Scientists offer explanation for unusual solar phenomenon

A physicist from Kolkata along with two US scientists claim to have found an explanation to a solar phenomenon that has puzzled scientists for 400 years. Their explanation will lead to accurate predictions of space weather and help in planning space missions and polar flights.

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Calcutta, scientist Dibyendu Nandy and American scientists Andres Munoz-Jaramillo and Petrus Martens have offered an explanation to an unusual recent sunspot behaviour in the journal Nature.

According to the scientists, variation in speed of flow of plasma within the sun towards its equator affects the frequency of sunspots. These are dark spots occasionally seen on the surface on the sun.

They are focal points of magnetic energy on the solar surface that affect space weather including weather on and near the earth. The work also offers insights into the working of sunspots for the first time since they were first observed four centuries ago.

Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Nandy said, the work had helped in understanding why sun spots disappeared for an inordinately long period of time towards the end of the last solar cycle.

According to experts, the work opens up the possibility of short term forecasts of space weather. Nandy added that the team could now take its simulation model forward for the prediction of space weather, which could be used to schedule space missions and air traffic near polar region, that are the most affected by sunspot-caused weather changes.