November 13, 2025
People across the United States weren’t the only ones treated to a spectacular celestial show. This week’s intense geomagnetic storm illuminated the night sky around the world. Check out some of the most stunning displays from Europe to Mongolia to Australia.
(July 19, 2024)
The current solar cycle, named Cycle 25 because it is the 25th since 1755 when extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began, started in 2019.
It is not expected to end for another six years but the first signs that the next solar cycle is beginning have been spotted by researchers from the University of Birmingham and presented at the Royal Astronomical Society‘s National Astronomy Meeting in Hull.
(July 23, 2024)
Solar max affects activity on the sun’s surface. Sunspots, flares and coronal mass ejections are all more rampant at solar maximum. This leads to a surge in electromagnetic energy hurtling toward Earth, making auroras visible more often and at lower altitudes.
The current solar cycle – Cycle 25 – started in 2019. It has the name Cycle 25 because it’s the 25th since 1755, when extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began.
It is not expected to end for another six years, but researchers have spotted the first signs that the next solar cycle is beginning. Researchers from the University of Birmingham presented their findings at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Hull on July 18, 2024.
(May 2025)
Solar Cycle 24, the weakest in over a century, exhibited significant deviations from previous cycles, beginning with a prolonged minimum, weak polar fields, and asynchronous polar field reversal, leading to hemispheric asymmetry. Sunspot activity declined by approximately 30% compared to Cycle 23, while the overall occurrence rate of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) decreased, although some studies suggest that the rate of halo CMEs relative to total CMEs may have remained relatively stable. This study investigates the impact of weaker solar activity on geomagnetic storm dynamics by analyzing CME properties, solar wind conditions, and their influence on magnetospheric energy transfer. Key findings indicate that a lower heliospheric pressure in Cycle 24 caused CMEs to expand more than in Cycle 23, altering energy transfer to Earth‘s magnetosphere.
(July 24, 2013)
The Sun is acting weird. It typically puts on a pageant of magnetic activity every 11 years for aurora watchers and sungazers alike, but this time it overslept. When it finally woke up (a year late), it gave the weakest performance in 100 years.
What’s even weirder is that scientists, who aren’t usually shy about tossing hypotheses about, are at a loss for a good explanation.
(December 2009)
Abstract. The heliosphere is the space within which the solar wind dominates and the solar interplanetary magnetic field prevails. Its boundary is determined by the balance between stellar and solar winds. Owing to the present reduction in the solar wind pressure, one would expect that the stellar wind would push the heliosphere inward leading to its shrinkage. In this paper we calculate the extent of the heliosphere at different solar wind status. Backward estimation of the extent of the heliosphere since 1890 is done. It is found that the heliosphere oscillated between 75 and 125 AU between 1890 – 2010. Most important is the forecast of the shrinkage and oscillations of the heliosphere and their implications on the earth. The shrinkage of the heliosphere would allow more invasions of cosmic rays to the earth and planets, increased cloud cover and a cooler Earth.
(…)
1.4 Prediction of the State of solar Activity During The Next Few Decades
Weak solar cycles occur at the bottom of Wolf-Gleissberg cycles. They tend to occur in series of 3-4 cycles. A single weak cycle also occurs in between the two maximums of Wolf-Gleissberg cycle. Since the last weak solar cycles occurred around 1900 while the previous ones occurred around 1800 then the newly started cycle 24 should be a weak solar cycle. However, owing to the 200-years de Verie cycle of the sun, it is more likely that the status of the coming solar activity would be something like those weak cycles around 1800 as shown in Fig 1. Svalgaard (2005) also predicted that cycle 24 would be the lowest so far in the past 100 years with the maximum sunspot number around 75.
Jun 11, 2020
Far, far beyond the orbits of the planets lie the hazy outlines of the magnetic bubble in space that we call home.
This is the heliosphere, the vast bubble that is generated by the Sun’s magnetic field and envelops all the planets. The borders of this cosmic bubble are not fixed. In response to the Sun’s gasps and sighs, they shrink and stretch over the years.
Now, for the first time, scientists have used an entire solar cycle of data from NASA’s IBEX spacecraft to study how the heliosphere changes over time. Solar cycles last roughly 11 years, as the Sun swings from seasons of high to low activity, and back to high again. With IBEX’s long record, scientists were eager to examine how the Sun’s mood swings play out at the edge of the heliosphere. The results show the shifting outer heliosphere in great detail, deftly sketch the heliosphere’s shape — a matter of debate in recent years, and hint at processes behind one of its most puzzling features. These findings, along with a newly fine-tuned data set, are published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplements on June 10, 2020.
