Seasol changes on Sun can better predict solar storms

Washington, April 8: Not just planet Earth but the Sun too experiences seasol changes, finds a significant research. By better understanding how these seasol instabilities are formed one can greatly improve forecasts of space weather events.According to a team of researchers led by the Colorado-based tiol Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Sun undergoes a type of seasol variability with its activity waxing and waning over the course of nearly two years. This behaviour affects the peaks and valleys in the approximately 11-year solar cycle, sometimes amplifying and sometimes weakening the solar storms that can buffet the Earth’s atmosphere.

The quasi-annual variations appear to be driven by changes in the bands of strong magnetic fields in each solar hemisphere.

These bands also help shape the approximately 11-year solar cycle that is part of a longer cycle that lasts about 22 years.

The findings can help lead to better predictions of massive geomagnetic storms in Earth’s outer atmosphere that sometimes disrupt satellite operations, communications, power grids, and other technologies, concluded the study published in the jourl ture Communications. (IANS)