Briefing: Sunspot Cycle

Tuesday-morning's news briefing — "What's Happening to the Sunspot Cycle?" — was the second to focus exclusively on solar physics. Richard S. Bogart (Stanford University) discussed recent trends in the north-south subsurface asymmetry and meridional flow. Richard C. Altrock (Air Force Research Laboratory) reported on the solar corona's temperature during the rise of the current magnetic cycle. David F. Webb (Boston College) poked holes in an earlier claim that coronal mass ejection rates and sunspot numbers have been diverging. Finally, Sarbani Basu (Yale University) put the current solar cycle in historical context, suggesting that it's really too soon to say whether the Sun's behavior during the recent minimum and current maximum falls inside or outside the range that should be considered "normal." AAS Solar Physics Division (SPD) Press Officer Craig DeForest (Southwest Research Institute) helped organize this press conference and assisted AAS Press Officer Rick Fienberg as emcee.