(November 6, 2025)
According to NASA, Voyager 1 has now encountered what researchers describe as a “wall of fire,” a zone where temperatures reach between 30,000 and 50,000 kelvin — roughly 30,000 degrees Celsius. The finding was made as part of ongoing efforts to understand the boundary separating our Solar System from interstellar space.
(…)
“An observation made by Voyager 2 confirms a surprising result from Voyager 1: the magnetic field in the region just beyond the heliopause is parallel to the magnetic field inside the heliosphere,” NASA noted. With data from both spacecraft, scientists can now confirm that this alignment is not a coincidence but a defining characteristic of the boundary region.
(July 29, 2025)
1. The Magnetic Field’s Essential Role
Earth’s magnetic field acts as a protective barrier against the relentless bombardment of solar wind and cosmic rays. Without this shield, high-energy particles from the Sun would strip away our atmosphere, exposing living organisms to dangerous radiation.
(…)
12. Atmospheric and Climate Connections
Researchers are investigating whether a weaker magnetic field could alter Earth’s atmosphere or climate.
The northern lights lit up the night sky across America on Tuesday, dazzling stargazers from New Hampshire to the heartland with eerie green and orange streaks of cosmic fire.
The Aurora Borealis was spotted in a large swath of states, including Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Washington state. Northern lights were visible as far south as parts of Florida and Alabama, a relatively rare occurrence that highlights the severity of this week‘s storms.
A surge in solar activity fueled the vibrant display as the sun reached the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, a period marked by a sharp increase in sunspots and geomagnetic storms.
Around 2019–2020, the sun was at its quietest point; however, with more frequent bursts of solar wind erupting from those sunspots, Earth is now experiencing more substantial and more frequent auroral events.
Etwas Besonderes sind die Polarlichter in Süddeutschland auch, weil sie kein häufiges Phänomen sind. Skandinavien ist für die Sonnenstürme bekannt. „Tatsächlich ist Polarlicht in Süddeutschland schon sehr, sehr selten“, sagt Liefke.
(Oct. 12, 2024)
From their unique vantage points – Voyager 1 in the northern hemisphere and Voyager 2 in the southern hemisphere – the spacecraft have already detected differences and asymmetries in the solar wind termination shock, where the wind abruptly slows as it approaches the heliopause. For example, Voyager 2 crossed the termination shock at a distance of about 83.7 AU in the southern hemisphere. (One AU, or astronomical unit, is equal to 150 (million) kilometers (93 million miles), the distance between Earth and the Sun.) That’s about 10 AU closer to the Sun than where Voyager 1 crossed the shock in the north. As shown in this diagram, Voyager 1 traveled through the compressed “nose” of the termination shock and Voyager 2 is expected to travel through the flank of the termination shock.
(June 16, 2024)
But only two human-made objects have crossed the boundary of the solar system and entered interstellar space.
In 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, equipped with tools to measure the magnetic fields and the particles it is directly passing through. After traveling for over three decades in space, they finally exited the outer layer of the heliosphere—heliopause in 2012 and 2018 respectively. They discovered that cosmic rays are about three times more intense outside the heliopause than deep inside the heliosphere.
Key Questions
The PUNCH mission will use four suitcase-sized satellites to observe the Sun and its environment. Working together, the four PUNCH satellites will create a combined field of view and map the region where the Sun’s corona (or outer atmosphere) transitions to the solar wind (the constant outflow of material from the Sun).
The PUNCH mission will answer questions about:
How the Sun’s atmosphere transitions to the solar wind.
How structures in the solar wind are created.
How these processes affect the solar system.
On March 2, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission into low Earth orbit. From this location, its four satellites will have nearly constant views of the Sun to help researchers answer questions about how activity near our star propagates through the inner solar system, influencing the space weather we experience here on Earth.
(24 April 2024)
The question is, Do periods of low magnetosphere intensity also correlate with major upheavals in Earth‘s biosphere, the complete zone of our planet over which life exists, ranging from mountaintops to the deepest ocean trenches?
„Understanding these extreme events is important for their occurrence in the future, space climate predictions, and assessing the effects on the environment and on the Earth system,“ Sanja Panovska, a scientist at GFZ Potsdam in Germany, said in a statement.
