September 193.0 3.3 9.0
Solar cycle 3 1775 June 12.0 1778 May 264.3 2.9 9.3
Solar cycle 4 1784 September 15.9 1788 February 235.3 3.4 13.6
Solar cycle 5 1798 April 5.3 1805 February 82.0 6.8 12.3
Solar cycle 6 1810 August 0.0 1816 May 81.2 5.8 12.8
Solar cycle 7 1823 May 0.2 1829 November 119.2 6.5 10.5
Solar cycle 8 1833 November 12.2 1837 March 244.9 3.3 9.7
Solar cycle 9 1843 July 17.6 1848 February 219.9 4.6 12.4
Solar cycle 10 1855 December 6.0 1860 February 186.2 4.2 11.3 655
Solar cycle 11 1867 March 9.9 1870 August 234.0 3.4 11.8 406
Solar cycle 12 1878 December 3.7 1883 December 124.4 5.0 11.3 1028
Solar cycle 13 1890 March 8.3 1894 January 146.5 3.8 11.8 736
Solar cycle 14 1902 January 4.5 1906 February 107.1 4.1 11.5 934
Solar cycle 15 1913 July 2.5 1917 August 175.7 4.1 10.1 1023
Solar cycle 16 1923 August 9.4 1928 April 130.2 4.7 10.1 534
Solar cycle 17 1933 September 5.8 1937 April 198.6 3.6 10.4 568
Solar cycle 18 1944 February 12.9 1947 May 218.7 3.3 10.2 269
Solar cycle 19 1954 April 5.1 1958 March 285.0 3.9 10.5 446
Solar cycle 20 1964 October 14.3 1968 November 156.6 4.1 11.4 227
Solar cycle 21 1976 March 17.8 1979 December 232.9 3.8 10.5 272
Solar cycle 22 1986 September 13.5 1989 November 212.5 3.2 9.9 273
Solar cycle 23 1996 August 11.2 2001 November 180.3 5.3 12.3 309
Solar cycle 24 2008 December 2.2 2014 April 116.4 5.3 In progress 817
Solar cycle 25 First spot[13] 51
Average 9.3 178.7 4.4 11.04
From : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_cycles
The solar cycle or solar magnetic activity cycle is the nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity
(including changes in the levels of solar radiation and ejection of solar material)
and appearance (changes in the number and size of sunspots, flares, and other manifestations).
They have been observed (by changes in the sun's appearance and by changes seen on Earth, such as auroras) for centuries.
The changes on the sun cause effects in space, in the atmosphere, and on Earth's surface.
While it is the dominant variable in solar activity, aperiodic fluctuations also occur.
Definition
Solar cycles have an average duration of about 11 years.
Solar maximum and solar minimum refer respectively to periods of maximum and minimum sunspot counts.
Cycles span from one minimum to the next.
Observational history
Main article: History of solar observation
Samuel Heinrich Schwabe (1789–1875). German astronomer,
discovered the solar cycle through extended observations of sunspots
Rudolf Wolf (1816–1893), Swiss astronomer,
carried out historical reconstruction of solar activity back to the seventeenth century
The solar cycle was discovered in 1843 by Samuel Heinrich Schwabe,
who after 17 years of observations noticed a periodic variation in the average number of sunspots.
Rudolf Wolf compiled and studied these and other observations, reconstructing the cycle back to 1745,
eventually pushing these reconstructions to the earliest observations of sunspots by
Galileo and contemporaries in the early seventeenth century.
Following Wolf's numbering scheme, the 1755–1766 cycle is traditionally numbered "1".
Wolf created a standard sunspot number index,
the Wolf index, which continues to be used today.
The period between 1645 and 1715, a time of few sunspots,
is known as the Maunder minimum, after Edward Walter Maunder, who extensively researched this peculiar event, first noted by Gustav Spörer.
In the second half of the nineteenth century Richard Carrington and Spörer independently noted
the phenomena of sunspots appearing at different latitudes at different parts of the cycle.
The cycle's physical basis was elucidated by Hale and collaborators,
who in 1908 showed that sunspots were strongly magnetized (the first detection of magnetic fields beyond the Earth).
