Solar Grand Maximum

From news archive of The Royal Astronomical Society News archive. March 30th 2012

~Recent research shows that the space age has coincided with a period of unusually high solar activity, called a grand maximum. Isotopes in ice sheets and tree rings tell us that this grand solar maximum is one of 24 during the last 9300 years and suggest the high levels of solar magnetic field seen over the space age will reduce in future. This decline will cause a reduction in sunspot numbers and explosive solar events, but those events that do take place could be more damaging. Graduate student Luke Barnard of the University of Reading will present new results on ‘solar climate change’ in his paper at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester.

The level of radiation in the space environment is of great interest to scientists and engineers as it poses various threats to man-made systems including damage to electronics on satellites. It can also be a health hazard to astronauts and to a lesser extent the crew of high-altitude aircraft.~

Rest at link below.

http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/219-news-2012/2112-solar-climate-change-could-cause-rougher-space-weather

This I am sure is contirubuting to much of the solar activity lately. I wonder what the count is for longer then 9300 years. If the cycle is predictable, then it is around every 400 years the sun has a Grand Maximum stage.  

From same page

~IMAGE, VIDEOS AND CAPTION

Images and videos of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) can be downloaded from http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/main.php?v=item&;id=80

A high-resolution version of the same image is available at http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/gallery/assets/print/M2_CME.tif

Caption: Image of a coronal mass ejection (CME) on June 7, 2011, recorded in ultraviolet light by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite. The shock front that forms ahead of these huge expulsions of material from the solar atmosphere (the event shown moved at 1400 km/s) can generate large fluxes of highly energetic particles at Earth which can be a considerable hazard to space-based electronic systems and with repeated exposure, a health risk for crew on board high-altitude aircraft. Credit: NASA / SDO