(19 Feb 2021)
Do terrestrial geomagnetic field reversals have an effect on Earth‘s climate? Cooper et al. created a precisely dated radiocarbon record around the time of the Laschamps geomagnetic reversal about 41,000 years ago from the rings of New Zealand swamp kauri trees. This record reveals a substantial increase in the carbon-14 content of the atmosphere culminating during the period of weakening magnetic field strength preceding the polarity switch. The authors modeled the consequences of this event and concluded that the geomagnetic field minimum caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration that drove synchronous global climate and environmental shifts.
(…)
We precisely characterize the geomagnetic reversal and perform global chemistry-climate modeling and detailed radiocarbon dating of paleoenvironmental records to investigate impacts. We find that geomagnetic field minima ~42 ka, in combination with Grand Solar Minima, caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration and circulation, driving synchronous global climate shifts that caused major environmental changes, extinction events, and transformations in the archaeological record.
(…)
In addition, chronological uncertainties are complicated in radiocarbon-dated terrestrial and marine records around the Laschamps because of the elevated production of C and Be, cosmogenic radionuclides resulting from the substantial increase in high-energy cosmic radiation reaching the upper atmosphere. The high Be flux has been well described from Greenland and Antarctic ice core records (6, 20, 21), which reveal synchronous century-long Be peaks across the Laschamps that appear to reflect a series of pronounced Grand Solar Minima (GSM; prolonged periods of low solar activity similar to the Spörer and Maunder Minima: 1410 to 1540 CE and 1645 to 1715 CE), with unknown climate impacts (20, 21).
(24 April 2024)
The preservation of a temperate climate and liquid water on early Earth depends critically upon the strength of the magnetosphere (Sterenborg et al., 2011; Tarduno et al., 2014). Recent atmospheric escape models have suggested that both weak (<10 μT) and strong (>1 mT) magnetic fields could substantially enhance atmospheric escape under present-day solar wind conditions via the polar wind or cusp escape, respectively (Gronoff et al., 2020; Gunell et al., 2018; Lundin et al., 2007). During the Archean, the Sun was rotating faster, generating a stronger stellar dynamo and therefore the solar wind was more intense than today (Vidotto, 2021). An increased solar wind strength causes greater interaction with the upper atmosphere and greater escape of ions assuming a constant level of protection from Earth‘s magnetosphere. Previous magnetohydrodynamic simulations have suggested that if Earth‘s magnetic field was half its present day strength 3.5 Ga ago, the area of the polar cap (the area containing open dipolar magnetic field lines, allowing atmospheric escape via the polar wind) could increase by up to 50% (Sterenborg et al., 2011).
“The sun spit off a big blob of plasma,” Mr. Steenburgh said. The burst of energy, which has its own magnetic field, had been moving through space and reached Earth’s magnetic field on Sunday, when the two collided to create a geomagnetic storm, he said. “It got our magnetosphere pretty revved up.”
When this happens, the aurora can be seen closer to the Equator, Mr. Steenburgh said. Such events are not that uncommon, with about 100 occurring every 11 years, he said, adding that the storm can also disturb high frequency radio used at sea and by airlines.
(19 Feb 2021)
Do terrestrial geomagnetic field reversals have an effect on Earth‘s climate? Cooper et al. created a precisely dated radiocarbon record around the time of the Laschamps geomagnetic reversal about 41,000 years ago from the rings of New Zealand swamp kauri trees. This record reveals a substantial increase in the carbon-14 content of the atmosphere culminating during the period of weakening magnetic field strength preceding the polarity switch. The authors modeled the consequences of this event and concluded that the geomagnetic field minimum caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration that drove synchronous global climate and environmental shifts.
(…)
We precisely characterize the geomagnetic reversal and perform global chemistry-climate modeling and detailed radiocarbon dating of paleoenvironmental records to investigate impacts. We find that geomagnetic field minima ~42 ka, in combination with Grand Solar Minima, caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration and circulation, driving synchronous global climate shifts that caused major environmental changes, extinction events, and transformations in the archaeological record.
(Oct 7, 2019)
The research, according to the team, will help monitor and evaluate the influence of solar activities and their implications on the Earth’s climate. The astrophysicists’ team included experts from Ahmedabad’s Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Japan, and China.
