Jackson

On a January morning in 2012, Delta Air Lines made a decision that would confuse passengers and fascinate meteorologists. The airline rerouted several flights between Detroit and Hong Kong away from their efficient polar path, adding roughly 15 minutes to each journey. The reason was not weather in the traditional sense. It was not mechanical. … Read more

Every eleven years or so, the Sun flips its magnetic field and ramps up from a quiet, spotless period to a roaring, flare-filled crescendo we call solar maximum. Scientists spend years trying to predict how intense each cycle will be, and in 2019, the official consensus was that Solar Cycle 25 would be a dud … Read more

Sunspots are dark, magnetically intense regions on the Sun’s surface that mark where solar flares are most likely to erupt. When twisted magnetic field lines in and around these sunspots become overstressed, they snap and reconnect, releasing enormous bursts of energy that we observe as solar flares. Understanding how sunspots reveal where the next solar … Read more

Scientists cannot confirm solar maximum until months after it happens because the peak of solar activity is only identifiable in hindsight. The process requires observing that monthly sunspot numbers have started declining after reaching their highest point. Until that downward trend becomes clear in the data, there is no way to know whether activity is … Read more

Every morning, before most people have poured their coffee, a small group of dedicated observers around the world points their telescopes at the Sun. They count what they see by hand. This ritual has continued almost uninterrupted for more than 170 years, and it forms the backbone of our understanding of how the Sun’s activity … Read more

If you have ever read a space weather headline like “X2.4 Solar Flare Erupts From the Sun” and felt confused, you are not alone. I have spent years following space weather, and the classification system confused me too at first. Why letters? Why numbers? And why does the alphabet suddenly jump from C to M? … Read more

When the Sun erupts, the headlines often blur together. A news anchor says “solar flare” when they actually mean a coronal mass ejection, and vice versa. If you have ever scratched your head trying to separate the two, you are not alone. Our team has spent years following space weather, and the confusion is widespread … Read more

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has done something no spacecraft ever attempted before. It flew directly through the Sun’s corona, the superheated outer atmosphere of our star, sampling particles and magnetic fields in a region no human-made object had ever reached. Understanding how the Parker Solar Probe flies through the Sun’s corona requires unpacking a story … Read more

Every day, the Sun hurls energy and charged particles into space. Yet most of these outbursts pass harmlessly while a select few disrupt satellites, dim power grids, and paint the sky with auroras. The reason comes down to two main factors: whether the eruption is aimed at Earth, and whether it carries a coronal mass … Read more

Every 11 years, the Sun does something remarkable: its north and south magnetic poles swap places. This event, known as the solar magnetic field reversal, is one of the most predictable yet violent processes in our solar system. It reshapes the heliosphere, sends ripples through interplanetary space, and directly affects satellites, power grids, and communications … Read more