With A Stroke Of A When & A Dash Of A Why, Only To Wonder Where, Huh?

The CENTENNIAL GLEISSBERG CYCLE: You've heard of the 11-year sunspot cycle. But what about the Centennial Gleissberg Cycle? The Gleissberg Cycle is a slow modulation of the solar cycle, which suppresses sunspot numbers every 80 to 100 years. It may have been responsible for the remarkable weakness of Solar Cycle 24 in 2012-2013. New research published in the journal Space Weather suggests that the minimum of the Gleissberg Cycle has just passed. If so, solar cycles for the next 50 years could become increasingly intense. 

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GEOMAGNETIC STORMS ARE POSSIBLE TODAY: NOAA forecasters say that minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible today, May 2nd, as a fast-moving stream of solar wind buffets Earth's magnetic field. There is a slight chance the storm could escalate to category G2. If so, auroras would be visible after nightfall in northern-tier US states. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text

A GIANT RING OF ELLERMAN BOMBS: Astronomers are monitoring a very large sunspot now turning toward Earth. Sunspot 4079 stretches more than 140,000 km from end to end and has two dark cores each large enough to swallow Earth. Moreover, it is surrounded by a ring of Ellerman Bombs:9

Philippe Tosi took this picture from his backyard observatory in Nîmes, France, and inserted an image of Earth for scale. "It is an impressive sunspot," he says.

Note the pinpoints of light ringing the two dark cores. These are Ellerman bombs: Magnetic explosions about one-millionth as powerful as a true solar flare. A handful are circled for reference. Named after physicist Ferdinand Ellerman who studied them in the early 20th century, a single Ellerman bomb releases about 1026 ergs of energy--equal to about 100,000 World War II atomic bombs.

Ellerman bombs are a sign of magnetic complexity in a sunspot. Opposite polarities bump together, reconnect, and--boom! A full-fledged flare may not be far behind.