early times report
Jammu, Nov 19: A new way uncovered by astronomers to reconstruct the Sun’s past polar magnetic behaviour by digging into historical solar images taken at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KoSO) more than 100 years ago provide clues to it’s future.
For over a century, scientists have tried to decipher the Sun’s mysterious rhythms, patterns of sunspots, flares, and magnetic storms that can affect everything from satellite operations to power grids on Earth. One of the key pieces of this solar puzzle lies in the polar magnetic fields of the Sun, which help shape each solar cycle and hold the crucial key for predicting future solar activity. As direct measurements of the polar magnetic fields of the Sun only began in the 1970s, we have very little knowledge about the polar field of the sun for the major part of the last century.
Researchers from the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India, along with the collaborators from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, USA; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Goettingen, Germany. |
