1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:05,290 [Man off screen] Try this one on for size, our sun's north and south poles are about 2 00:00:05,290 --> 00:00:06,460 to flip flop. 3 00:00:06,460 --> 00:00:09,920 That's right if you were near the Sun and had your compass pointing north the dial would 4 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:11,870 actually swing south. 5 00:00:11,870 --> 00:00:15,960 Joining us today from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland is NASA Heliophysicist 6 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:18,109 Dr. Alex Young, thanks for joining us. 7 00:00:18,109 --> 00:00:19,109 Alex: Good morning. 8 00:00:19,109 --> 00:00:21,180 [Man off screen] What is a magnetic field? 9 00:00:21,180 --> 00:00:22,490 And why do we study them? 10 00:00:22,490 --> 00:00:28,820 Alex: Well when you stick a magnet to a refrigerator, that happens because of this invisible field 11 00:00:28,820 --> 00:00:30,360 called a magnetic field. 12 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:37,130 The sun has a magnetic field also and the Sun's magnetic field is incredibly complicated 13 00:00:37,130 --> 00:00:43,600 and dynamic and it drives all of the activity that happens on the sun, space weather and 14 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:45,050 solar storms. 15 00:00:45,050 --> 00:00:50,320 So we want to understand these magnetic fields so that we can understand these storms why 16 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:54,820 they happen and how powerful they could be. 17 00:00:54,820 --> 00:00:59,140 [Man off screen] What causes the Sun's magnetic field to flip? 18 00:00:59,140 --> 00:01:05,039 Alex: Well inside the sun, it's not a solid body, so it rotates at different speeds at 19 00:01:05,039 --> 00:01:12,080 different places and this generates magnetic fields via something called a "solar dynamo". 20 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:17,270 These magnetic fields are generated and they increase in strength rising to the surface 21 00:01:17,270 --> 00:01:23,290 giving us sun spots, and this gives us the solar activity that we're talking about. 22 00:01:23,290 --> 00:01:30,900 This whole process happens over a time scale of roughly 11 years we call this the "solar 23 00:01:30,900 --> 00:01:32,060 cycle". 24 00:01:32,060 --> 00:01:39,270 The solar cycle goes from being very weak with low activity to high activity and then 25 00:01:39,270 --> 00:01:40,810 back down to low activity. 26 00:01:40,810 --> 00:01:47,909 But what's exciting for us right now is that we are near this peak of activity and what 27 00:01:47,909 --> 00:01:57,000 also happens with that is that the orientation of the Sun's magnetic field reverses itself, 28 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:58,360 switches places. 29 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:04,560 And so this is what's happening right now because we are near this solar maximum period. 30 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:08,310 [Man off screen] What does this mean for the Earth? 31 00:02:08,310 --> 00:02:16,360 Alex: Well, all of this activity, solar flares (these bright flashes of light) or coronal 32 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:20,370 mass ejections which are huge explosions of material. 33 00:02:20,370 --> 00:02:25,230 They don't impact us directly but what they do impact is our technology. 34 00:02:25,230 --> 00:02:31,150 They can cause temporary disruptions in our communications, GPS, they can create a dangerous 35 00:02:31,150 --> 00:02:37,470 environment for astronauts in space, and they can also cause disruptions in our power grid. 36 00:02:37,470 --> 00:02:43,510 Now the one good side about that is it also gives us the aurora that we can see at the 37 00:02:43,510 --> 00:02:44,879 northern and southern poles. 38 00:02:44,879 --> 00:02:49,180 [Man off screen] Well where can we see more great images of the sun and learn about the 39 00:02:49,180 --> 00:02:50,200 current solar cycle? 40 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:54,940 Alex: Well a great place to go to find out all about this and see all of the great data 41 00:02:54,940 --> 00:02:59,099 we have and imagery is at www.nasa.gov/sunearth.