(2010)
Abstract. The heliosphere is the space within which the solar wind dominates and the solar interplanetary magnetic field prevails. Its boundary is determined by the balance between stellar and solar winds. Owing to the present reduction in the solar wind pressure, one would expect that the stellar wind would push the heliosphere inward leading to its shrinkage. In this paper we calculate the extent of the heliosphere at different solar wind status.
Backward estimation of the extent of the heliosphere since 1890 is done. It is found that the heliosphere oscillated between 75 and 125 AU between 1890 –
2010. Most important is the forecast of the shrinkage and oscillations of the heliosphere and their implications on the earth. The shrinkage of the heliosphere would allow more invasions of cosmic rays to the earth and planets, increased cloud cover and a cooler Earth.
1 Introduction
The heliosphere is the cavity curved by the solar wind into the interstellar medium. Its extension is determined by the equality of the solar wind pressure and the stellar wind pressure. For this reason, we will first study past, present and future status of solar activity and then we will reflect this study into the heliosphere.
(18.10.2008)
New data has revealed that the heliosphere, the protective shield of energy that surrounds our solar system, has weakened by 25 per cent over the past decade and is now at it lowest level since the space race began 50 years ago. (…)
„Around 90 per cent of the galactic cosmic radiation is deflected by our heliosphere, so the boundary protects us from this harsh galactic environment.“
The heliosphere is created by the solar wind, a combination of electrically charged particles and magnetic fields that emanate a more than a million miles an hour from the sun, meet the intergalactic gas that fills the gaps in space between solar systems.
(23.04.2023)
Geomagnetic storms occur when energy from the sun’s outermost atmosphere disrupts Earth’s magnetic field, causing bands of green and red to light up the night sky. The natural electrical phenomenon is especially visible near the North Pole, but sometimes stretches lower into Canada and the northern United States, where it is often captured by wildfire cameras.
(23.04.2023)
The natural light display – more typically visible in high-latitude regions around the Artic and Antarctic – is better seen in a dark location with no light pollution, with cloudless skies.
The atmospheric phenomenon is caused when solar particles from the sun collide with Earth‘s atmosphere. These energised particles combine with nitrogen and oxygen molecules, which send them into an excited state.
(December 21, 2022)
As hinted at above, Mauna Loa began erupting on Nov 27 and stopped on Dec 13.
It was the first time it has actively erupted since 1984 (solar minimum of cycle 20) — and is a sign of the times…
Volcanic eruptions are one of the key climatic forcings driving Earth into its next bout of global cooling. They have been shown to increase in both number and explosivity during times of prolonged solar decline, which is thought to be due to an influx of cosmic rays (CRs) penetrating/exciting silica-rich magma. During solar mins the Sun’s magnetic field weakens and the outward pressure of the solar wind decreases, which allows more CRs to enter the inner solar system, including our planet’s atmosphere.
(December 19, 2022)
The COLD TIMES are returning, North America, in line with historically low solar activity.
(12.06.2019)
The results show that the next Solar Cycle will start in 2020 and reach a maximum in 2025.Cycle 25 is expected to be even weaker than the current solar cycle.
According to this forecast, upcoming solar activity will be the weakest in the last 200 years.
We present a simple, unified model that can explain two of the brightest, large-scale, diffuse, polarizedradio features in the sky, the North Polar Spur (NPS) and the Fan Region, along with several otherprominent loops. We suggest that they are long, magnetized, and parallel filamentary structures thatsurround the Local arm and/or Local Bubble, in which the Sun is embedded. We show this modelis consistent with the large number of observational studies on these regions, and is able to resolvean apparent contradiction in the literature that suggests the high latitude portion of the NPS isnearby, while lower latitude portions are more distant. Understanding the contributions of this localemission is critical to developing a complete model of the Galactic magnetic field.
(Oct.14, 2021)
Dr. Jennifer West, Research Associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, is making a scientific case that two bright structures that are seen on opposite sides of the sky – previously considered to be separate – are actually connected and are made of rope-like filaments. This connection forms what looks like a tunnel around our solar system.
“If we were to look up in the sky,” explains West, “we would see this tunnel-like structure in just about every direction we looked – that is, if we had eyes that could see radio light.”
(today)
An expert in magnetism in galaxies and the interstellar medium, West looks forward to the more possible discoveries connected to this research.
“Magnetic fields don’t exist in isolation,” she says. “They all must to connect to each other. So, a next step is to better understand how this local magnetic field connects both to the larger-scale galactic magnetic field, and also to the smaller scale magnetic fields of our sun and Earth.”