In 1919 they showed that the magnetic polarity of sunspot pairs:
Is constant throughout a cycle;
Is opposite across the equator throughout a cycle;
Reverses itself from one cycle to the next.
Hale's observations revealed that the complete magnetic cycle spans two solar cycles, or 22 years,
before returning to its original state.
However, because nearly all manifestations are insensitive to polarity,
the "11-year solar cycle" remains the focus of research.
In 1961 the father-and-son team of Harold and Horace Babcock established that
the solar cycle is a spatiotemporal magnetic process unfolding over the Sun as a whole.
They observed that the solar surface is magnetized outside of sunspots; that this (weaker) magnetic field is to first order a dipole;
and that this dipole undergoes polarity reversals with the same period as the sunspot cycle.
Horace's Babcock model described the Sun's oscillatory magnetic field, with a quasi-steady periodicity of 22 years.
It covered the oscillatory exchange of energy between poloidal and toroidal solar magnetic field ingredients.
The two halves of the 22-year cycle are not identical,
typically alternating cycles show higher (lower) sunspot counts (the "Gnevyshev–Ohl Rule".[5])
Cycle history
Reconstruction of solar activity over 11,400 years. Period of equally high activity over 8,000 years ago marked.
Sunspot numbers over the past 11,400 years have been reconstructed using Carbon-14-based dendroclimatology.
The level of solar activity beginning in the 1940s is exceptional
– the last period of similar magnitude occurred around 9,000 years ago (during the warm Boreal period).
The Sun was at a similarly high level of magnetic activity for only ~10% of the past 11,400 years.
Almost all earlier high-activity periods were shorter than the present episode.
Fossil records suggest that the Solar cycle has been stable for at least the last 290 million years.
For example, the cycle length during the early Permian is estimated to be 10.62 years.
Solar activity events recorded in radiocarbon. Present period is on right. Values since 1900 not shown.
Major events and approximate dates
Event Start End
Homeric minimum 950BC 800BC 150 yr
Oort minimum 1040 1080 40 yr
Medieval maximum 1100 1250 150 yr
Wolf minimum 1280 1350 70 yr
Spörer Minimum 1450 1550 100 yr
Maunder Minimum 1645 1715 70 yr
Dalton Minimum 1790 1820 30 yr
Modern Maximum 1900 present 117 so far?
Modern Minimum
A list of historical Grand minima of solar activity came around [does not match above list!!!!!!]
690 AD
360 BC
770 BC
1390 BC
2860 BC
3340 BC
3500 BC
3630 BC
3940 BC
4230 BC
4330 BC
5260 BC
5460 BC
5620 BC
5710 BC
5990 BC
6220 BC
6400 BC
7040 BC
7310 BC
7520 BC
8220 BC
9170 BC
Since observations began, cycles have ranged from 9–14 years.
Significant amplitude variations also occur.
It was first thought that 28 cycles had spanned the 309 years between 1699 and 2008, giving an average length of 11.04 years, but recent research has showed that the longest of these (1784–1799) seems actually to have been two cycles,[11][12] meaning that one of the two had to have lasted less than 8 years.
Recent cycles
Cycle 24
The current solar cycle began on January 4, 2008,
with minimal activity until early 2010.
It is on track to have the lowest recorded sunspot activity since accurate records began in 1750.
The cycle featured a "double-peaked" solar maximum.
The first peak reached 99 in 2011 and the second in early 2014 at 101.[16]
Cycle 23
This cycle lasted 11.6 years, beginning in May 1996 and ending in January 2008.
The maximum smoothed sunspot number (monthly number of sunspots averaged over a twelve-month period) observed during the solar cycle was 120.8 (March 2000),
and the minimum was 1.7.[17] A total of 805 days had no sunspots during this cycle.
Phenomena
Because the solar cycle reflects magnetic activity, various magnetically driven solar phenomena follow the solar cycle,
including sunspots and coronal mass ejections.
Sunspots
A drawing of a sunspot in the Chronicles of John of Worcester.
Main article: Sunspot
The Sun's apparent surface, the photosphere, radiates more actively when there are more sunspots.
Satellite monitoring of solar luminosity revealed a direct relationship between the Schwabe cycle and luminosity with a peak-to-peak amplitude of about 0.1%.
