Very interestingly, As per the finding of HINODE, a Japanese satellite measuring the activities of the Sun: - In mid-May 2012 (just next month!) we will see the Sun’s negative pole turn positive... while the current positive pole STAYS positive..... thus making TWO positive poles on the sun ----- and subsequently, two south poles to match these spots somewhere on the surface of the star.
Normally, this happens every 11 years but this year ? It’s happening on year 10 ! A year early !? And the last similar occurrence was approx. 300 years ago !
Illustration as per HINODE finding: -
High latitude magnetic fields have been observed with solar telescopes on the ground. However, actual process of the polar field reversal is poorly understood because of the difficulty of the observations on the extreme limb combined with atmospheric seeing effect.
The solar optical telescope aboard Japan’s HINODE satellite allows us for the first time to perform extremely high-quality observations of the deep polar region of the Sun. The initial discoveries include that there are many magnetic patches with intense magnetic field in the polar regions. Their field strength is close to that of sunspots, and their size is as large as small sunspots called pore.
The international research team led by Saku Tsuneta, a professor at NAOJ (The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan), has been performing the monthly polar observations with HINODE from September 2008 stated: "We here report the discovery that the average magnetic flux of the north polar region is rapidly and steadily decreasing during the period of 2008 and 2012. The reversal (from minus to plus polarity) is taking place in sequence from lower latitude to higher latitude. The average magnetic flux of the polar region soon becomes zero. The estimated completion of the reversal of the north polar region will take place in 1 months or so, about one year earlier than the nominal expected reversal time."
In striking contrast to the north polar situation, the magnetic flux of the south polar region has been very stable, and maintains the plus polarity. These latest observations suggest that the global magnetic field of the Sun will become different from the normal bipolar configuration.
Observations of the polar magnetic fields are the key for understanding the cyclic solar dynamo. Their results will shed light on the origin of the solar magnetism and in turn, will contribute to our understating on the Sun's effect to the solar-terrestrial environment especially, our earth.
How soon will we have a flip?
在地球的歷史中也曾歷经多次的磁极反转现象。。。
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