{"id":105516,"date":"2020-04-16T09:25:50","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T16:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/the-sun-is-spitting-out-strange-patterns-of-gamma-rays-and-no-one-knows-why"},"modified":"2020-04-16T09:25:50","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T16:25:50","slug":"the-sun-is-spitting-out-strange-patterns-of-gamma-rays-and-no-one-knows-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/the-sun-is-spitting-out-strange-patterns-of-gamma-rays-and-no-one-knows-why","title":{"rendered":"The Sun Is Spitting Out Strange Patterns of Gamma Rays\u2014and No One Knows Why"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/the-sun-is-spitting-out-strange-patterns-of-gamma-rays-and-no-one-knows-why.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists have studied this ebb and flow for centuries, but only began understanding its effects on our planet at the dawn of the space age in the mid-20th century. Now it is clear that around solar maximum the sun is more likely to bombard Earth with charged particles that damage satellites and power grids. The solar cycle also plays a minor role in climate, as variations in irradiance can cause slight changes in average sea-surface temperatures and precipitation patterns. Thus, a better understanding of the cycle\u2019s physical drivers is important for sustainable living on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Yet scientists still lack a model that perfectly predicts the cycle\u2019s key details, such as the exact duration and strength of each phase. \u201cI think the solar cycle is so stable and clear that there is something fundamental that we are missing,\u201d says Ofer Cohen, a solar physicist at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. One obstacle to figuring it out, he says, is that crucial details of the apparent mechanisms behind the cycle\u2014such as the sun\u2019s magnetic field\u2014are largely hidden from our view. But that might be about to change.<\/p>\n<p>Tim Linden, an astronomer at The Ohio State University, and his colleagues recently mapped how the sun\u2019s high-energy glow dances across its face over time. They found a potential link between these high-energy emissions, the sun\u2019s fluctuating magnetic field and the timing of the solar cycle. This, many experts argue, could open a new window into the inner workings of our nearest, most familiar star.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have studied this ebb and flow for centuries, but only began understanding its effects on our planet at the dawn of the space age in the mid-20th century. Now it is clear that around solar maximum the sun is more likely to bombard Earth with charged particles that damage satellites and power grids. The [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":525,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[493,48,2028,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climatology","category-particle-physics","category-satellites","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/525"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}