We’re doomed! Doomed, I tell you!

“August 5, 2013: Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip.

"It looks like we're no more than 3 to 4 months away from a complete field reversal," says solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. ‘This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system.’"

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/05aug_fieldflip/

(Break out those cases of C’s you got 25 years ago or those MREs from five years back.)

“The sun's magnetic field changes polarity approximately every 11 years. It happens at the peak of each solar cycle as the sun's inner magnetic dynamo re-organizes itself.”

(Oh. It wasn’t a big deal 11 years ago, so it’s no big deal now, right?)

“Solar physicist Phil Scherrer, also at Stanford, describes what happens: ‘The sun's polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero, and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. This is a regular part of the solar cycle.’"

(I was worried for a bit. Reversed magnetism sounded like one of those History Channel “WE’RE DOOMED!” stories.)

“A reversal of the sun's magnetic field is, literally, a big event. The domain of the sun's magnetic influence (also known as the ‘heliosphere’) extends billions of kilometers beyond Pluto. Changes to the field's polarity ripple all the way out to the Voyager probes, on the doorstep of interstellar space.”

(Hey, make up my mind! It’s an 11-year cycle thing, but it’s a “big event”?)

Not to worry.

"’The sun's north pole has already changed sign, while the south pole is racing to catch up,’ says Scherrer. ‘Soon, however, both poles will be reversed, and the second half of Solar Max will be underway.’

“When that happens, Hoeksema and Scherrer will share the news with their colleagues and the public.”

(When that happens?? What about before? I’ve got sandbags to fill.)