Sun may soon have four poles, say researchers

[kell1990]

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_new ... 1204200075

The sun may be entering a period of reduced activity that could result in lower temperatures on Earth, according to Japanese researchers.

Officials of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and the Riken research foundation said on April 19 that the activity of sunspots appeared to resemble a 70-year period in the 17th century in which London’s Thames froze over and cherry blossoms bloomed later than usual in Kyoto.

In that era, known as the Maunder Minimum, temperatures are estimated to have been about 2.5 degrees lower than in the second half of the 20th century.

The Japanese study found that the trend of current sunspot activity is similar to records from that period.

The researchers also found signs of unusual magnetic changes in the sun. Normally, the sun’s magnetic field flips about once every 11 years. In 2001, the sun’s magnetic north pole, which was in the northern hemisphere, flipped to the south.

While scientists had predicted that the next flip would begin from May 2013, the solar observation satellite Hinode found that the north pole of the sun had started flipping about a year earlier than expected. There was no noticeable change in the south pole.

If that trend continues, the north pole could complete its flip in May 2012 but create a four-pole magnetic structure in the sun, with two new poles created in the vicinity of the equator of our closest star.

By SEIJI TANAKA/ Staff Writer

[Dotini]

Interesting. I found this:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 203959.htm
"Right now, there's an imbalance between the north and the south poles," says Jonathan Cirtain, a space scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., who is also NASA's project scientist for a Japanese solar mission called Hinode. "The north is already in transition, well ahead of the south pole, and we don't understand why."

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

[Michael Mozina]

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201204200075

While scientists had predicted that the next flip would begin from May 2013, the solar observation satellite Hinode found that the north pole of the sun had started flipping about a year earlier than expected. There was no noticeable change in the south pole.

If that trend continues, the north pole could complete its flip in May 2012 but create a four-pole magnetic structure in the sun, with two new poles created in the vicinity of the equator of our closest star.

By SEIJI TANAKA/ Staff Writer

Hmmm. The last time that occurred was somewhere around March of 2000.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... rentsheet/

If it's supposed to occur every 11 years, it's actually a little late, not a little early. I get the impression than the 2013 date was a 'revised' date due to the "slow build" of this particular cycle. IMO the sun hasn't quite reached it's solar maximum yet.

http://jsoc.stanford.edu/data/hmi/movie ... lor_2d.mpg

If you look at a colorized magnetogram of the sun, the N/S butterfly pattern is definitely fully developed now and reversed in the north and south poles now. However, the active regions haven't moved all the way to the equator yet. When the active regions move a little closer toward the equator, they will start to interact with each other electrically and all hell will break loose. That's when the sun does sun does it's really "fun" stuff in terms of powerful solar flares. It's been a VERY slow build-up to solar maximum this cycle compared to the last cycle IMO, and we aren't quite at solar max yet IMO.