Solar Maximum

The sun's magnetic field flip, which occurred in February 2001, marked the peak of the sun's 11-year sunspot cycle. The increased activity by the sun is marked by numerous and powerful coronal mass ejections. A collection of related images, movies, and articles will be compiled here.

Current theory suggests that the twisting of magnetic field lines at sunspots such as this one (the largest observed in the current cycle) produce flares and mass ejections.
This huge coronal mass ejection exploded on April 2, 2001. It is the largest observed in over 25 years.
Here is a movie from July 14, 2001 which zooms in on a flare aimed directly at earth. The stream of charged particles flowing past earth severely disrupted satellite operations and shut down power grids in Canada. The video "snow" which appears is caused by high-energy particles striking the equipment.
These ejections send a shock wave of magnetized particles towards the earth, which produce the aurora. Image galleries from March 19-24, March 30-April 1, and April 17-18, 2001 document the fantastic aurora produced during the solar maximum. This page shows the current auroral activity in the atmosphere.