Does the sun’s activity affect our weather?

As we all know, the sun is what heats our planet and makes life possible. The sun’s magnetic field certainly impacts our near-Earth space environment, otherwise known as space weather. However, we wondered if the sun’s solar activity affects out weather here on Earth. Much of the space weather is driven by energy carried through space by the solar wind from regions near the surface of the sun. The solar cycle is the rise and fall of the number of sunspots on the Sun. The solar activity is linked to the number of sunspots found on the Sun. As the number of sunspots increases, the solar activity also increases.

The number of sunspots found on the sun is always a changing figure. In addition to the variation caused by the rotation of the Sun, over time new groups of sunspots form, therefore old ones not only decay, but also fade away. When viewed over short periods of time (this could be either a few weeks or a month), this variation in the number of sunspots may appear to be a random result.

Nevertheless, observations over many years reveal an astonishing feature of our Sun: the number of sunspots varies in a periodic manner, usually described as the 11 year cycle even though the length of time varies. The Wolf number (the measurement of sunspots) is used to keep track of the solar cycle. While the cycle has been moderately unchanging this century, there have been large variations in the past. The migration of sunspots in autonomy has a ‘butterfly pattern’.

Although the number of sunspots is the easiest feature to observe, fundamentally all aspects of the Sun and solar activity are influenced by the solar cycle. As a solar activity is more frequent at solar maximum and less frequent at solar minimum, geomagnetic activity also follows the solar cycle. The reason why there is solar cycle is unknown; also a detailed explanation of the solar cycle is a fundamental physics problem still waiting to be solved.

For over a century, scientists have wondered if solar cycles affect our weather, but also the global climate. It is now thought that solar cycles on the Sun do not affect our weather however do have a very slight effect on global climate.

Will we ever know for definite?

By Annie P

Thanks to research from nasa and windows2research.org

The War in Afghanistan

The Broadcast team put together this short report for BBC School Report 2012 discussing the war in Afghanistan.

Kony 2012 - What's it all about?

A report by the Broadcast team for BBC School report on the Kony 2012 video that has featured heavily on social networks over the past month.

Stereotyping

-A stereotype is a popular belief about specific types of individuals.

In school and out of school stereotyping is a key problem.Many people see people who look different, wear different clothes or maybe listen to different music and ‘label’ them.
For example if you see someone wearing all black many people call them ‘emos’.Just because someone is wearing all black doesn’t mean they are emos.

People may listen to different music than you but it doesn’t mean they are any different from you. Everyone likes something different or does something different to what everyone else does yet people are only stereotypical to people they know do.

If you say something to someone for example,’are you an emo?’ because they are wearing all black or are listening to heavy music they may take this to offence. You wouldn’t like it if someone ‘labeled’ you as something would you? So why do it to other people? If you are a stereotypical person you are being hypocritical; no two people are the same therefore everyone is going to act and like different things.

Report by Chloe B - Year 9