Luminosity decreases by as much as 0.3% on a 10-day timescale when
large groups of sunspots rotate across the Earth's view an
d increase by as much as 0.05% for up to 6 months due to faculae associated with large sunspot groups.
The best information today comes from SOHO (a cooperative project of the European Space Agency and NASA),
such as the MDI magnetogram,
where the solar "surface" magnetic field can be seen.
As each cycle begins, sunspots appear at mid-latitudes, and then closer and closer to the equator until solar minimum is reached.
This pattern is best visualized in the form of the so-called butterfly diagram.
Images of the Sun are divided into latitudinal strips,
and the monthly-averaged fractional surface of sunspots calculated.
This is plotted vertically as a color-coded bar, and the process is repeated month after month to produce this time-series diagram.
The sunspot butterfly diagram. This modern version is constructed (and regularly updated) by the solar group at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
While magnetic field changes are concentrated at sunspots, the entire sun undergoes analogous changes, albeit of smaller magnitude.
Time vs. solar latitude diagram of the radial component of the solar magnetic field, averaged over successive solar rotation.
The "butterfly" signature of sunspots is clearly visible at low latitudes.
Diagram constructed (and regularly updated) by the solar group at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
Coronal mass ejection
The solar magnetic field structures the corona, giving it its characteristic shape visible at times of solar eclipses.
Complex coronal magnetic field structures evolve in response to fluid motions at the solar surface,
and emergence of magnetic flux produced by dynamo action in the solar interior.
For reasons not yet understood in detail, sometimes these structures lose stability,
leading to coronal mass ejections into interplanetary space, or flares,
caused by sudden localized release of magnetic energy driving emission of ultraviolet and X-ray radiation as well as energetic particles.
These eruptive phenomena can have a significant impact on Earth's upper atmosphere and space environment,
and are the primary drivers of what is now called space weather.
The occurrence frequency of coronal mass ejections and flares is strongly modulated by the cycle.
Flares of any given size are some 50 times more frequent at solar maximum than at minimum.
Large coronal mass ejections occur on average a few times a day at solar maximum,
down to one every few days at solar minimum.
The size of these events themselves does not depend sensitively on the phase of the solar cycle.
A case in point are the three large X-class flares that occurred in December 2006, very near solar minimum;
an X9.0 flare on Dec 5 stands as one of the brightest on record.
Patterns
An overview of three solar cycles shows the relationship between the sunspot cycle, galactic cosmic rays,
and the state of our near-space environment.
The Waldmeier effect names the observation that cycles with larger maximum amplitudes
tend to take less time to reach their maxima than cycles with smaller amplitudes;
maximum amplitudes are negatively correlated to the lengths of earlier cycles, aiding prediction.
Solar maxima and minima also exhibit fluctuations at time scales greater than solar cycles.
Increasing and decreasing trends can continue for periods of a century or more.
The 87 year (70–100 year) Gleissberg cycle, named after Wolfgang Gleißberg, is thought to be an amplitude modulation of the Schwabe Cycle,
The Gleisberg cycle implied that the next solar cycle have a maximum smoothed sunspot number of about 145±30 in 2010
(instead 2010 was just after the cycle's solar minimum) and that the following cycle have a maximum of about 70±30 in 2023.
Associated centennial variations in magnetic fields in the Corona and Heliosphere have been detected
using Carbon-14 and beryllium-10 cosmogenic isotopes stored in terrestrial reservoirs
such as ice sheets and tree rings and by using historic observations of Geomagnetic storm activity,
which bridge the time gap between the end of the usable cosmogenic isotope data and the start of modern satellite data.
These variations have been successfully reproduced using models that employ magnetic flux continuity equations and observed sunspot numbers to quantify the emergence of magnetic flux from the top of the solar atmosphere and into the Heliosphere,[32] showing that sunspot observations, geomagnetic activity and cosmogenic isotopes offer a convergent understanding of solar activity variations.
2,300 year Hallstatt solar variation cycles.
Hypothesized cycles
Periodicity of solar activity with periods longer than the sunspot cycle has been proposed, including:
The 210 year Suess cycle (a.k.a. "de Vries cycle"). This cycle is recorded from radiocarbon studies,
although "little evidence of the Suess Cycle" appears in the 400-year sunspot record.)
