“For the past few days, we have started observing eruptions and new sun spots,” solar physicist Etienne Pariat of the Observatoire de Paris - PSL, told RFI.
According to Pariat, a solar cycle is the evolution of the change in the solar atmosphere.
From The Lab: 'Active' Sun captured by telescope
“The Sun is not a static celestial body. We regularly see structures at its surface. For example, we observe sunspots which are associated with solar eruptions that correspond to a violent release of energy and material towards the interplanetary medium,” he said.
"Some of these particles can interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and even pose risk to satellites and electric grids."
In July 2017, the Calipso satellite, which studies the effects of aerosols and clouds on Earth’s atmosphere was hit by the energetic particles from the Sun. In order to prevent the damage to its main instrument, engineers had to put the payload in the off mode.
Pariat and his colleague Isabelle Bualé take daily observations of the Sun at the Meudon campus of the Observatoire de Paris using one of the world’s oldest active solar telescopes. It consists of a mirror that directs the sun rays to a digital camera which captures the images in different wavelengths.
“Each wavelength reveals different aspects of the solar atmosphere,” Pariat said.
The same telescope has been used to take daily solar observations from 1908.
“We have more than 110 years of observations in which we are looking at the evolution of the Sun. It’s the only way to look at the long term variations of the Sun. We have one of the largest collections of data to study such evolution," he added.
The only time these observations were interrupted was during the the First World War and for two months during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The records of these observations, now digital and directly available online, were taken on glass plates and film rolls before 2001 and are meticulously stored in the basement of a building in this sprawling campus. You can see the observations here.
