In a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday, representatives from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, and the international Solar Cycle Prediction Panel announced that the Sun has reached its solar maximum period, which could continue for the next year.
The solar cycle is a natural cycle the Sun goes through as it transitions between low and high magnetic activity. Roughly every 11 years, at the height of the solar cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip — on Earth, that’d be like the North and South poles swapping places every decade — and the Sun transitions from being calm to an active and stormy state.
NASA and NOAA track sunspots to determine and predict the progress of the solar cycle — and ultimately, solar activity. Sunspots are cooler regions on the Sun caused by a concentration of magnetic field lines. Sunspots are the visible component of active regions, areas of intense and complex magnetic fields on the Sun that are the source of solar eruptions.
“During solar maximum, the number of sunspots, and therefore, the amount of solar activity, increases,” said Jamie Favors, director, Space Weather Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star — but also causes real effects at Earth and throughout our solar system.”
Solar activity strongly influences conditions in space known as space weather. This can affect satellites and astronauts in space, as well as communications and navigation systems — such as radio and GPS — and power grids on Earth. When the Sun is most active, space weather events become more frequent. Solar activity has led to increased aurora visibility and impacts on satellites and infrastructure in recent months.
During May 2024, a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) launched clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, creating the strongest geomagnetic storm at Earth in two decades — and possibly among the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years.
“This announcement doesn’t mean that this is the peak of solar activity we’ll see this solar cycle,” said Elsayed Talaat, director of space weather operations at NOAA. “While the Sun has reached the solar maximum period, the month that solar activity peaks on the Sun will not be identified for months or years.”
Scientists will not be able to determine the exact peak of this solar maximum period for many months because it’s only identifiable after they’ve tracked a consistent decline in solar activity after that peak. However, scientists have identified that the last two years on the Sun have been part of this active phase of the solar cycle, due to the consistently high number of sunspots during this period. Scientists anticipate that the maximum phase will last another year or so before the Sun enters the declining phase, which leads back to solar minimum. Since 1989, the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel — an international panel of experts sponsored by NASA and NOAA — has worked together to make their prediction for the next solar cycle.
Solar cycles have been tracked by astronomers since Galileo first observed sunspots in the 1600s. Each solar cycle is different — some cycles peak for larger and shorter amounts of time, and others have smaller peaks that last longer.
“Solar Cycle 25 sunspot activity has slightly exceeded expectations,” said Lisa Upton, co-chair of the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel and lead scientist at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. “However, despite seeing a few large storms, they aren’t larger than what we might expect during the maximum phase of the cycle.”
The most powerful flare of the solar cycle so far was an X9.0 on Oct. 3 (X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength).
NOAA anticipates additional solar and geomagnetic storms during the current solar maximum period, leading to opportunities to spot auroras over the next several months, as well as potential technology impacts. Additionally, though less frequent, scientists often see fairly significant storms during the declining phase of the solar cycle.
NASA and NOAA are preparing for the future of space weather research and prediction. In December 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission will make its closest-ever approach to the Sun, beating its own record of closest human-made object to the Sun. This will be the first of three planned approaches for Parker at this distance, helping researchers to understand space weather right at the source.
NASA is launching several missions over the next year that will help us better understand space weather and its impacts across the solar system.
Space weather predictions are critical for supporting the spacecraft and astronauts of NASA’s Artemis campaign. Surveying this space environment is a vital part of understanding and mitigating astronaut exposure to space radiation.
NASA works as a research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. To see how space weather can affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts.
Abbey Interrante writes for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A housing project for formerly incarcerated individuals will be the subject of a public meeting to be held next week.
The Lake County Probation Department and Rural Communities Housing Development Corp., or RCHDC, will hold the community meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 23.
It will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors chambers at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes Street, Lakeport.
The Board of Supervisors gave the go-ahead to the project in August.
The Lake County Probation Department reported the project is needed for “justice-involved individuals to deal with the large amount of this population that are homeless in Lake County following incarceration.”
Chief Probation Officer Wendy Mondrans told Lake County News that the project has a cost of over $24 million and will be a new build, not a retrofit of an existing building.