The Hallstatt cycle is hypothesized to extend for approximately 2,300 years.
An as yet unnamed cycle may extend over 6,000 years.
In carbon-14 cycles of 105, 131, 232, 385, 504, 805 and 2,241 years have been observed, possibly matching cycles derived from other sources.
Damon and Sonett proposed carbon 14-based medium- and short-term variations of periods 208 and 88 years;
as well as suggesting a 2300-year radiocarbon period that modulates the 208-year period.
During the Upper Permian 240 million years ago, mineral layers created in the Castile Formation show cycles of 2,500 years.
Solar magnetic field
The Sun's magnetic field structures its atmosphere and outer layers all the way through the corona and into the solar wind.
Its spatiotemporal variations lead to various measurable solar phenomena.
Other solar phenomena are closely related to the cycle, which serves as the energy source and dynamical engine for the former.
Effects
Solar
Activity cycles 21, 22 and 23 seen in sunspot number index, TSI, 10.7cm radio flux, and flare index.
The vertical scales for each quantity have been adjusted to permit overplotting on the same vertical axis as TSI. T
emporal variations of all quantities are tightly locked in phase, but the degree of correlation in amplitudes is variable to some degree.
Surface magnetism
Sunspots eventually decay, releasing magnetic flux in the photosphere.
This flux is dispersed and churned by turbulent convection and solar large-scale flows.
These transport mechanisms lead to the accumulation of magnetized decay products at high solar latitudes, eventually reversing the polarity of the polar fields (notice how the blue and yellow fields reverse in the Hathaway/NASA/MSFC graph above).
The dipolar component of the solar magnetic field reverses polarity around the time of solar maximum and reaches peak strength at the solar minimum.
Space
Spacecraft
CMEs (coronal mass ejections) produce a radiation flux of high-energy protons, sometimes known as solar cosmic rays.
These can cause radiation damage to electronics and solar cells in satellites.
Solar proton events also can cause single-event upset (SEU) events on electronics; at the same,
the reduced flux of galactic cosmic radiation during solar maximum decreases the high-energy component of particle flux.
CME radiation is dangerous to astronauts on a space mission who are outside the shielding produced by the Earth's magnetic field.
Future mission designs (e.g., for a Mars Mission) therefore incorporate a radiation-shielded "storm shelter" for astronauts to retreat to during such an event.
Gleißberg developed a CME forecasting method that relies on consecutive cycles.
On the positive side, the increased irradiance during solar maximum expands the envelope of the Earth's atmosphere,
causing low-orbiting space debris to re-enter more quickly.
Galactic cosmic ray flux
The outward expansion of solar ejecta into interplanetary space provides
overdensities of plasma that are efficient at scattering high-energy cosmic rays
entering the solar system from elsewhere in the galaxy.
The frequency of solar eruptive events is modulated by the cycle,
changing the degree of cosmic ray scattering in the outer solar system accordingly.
As a consequence, the cosmic ray flux in the inner solar system is anticorrelated with the overall level of solar activity.
This anticorrelation is clearly detected in cosmic ray flux measurements at the Earth's surface.
Some high-energy cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere
collide hard enough with molecular atmospheric constituents to cause occasionally nuclear spallation reactions.
Fission products include radionuclides such as 14C and 10Be that settle on the Earth's surface.
Their concentration can be measured in ice cores,
allowing a reconstruction of solar activity levels into the distant past.
Such reconstructions indicate that the overall level of solar activity since the middle of the twentieth century
stands amongst the highest of the past 10,000 years,
and that epochs of suppressed activity,
of varying durations have occurred repeatedly over that time span.
Atmospheric
Solar irradiance
The total solar irradiance (TSI) is the amount of solar radiative energy incident on the Earth's upper atmosphere.
TSI variations were undetectable until satellite observations began in late 1978.
A series of radiometers were launched on satellites from the 1970s to the 2000s.
TSI measurements varied from 1360 to 1370 W/m2 across ten satellites.
One of the satellites, the ACRIMSAT was launched by the ACRIM group.
