A year ago, sun activity generated remarkable auroras visible as far south as Florida, tied to an 11-year solar cycle approaching its maximum. While these events were influenced by several factors, including some luck, the current solar cycle remains high in activity. Scientists expect potential future solar cycles to be even more dynamic, though predicting sun behavior is challenging. Heliophysicists track solar activity by the number of sunspots, which reflect the sun's magnetic field dynamics throughout its cycle.
The incredible spectacles last May...were partly a matter of luck because several factors, some of them serendipitous, affect the appearance of aurora.
This solar cycle still has the potential to cause more celestial spectacles before activity calms down.
Solar stormsâit's a probabilistic thing, so sometimes they don't always do what you would expect, says Lisa Upton, a heliophysicist at the Southwest Research Institute.
Heliophysicists gauge our star's activity by tallying the number of sunspotsârelatively cold knots of its magnetic field that are often the source of radiation and plasma outbursts.
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