At the Oct. 23 meeting, topics will include the housing project plan, potential locations for it and the resources that will be available for individuals who will be housed in the project.
Mondrans will be at the meeting, as will Ryan LaRue, chief executive officer for RCHDC. The organization also is building an apartment complex for Behavioral Health clients and low-income families on Collier Avenue in Nice.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has dozens of dogs deserving of new homes.
The shelter has 39 adoptable dogs listed on its website.
“Rain.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. This week’s dogs include “Rain,” a 3-month-old female American pit bull terrier mix with a gray and white coat.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
The California Department of Public Health, or CDPH, reports a total of 13 human bird flu cases have been confirmed in California.
All 13 cases are Central Valley individuals who had direct contact with infected dairy cattle and were confirmed after additional testing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.
Beginning next week, CDPH will report newly confirmed cases on its bird flu website. The website will be updated three times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Given the amount of exposure individuals with bird flu infections have with infected cows, evidence continues to suggest only animal-to-human spread of the virus in California.
Additionally, based on CDC’s genomic sequencing of three California bird flu cases, there is no evidence to suggest an increased ability for the virus to infect or spread between people and no known reduced susceptibility to antiviral medications.
All individuals have experienced mild symptoms, including eye redness or discharge (conjunctivitis), and have been treated according to CDC guidance. None of the individuals have been hospitalized.
While the risk to the general public remains low, additional, sporadic human cases of bird flu are expected to be identified and confirmed in California among individuals who have regular contact with infected dairy cattle.
CDPH continues to work closely with local health jurisdictions to identify, track, test, confirm, and treat possible and confirmed human cases of bird flu.
Additional Information on bird flu
Risk remains low: The risk to the general public remains low, but people who interact with infected animals, like dairy or poultry farm workers, are at higher risk of getting bird flu. CDPH recommends that personal protective equipment, or PPE, such as eye protection (face shields or safety goggles), respirators (N95 masks), and gloves be worn by anyone working with animals or materials that are infected or potentially infected with the bird flu virus. Wearing PPE helps prevent infection. Please see CDPH’s Worker Protection from Bird Flu for full PPE guidance.
Pasteurized milk and dairy products continue to be safe to consume, as pasteurization is fully effective at inactivating the bird flu virus. As an added precaution, and according to longstanding state and federal requirements, milk from sick cows is not permitted in the public milk supply.
What CDPH is doing: CDPH has helped coordinate and support outreach to dairy producers and farm workers on preventive measures that have helped keep human cases low in other states with bird flu outbreaks. CDPH continues to support local health departments in distributing PPE from state and federal stockpiles directly to affected dairy farms, farmworker organizations, poultry farm workers, those who handle raw dairy products, and slaughterhouse workers. To protect California farm workers from bird flu, during the last four months CDPH has distributed more than 400,000 respirators, 1.4 million gloves, 170,000 goggles and face shields, and 168,000 bouffant caps.
In addition, CDPH is working closely with local public health laboratories and local health departments to provide health checks for exposed individuals and ensure testing and treatment are available when needed. As one of the 14 states with infected dairy herds, California also received 5,000 additional doses of seasonal flu vaccine for farm workers from the CDC. Those doses will go to local health departments with the highest number of dairy farms.
CDPH has been tracking bird flu and making preparations for a possible human infection since the state’s first detection in poultry in 2022. CDPH partners closely with the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) on a broad approach to protect human and animal health. CDPH and the CDC use both human and wastewater surveillance tools to detect and monitor for bird flu, and work closely with local health departments to prepare, prevent, and lessen its impact on human health.
What Californians can do: People exposed to infected animals should monitor for the following symptoms for 10 days after their last exposure: eye redness (conjunctivitis), cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle or body aches, headaches, fatigue, trouble breathing, and fever. If they start to feel sick, they should immediately isolate, notify their local public health department, and work with public health and health care providers to get timely testing and treatment.
CDPH recommends that all Californians — especially workers at risk for exposure to bird flu — receive a seasonal flu vaccine. Although the seasonal flu vaccine will not protect against bird flu, it can decrease the risk of being infected with both viruses at the same time and reduce the chance of severe illness from seasonal flu.
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