The controversial 1989–1991 "ACRIM gap" between non-overlapping satellites was interpolated by an ACRIM composite showing +0.037%/decade rise.
Another series based on ACRIM data is produced by the PMOD group. Its series shows a -0.008%/decade downward trend.[44] This 0.045%/decade difference impacts climate models.
Solar irradiance varies systematically over the cycle,[45] both in total irradiance and in its relative components (UV vs visible and other frequencies).
The solar luminosity is an estimated 0.07 percent brighter during the mid-cycle solar maximum than the terminal solar minimum. Photospheric magnetism appears to be the primary cause (96%) of 1996–2013 TSI variation.[46] The ratio of ultraviolet to visible light varies.[47]
TSI varies in phase with the solar magnetic activity cycle with an amplitude of about 0.1% around an average value of about 1361.5 W/m2 (the "solar constant").
Variations about the average of up to -0.3% are caused by large sunspot groups and of +0.05% by large faculae and the bright network on a 7-10-day timescale[50] (see TSI variation graphics).[51] Satellite-era TSI variations show small but detectable trends.[52][53]
TSI is higher at solar maximum, even though sunspots are darker (cooler) than the average photosphere. This is caused by magnetized structures other than sunspots during solar maxima, such as faculae and active elements of the "bright" network, that are brighter (hotter) than the average photosphere. They collectively overcompensate for the irradiance deficit associated with the cooler, but less numerous sunspots. The primary driver of TSI changes on solar rotational and sunspot cycle timescales is the varying photospheric coverage of these radiatively active solar magnetic structures.[citation needed]
Energy changes in UV irradiance involved in production and loss of ozone have atmospheric effects. The 30 HPa Atmospheric pressure level changed height in phase with solar activity during solar cycles 20–23. UV irradiance increase caused higher ozone production, leading to stratospheric heating and to poleward displacements in the stratospheric and tropospheric wind systems.[54]
Short-wavelength radiation
A solar cycle: a montage of ten years' worth of Yohkoh SXT images, demonstrating the variation in solar activity during a sunspot cycle, from after August 30, 1991, to September 6, 2001. Credit: the Yohkoh mission of ISAS (Japan) and NASA (US).
With a temperature of 5870 K, the photosphere emits a proportion of radiation in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and above. However, hotter upper layers of the Sun's atmosphere (chromosphere and corona) emit more short-wavelength radiation. Since the upper atmosphere is not homogeneous and contains significant magnetic structure, the solar ultraviolet (UV), EUV and X-ray flux varies markedly over the cycle.
The photo montage to the left illustrates this variation for soft X-ray, as observed by the Japanese satellite Yohkoh from after August 30, 1991, at the peak of cycle 22, to September 6, 2001, at the peak of cycle 23. Similar cycle-related variations are observed in the flux of solar UV or EUV radiation, as observed, for example, by the SOHO or TRACE satellites.
Even though it only accounts for a minuscule fraction of total solar radiation, the impact of solar UV, EUV and X-ray radiation on the Earth's upper atmosphere is profound. Solar UV flux is a major driver of stratospheric chemistry, and increases in ionizing radiation significantly affect ionosphere-influenced temperature and electrical conductivity.
Solar radio flux
Emission from the Sun at centimetric (radio) wavelength is due primarily to coronal plasma trapped in the magnetic fields overlying active regions.[55] The F10.7 index is a measure of the solar radio flux per unit frequency at a wavelength of 10.7 cm, near the peak of the observed solar radio emission. F10.7 is often expressed in SFU or solar flux units (1 SFU = 10-22 W m-2 Hz-1). It represents a measure of diffuse, nonradiative coronal plasma heating. It is an excellent indicator of overall solar activity levels and correlates well with solar UV emissions.
Sunspot activity has a major effect on long distance radio communications, particularly on the shortwave bands although medium wave and low VHF frequencies are also affected. High levels of sunspot activity lead to improved signal propagation on higher frequency bands, although they also increase the levels of solar noise and ionospheric disturbances. These effects are caused by impact of the increased level of solar radiation on the ionosphere.
