The email sent will contain a link to this article, the article title, and an article excerpt (if available). For security reasons, your IP address will also be included in the sent email.
Massive solar flare starting and ending on earth's surface. Click to enlarge.Sunspot cycles are hot right now - literally and figuratively. After just posting about Cycle 24 - the about-to-begin 11-year cycle of sunspot activity, I now see a lot of references to scientists at Warwick University reporting on observed fractal nature of the solar wind, and the ramifications for prediction and understanding of sunspot cycles
The articles announcing the findings have been very exuberant about this latest finding, but so far they are short on some crucial facts. They are also woefully inadequate when it comes to reporting previous work.
Most web sites are just reproducing the press release from the University of Warwick:
The researchers, led by Professor Sandra Chapman, have also been able to directly tie these fractal patterns to the Sun's 'storm season'. The Sun goes through a solar cycle roughly 11 years long. The researchers found the fractal patterns in the solar wind occur when the Sun was at the peak of this cycle when the solar corona was at its most active, stormy and complex - sunspot activity, solar flares etc. When the corona was quieter no fractal patterns were found in the solar wind only general turbulence.
From this description it is not clear what the fractal pattern is. The New Scientist site provides more details, including a possible reason for the fractal pattern:
Return to Article
