Sun unleashes Triple X-Class Solar Flares – June 12, 2014

As the longest and deepest solar minimum in a century unfolded, bored solar physicists wondered when "Solar Max" would ever return.

They can stop wondering. "It's back," says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center. The activity of our Sun have finally seen it reach the latest Solar Maximum, and it's a rather unusually one - one of the weakest maximums ever recorded.

However, despite the fact that the number of sunspots and solar flares has been very low this maximum, their power has not diminished at all, as evidenced by the major solar flares after yesterdays two X-flares (X2.5 and X1.5) the active region produced its third major solar eruption inside 24 hours with a X1.0 flare.

Pesnell believes that "Solar Cycle 24, such as it is, will probably start fading by 2015." Ironically, that is a when some of the bigger flares and magnetic storms could occur.