10.7 cm solar flux could interfere with point-to-point terrestrial communications.[56]
Clouds
The cosmic ray changes over the cycle potentially have significant atmospheric effects. Speculations about cosmic rays include:
Changes in ionization affect the aerosol abundance that serves as the condensation nucleus for cloud formation.[57] During solar minima more cosmic rays reach Earth, potentially creating ultra-small aerosol particles as precursors to Cloud condensation nuclei.[58] Clouds formed from greater amounts of condensation nuclei are brighter, longer lived and likely to produce less precipitation.
A change in cosmic rays could cause an increase in certain types of clouds, affecting Earth's albedo.[citation needed]
It was proposed that, particularly at high latitudes, cosmic ray variation may impact terrestrial low altitude cloud cover (unlike a lack of correlation with high altitude clouds), partially influenced by the solar-driven interplanetary magnetic field (as well as passage through the galactic arms over longer timeframes),[59][60][61][62] but this hypothesis was not confirmed.[63]
Later papers claimed that production of clouds via cosmic rays could not be explained by nucleation particles. Accelerator results failed to produce sufficient, and sufficiently large, particles to result in cloud formation;[64][65] this includes observations after a major solar storm.[66] Observations after Chernobyl do not show any induced clouds.[67]
Terrestrial
Organisms
The impact of the solar cycle on living organisms has been investigated (see chronobiology). Some researchers claim to have found connections with human health.[68][69]
The amount of ultraviolet UVB light at 300 nm reaching the Earth varies by as much as 400% over the solar cycle due to variations in the protective ozone layer. In the stratosphere, ozone is continuously regenerated by the splitting of O2 molecules by ultraviolet light. During a solar minimum, the decrease in ultraviolet light received from the Sun leads to a decrease in the concentration of ozone, allowing increased UVB to reach the Earth's surface.[70]
Radio communication
Main article: Skywave
Skywave modes of radio communication operate by bending (refracting) radio waves (electromagnetic radiation) through the Ionosphere. During the "peaks" of the solar cycle, the ionosphere becomes increasingly ionized by solar photons and cosmic rays. This affects the propagation of the radio wave in complex ways that can either facilitate or hinder communications. Forecasting of skywave modes is of considerable interest to commercial marine and aircraft communications, amateur radio operators and shortwave broadcasters. These users occupy frequencies within the High Frequency or 'HF' radio spectrum that are most affected by these solar and ionospheric variances. Changes in solar output affect the maximum usable frequency, a limit on the highest frequency usable for communications.
Climate
Both long-term and short-term variations in solar activity are theorized to affect global climate, but it has proven challenging to quantify the link between solar variation and climate.[71]
Early research attempted to correlate weather with limited success,[72] followed by attempts to correlate solar activity with global temperature. The cycle also impacts regional climate. Measurements from the SORCE's Spectral Irradiance Monitor show that solar UV variability produces, for example, colder winters in the U.S. and northern Europe and warmer winters in Canada and southern Europe during solar minima.[73]
Three hypothetical mechanisms mediate solar variations' climate impacts:
Total solar irradiance ("Radiative forcing").
Ultraviolet irradiance. The UV component varies by more than the total, so if UV were for some (as yet unknown) reason having a disproportionate effect, this might affect climate.
Solar wind-mediated galactic cosmic ray changes, which may affect cloud cover.
