A new paper suggests that the mysterious 100-year solar cycle known as the Gleissberg Centennial Cycle may have just “flipped over.” (Image credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/LMSAL)
A new study suggests that the unexpected increase in solar activity during the current solar maximum may be linked to a lesser-known 100-year cycle that is just beginning to gain strength.
If true, solar activity could increase over the next few decades, posing a hazard to spacecraft orbiting the Earth and continuing to cause bright auroras around the world. However, other experts are skeptical of the new findings.
Solar activity naturally fluctuates over the course of the solar cycle, an approximately 11-year period during which our star goes from a largely quiet state during a phase called solar minimum to a chaotic state where it often throws up powerful solar storms during solar maximum, and then back again. This cycle is also known as the “sunspot cycle” because the number of dark spots on the sun waxes and wanes as a result of changes in the star’s magnetic field, which reverses during solar maximum.
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