Feb 5, 2010 - Solar Dynamics Observatory: The 'Variable Sun' Mission
For some years now, an unorthodox idea has been gaining favor among astronomers. It contradicts old teachings and unsettles thoughtful observers, especially climatologists. "The sun," explains Lika Guhathakurta of NASA headquarters in Washington DC, "is a variable star."
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2010/05feb_sdo.htm

Jan 19, 2010 - NOAA Scientist Finds Clue to Predicting Solar Flares
Now a scientist at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center and her colleagues have found a technique for predicting solar flares two to three days in advance with unprecedented accuracy.
Story: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100119_solarflare.html

Oct 22, 2009 - Sluggish flow inside the sun may cause late sunspot cycle
Sonograms of the solar interior reveal a flow that is taking longer than usual to move from the poles to the equator and may be related to the current long minimum of solar activity.
Story: http://spie.org/x37587.xml?highlight=x2418&ArticleID=x37587#

June 17, 2009 - Mystery of the Missing Sunspots, Solved?
The sun is in the pits of a century-class solar minimum, and sunspots have been puzzlingly scarce for more than two years. Now, for the first time, solar physicists might understand why. At an American Astronomical Society press conference today in Boulder, Colorado, researchers announced that a jet stream deep inside the sun is migrating slower than usual through the star's interior, giving rise to the current lack of sunspots.
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/17jun_jetstream.htm?list173737

May 8, 2009 - NOAA Predicts Solar Cycle 24
The panel predicts the upcoming Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with 90 sunspots per day, averaged over a month. If the prediction proves true, Solar Cycle 24 will be the weakest cycle since number 16, which peaked at 78 daily sunspots in 1928, and ninth weakest since the 1750s, when numbered cycles began
Story: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090508_solarstorm.html

Apr 1, 2009 - Deep Solar Minimum
The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower.
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/01apr_deepsolarminimum.htm?list82994

Jan 23, 2009 - NASA Sees the 'Dark Side' of the Sun
NASA researchers announced an event that will transform our view of the Sun and, in the process, super-charge the field of solar physics for many years to come.
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/23jan_darkside.htm

Dec 16, 2008 - A Giant Breach in Earth's Magnetic Field
NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms.
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/16dec_giantbreach.htm

Nov 7, 2008 - The Sun Shows Signs of Life
"Last month we counted five sunspot groups," he says. That may not sound like much, but in a year with record-low numbers of sunspots and long stretches of utter spotlessness, five is significant. "This represents a real increase in solar activity."
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/07nov_signsoflife.htm

Sept 30, 2008 - Spotless Sun: Blankest Year of the Space Age
"Sunspot counts are at a 50-year low," says solar physicist David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. "We're experiencing a deep minimum of the solar cycle."
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30sep_blankyear.htm?list878321

July 24, 2008 - Plasma Bullets Spark Northern Lights
The gigantic bullets, they say, are launched by explosions 1/3rd of the way to the Moon and when they hit Earth—wow. The impacts spark colorful outbursts of Northern Lights called "substorms."
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/24jul_plasmabullets.htm

July 11, 2008 - What's Wrong with the Sun? (Nothing)
There have been some reports lately that Solar Minimum is lasting longer than it should. That's not true. The ongoing lull in sunspot number is well within historic norms for the solar cycle.
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/11jul_solarcycleupdate.htm

May 19, 2008 - Sunspot cycle more dud than radiation flood
Many solar scientists expected the new sunspot cycle to be a whopper, a prolonged solar tantrum that could fry satellites and raise hell with earthly communications, the power grid and modern electronics. But there's scant proof Sunspot Cycle 24 is even here, let alone the debut of big trouble.
Story: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/239625.php

March 28, 2008 - Old Solar Cycle Returns
Barely three months after forecasters announced the beginning of new Solar Cycle 24, old Solar Cycle 23 has returned. (Actually, it never left. Read on.)
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/28mar_oldcycle.htm

January 4, 2008 - Sunspot is Harbinger of New Solar Cycle, Increasing Risk for Electrical Systems
A new 11-year cycle of heightened solar activity, bringing with it increased risks for power grids, critical military, civilian and airline communications, GPS signals and even cell phones and ATM transactions, showed signs it was on its way late yesterday when the cycle’s first sunspot appeared in the sun’s Northern Hemisphere, NOAA scientists said.
Story: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080104_sunspot.html

January 4, 2008 - NOAA confirms start of new sunspot cycle
A new solar cycle is under way. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday that the first sunspot of a new 11-year cycle has appeared in the sun's northern hemisphere.
Story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080104/ap_on_sc/sunspot;_ylt=AhvZzE3mKj.HgvVoc7vzPnYPLBIF

December 14, 2007 - Is a New Solar Cycle Beginning?
The solar physics community is abuzz this week. No, there haven't been any great eruptions or solar storms. The source of the excitement is a modest knot of magnetism that popped over the sun's eastern limb on Dec. 11th.
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/14dec_excitement.htm

April 25, 2007 - NEXT SOLAR STORM CYCLE WILL START LATE
The next 11-year cycle of solar storms will most likely start next March and peak in late 2011 or mid-2012 – up to a year later than expected – according to a forecast issued today by NOAA’s Space Environment Center in coordination with an international panel of solar experts.
Story: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/SC24/PressRelease.html

December 21, 2006 - Scientists Predict Big Solar Cycle
Solar cycle 24, due to peak in 2010 or 2011 "looks like its going to be one of the most intense cycles since record-keeping began almost 400 years ago," says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/21dec_cycle24.htm

November 2, 2006 - First Light for Hinode
Hinode (Japanese for Sunrise, formerly known as Solar B) was launched on Sept 22nd from the Uchinoura Space Center in Kyushu, Japan. "It's on a mission to study the sun—specifically sunspots, which give rise to powerful flares and solar storms," says John Davis, the NASA Solar-B project scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/02nov_firstlight.htm

September 1, 2006 - Solar Sentinels
They note that several new spacecraft are already planned for studying the Sun during Cycle 24, including the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), Solar-B, and the Solar Dynamics Observatory. These missions will take 3D pictures of solar explosions, map the unstable magnetic fields of sunspots (the source of flares), and probe the sun's inner magnetic dynamo.
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/01sep_sentinels.htm

August 15, 2006 - Backwards Sunspot
On July 31st, a tiny sunspot was born. It popped up from the sun's interior, floated around a bit, and vanished again in a few hours. On the sun this sort of thing happens all the time and, ordinarily, it wouldn't be worth mentioning. But this sunspot was special: It was backward.
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/15aug_backwards.htm

March 10, 2006 - Solar Storm Warning
This week researchers announced that a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10mar_stormwarning.htm?list791008

March 6, 2006 - Solar Minimum has Arrived
For almost the entire month of February 2006 the sun was utterly blank. If Galileo had looked at the sun on his 442nd birthday, he would have been disappointed—no sunspots, no spin, no discovery. What's going on? NASA solar physicist David Hathaway explains: "Solar minimum has arrived."
Story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/06mar_solarminimum.htm?list822623