The sunspot cycle variation of 0.1% has small but detectable effects on the Earth’s climate.[74][75][76] Camp and Tung suggest that solar irradiance correlates with a variation of 0.18 K ±0.08 K (0.32 °F ±0.14 °F) in measured average global temperature between solar maximum and minimum.[77]
The current scientific consensus, most specifically that of the IPCC, is that solar variations do play a smaller role in driving global warming,[71] since the measured magnitude of recent solar variation is much smaller than the forcing due to greenhouse gases.[78] Also, solar activity in the 2010s was not higher than in the 1950s (see above), whereas global warming had risen markedly. Otherwise, the level of understanding of solar impacts on weather is low.[79]
Solar dynamo
Main article: Solar dynamo
The 11-year sunspot cycle is half of a 22-year Babcock–Leighton solar dynamo cycle, which corresponds to an oscillatory exchange of energy between toroidal and poloidal solar magnetic fields. At solar-cycle maximum, the external poloidal dipolar magnetic field is near its dynamo-cycle minimum strength, but an internal toroidal quadrupolar field, generated through differential rotation within the tachocline, is near its maximum strength. At this point in the dynamo cycle, buoyant upwelling within the Convection zone forces emergence of the toroidal magnetic field through the photosphere, giving rise to pairs of sunspots, roughly aligned east–west with opposite magnetic polarities. The magnetic polarity of sunspot pairs alternates every solar cycle, a phenomenon known as the Hale cycle.[80][81]
During the solar cycle’s declining phase, energy shifts from the internal toroidal magnetic field to the external poloidal field, and sunspots diminish in number. At solar minimum, the toroidal field is, correspondingly, at minimum strength, sunspots are relatively rare and the poloidal field is at maximum strength. During the next cycle, differential rotation converts magnetic energy back from the poloidal to the toroidal field, with a polarity that is opposite to the previous cycle. The process carries on continuously, and in an idealized, simplified scenario, each 11-year sunspot cycle corresponds to a change in the polarity of the Sun's large-scale magnetic field.[82][83]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle
Overview of the Natural Space Environment and ESA, JAXA, and NASA Materials Flight Experiments
David L. Edwards, Adrian P. Tighe, Marc Van Eesbeek, Yugo Kimoto...
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2010.613Published online: 31 January 2011
Abstract
Space environmental effects on materials are very severe and complex because of the synergistic interaction of orbital environments such as high-energy radiation particles, atomic oxygen, micrometeoroids, orbital debris, and ultraviolet irradiation interacting synergistically, along with thermal exposure. In addition, surface degradation associated with contamination can negatively impact optics performance. Materials flight experiments are critical to understanding the engineering performance of materials exposed to specific space environments. Likewise, the spacecraft designer must have an understanding of the specific environment in which a spacecraft will operate, enabling appropriate selection of materials to maximize engineering performance, increase mission lifetimes, and reduce risk. This article will present a methodology for assessing the engineering performance of materials baselined for a specific spacecraft or mission. In addition, an overview of the space environment, from low Earth orbit to interplanetary space, will be provided along with an overview on the effects of the space environment on materials performance. The majority of this article is devoted to materials flight experiments from the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Some of the experiments reviewed include ESA's Materials Exposure and Degradation Experiment on the International Space Station (ISS), JAXA's Micro-Particles Capturer and Space Environment Exposure Device experiments on the ISS Service Module and on the ISS Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility, and NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility satellite and the Materials International Space Station Experiment series flown on the exterior of ISS.
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COPYRIGHT: © Materials Research Society 2010
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/mrs-bulletin/article/overview-of-the-natural-space-environment-and-esa-jaxa-and-nasa-materials-flight-experiments/54E2C5840AA9CF8F37272A144E7C60B9
Space Radiation Effects Program: an overview
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M.S. Gussenhoven ; E.G. Mullen
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Abstract:
The Space Radiation Effects Program (SPACE-RAD), a comprehensive space measurement and modeling program to advance understanding of the harsh space radiation environment near the Earth and its deleterious effects on space systems, is described. The six principal space experiments of SPACE-RAD consist of two engineering experiments (the microelectronics package and the internal discharge monitor) and four particle experiments (the proton telescope, the high-energy electron fluxmeter, the space radiation dosimeter, and the low-energy plasma analyzer). These experiments along with 16 other environmental sensors on the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) provided the most comprehensive set of data ever collected on the radiation belts over the 14-month lifetime of the satellite. The data will be the basis not only of new and better models of the space radiation environment, but also of improved understanding of the cause and effect of radiation-induced spacecraft degradation and anomalies.
