Do "Last Best" Flares Conclude Solar Cycles?
Abstract
The Sun has just produced two major X-class flares in the waning phase of Solar Cycle 24, to be thoroughly discussed at TESS 2018. This has happened in previous cycles:
Cycle 21: SOL1984-04-24 (X10; SMM on furlough), Cycle 22: SOL1996-07-09 (X2.2 or maybe X2.6; first sunquake), Cycle 23: SOL2006-12-13 (X3.4; Hinode), Cycle 24: SOL2017-09-10 (X8.2; Fermi sustained gamma-rays). These could be termed "last best" events, each one quite memorable and each one at the very end of its 11-year cycle. Above a certain magnitude, flare occurrence approaches a Poisson distribution and one can ignore the solar cycle. These considerations don't reflect any particular physics, and yet...- Publication:
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2018 Triennial Earth-Sun Summit (TESS)
- Pub Date:
- May 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018tess.conf31906H