At https://www.livescience.com/space/the-sun/sunspots-surge-to-23-year-high-as-solar-maximum-continues-to-intensify-far-beyond-initial-expectations …. the number of visible dark patches on the Sun’s surface, as we see it, in the month of August, was higher than any year since September 2001. Lawwrence Dixon, at the time, gave a talk on solar activity in the early 2000s, with 2003 the year of the last really big CME to srike the Earth. The year 2001 was solar maximum midway during solar cycle 23. It was initially thought that solar cycle 25 would be weak – but it has proved not to be. Solar cycle 24 was exceptional in that sunspot numbers were relatively low. There were still plenty of them but they were nothing like the numbers in solar cycles 23 and 25. The Sun’s high activity has revealed what appears to be another peak – and the beginning of September suggests it will continue at a high level, confounding a lot of pundits. Keep aabreadst of solar activity by regularly visiting https://spaceweather.com …
At https://phys.org/news/2024-08-space-probes-alfvn-solar.html … we learn that data from the Parker Solar Probe and ESAs Solar Orbiter missions show that Alfven waves drive the acceleration and heating of the solar wind. The conclusion comes from an international team of astrophysicists. The findings were published in the journal Science – see https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adr5854 … Alfven waves are a type of electromagnetic plasma wave.
At https://phys.org/news/2024-08-solar-orbiter-magnetic.html … we are told the Solar Orbiter shows how the solar wind gets a magnetic push. The research is due to the puzzle of where the energy comes from to heat and accelerate the solar wind. See also https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk6953 … an alternative article on the subject.
Over at https://www.sciencealert.com/the-sun-is-more-active-than-scientists-anticipated-heres-what-it-means-for-us … which is about recent solar activity, which has taken solar physicists by surprise, while at https://www.sciencenews.org/article/waves-heat-accelerate-solar-wind … which again concerns the Parker Probe and Solar Obiter.