Published in: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science ( Volume: 40, Issue: 2, Apr 1993 )
Page(s): 221 - 227
Date of Publication: Apr 1993
ISSN Information:
INSPEC Accession Number: 4465047
DOI: 10.1109/23.212345
Publisher: IEEE
Sponsored by: IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society
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Keywords
IEEE Keywords
Radiation effects, Extraterrestrial measurements, Satellites, Earth, Microelectronics, Packaging, Radiation monitoring, Protons, Telescopes, Electrons
INSPEC: Controlled Indexing
radiation effects, environmental degradation, radiation belts
INSPEC: Non-Controlled Indexing
radiation belts, Space Radiation Effects Program, space radiation environment, SPACE-RAD, engineering experiments, microelectronics package and the internal discharge monitor) and four particle experiments, proton telescope, high-energy electron fluxmeter, space radiation dosimeter, low-energy plasma analyzer, Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite, CRRES
Authors
M.S. Gussenhoven
Phillips Lab., Hanscom AFB, MA, USA
E.G. Mullen
Phillips Lab., Hanscom AFB, MA, USA
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Major events and approximate dates
Event Start End
Homeric minimum 950BC 800BC 150 yr
Oort minimum 1040 1080 40 yr
Medieval maximum 1100 1250 150 yr
Wolf minimum 1280 1350 70 yr
Spörer Minimum 1450 1550 100 yr
Maunder Minimum 1645 1715 70 yr
Cycle Start Smoothed minimum ISN - Maximum Smoothed maximum ISN - Time of Rise(yrs) Duration (yrs) Spotless days
Solar cycle 1 1755 February 14.0 1761 June 144.1 6.3 11.3
Solar cycle 2 1766 June 18.6 1769 September 193.0 3.3 9.0
Solar cycle 3 1775 June 12.0 1778 May 264.3 2.9 9.3
Solar cycle 4 1784 September 15.9 1788 February 235.3 3.4 13.6
Solar cycle ? 1789 1798 ????? what cycle <-------------------------------
Dalton Minimum 1790 1820 Begins 30 yr
Solar cycle 5 1798 April 5.3 1805 February 82.0 6.8 12.3
Solar cycle 6 1810 August 0.0 1816 May 81.2 5.8 12.8
Dalton Minimum 1790 1820 End 30 yr
Solar cycle 7 1823 May 0.2 1829 November 119.2 6.5 10.5
Solar cycle 8 1833 November 12.2 1837 March 244.9 3.3 9.7
Solar cycle 9 1843 July 17.6 1848 February 219.9 4.6 12.4
Solar cycle 10 1855 December 6.0 1860 February 186.2 4.2 11.3 655
Solar cycle 11 1867 March 9.9 1870 August 234.0 3.4 11.8 406
Solar cycle 12 1878 December 3.7 1883 December 124.4 5.0 11.3 1028
Solar cycle 13 1890 March 8.3 1894 January 146.5 3.8 11.8 736
Modern Maximum 1900 present 117 so far?
Solar cycle 14 1902 January 4.5 1906 February 107.1 4.1 11.5 934
Solar cycle 15 1913 July 2.5 1917 August 175.7 4.1 10.1 1023
Solar cycle 16 1923 August 9.4 1928 April 130.2 4.7 10.1 534
Solar cycle 17 1933 September 5.8 1937 April 198.6 3.6 10.4 568
Solar cycle 18 1944 February 12.9 1947 May 218.7 3.3 10.2 269
Solar cycle 19 1954 April 5.1 1958 March 285.0 3.9 10.5 446
Solar cycle 20 1964 October 14.3 1968 November 156.6 4.1 11.4 227
Solar cycle 21 1976 March 17.8 1979 December 232.9 3.8 10.5 272
Solar cycle 22 1986 September 13.5 1989 November 212.5 3.2 9.9 273
Solar cycle 23 1996 August 11.2 2001 November 180.3 5.3 12.3 309
Solar cycle 24 2008 December 2.2 2014 April 116.4 5.3 In progress 817
Solar cycle 25 First spot[13] 51
Average 9.3 178.7 4.4 11.04
Modern Minimum
A graph showing the sunspot Group Number as measured over the past 400 years after to the new calibration. The Maunder Minimum, between 1645 and 1715, when sunspots were scarce and the winters harsh is clearly visible.
The modulations of the 11-year solar cycle is clearly seen, as well as the 70–100-year Gleissberg cycle.
iau1508c.jpg
Graphs demonstrating improved agreement between Old and New Sunspot Numbers
iau1508b.jpg
Changes_in_total_solar_irradiance_and_monthly_sunspot_numbers,_1975-2013.png
wolfjmms.png last 13 years
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