"[8] Another group of researchers, including one at NASA, predicted that it "looks like its going to be one of the most intense cycles since record-keeping began almost 400 years ago.

[14] According to NASA, the intensity of geomagnetic storms during Solar Cycle 24 may be elevated in some areas where the Earth's magnetic field is weaker than expected.

While acknowledging that the next solar maximum will not necessarily produce unusual geomagnetic activity, astrophysicist Michio Kaku took advantage of the media focus on the 2012 phenomenon to draw attention to the need to develop strategies for coping with the terrestrial damage that such an event could inflict.

He asserted that governments should ensure the integrity of electrical infrastructure, so as to prevent a recurrence of disruption akin to that caused by the solar storm of 1859.

Sunspots did not begin to appear immediately after the last minimum (in 2008) and although they started to reappear in late 2009, they were at significantly lower rates than anticipated.

[19] On April 19, 2012, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan predicted that the Sun's magnetic field would assume a quadrupole configuration.

[20] Throughout 2012, NASA posted news releases discrediting the 2012 phenomenon and the so-called Mayan prophecy, delinking them from solar activity and space weather.

[21][22] On 4 January 2008, an active region appeared with magnetic polarity reversed compared to that expected by Hale's law for solar cycle 23.

The region was located at the relatively high latitude 30° N which, according to Spörer's law, provided further evidence for the arrival of cycle 24.

On 5 April 2010, the first coronal mass ejection (CME) of cycle 24 erupted at an active region causing a G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm on Earth.

[30] On 4 August 2010, a G2 (moderate) geomagnetic storm caused aurorae to be visible in the northern hemisphere at latitudes as far south as 45° N near Michigan and Wisconsin in the United States, and Ontario, Canada.

NOAA issued an R3 (strong) radio blackout alert pertaining this prominent x-ray flux event.

[39] On August 5, 2011, the combined cloud of three consecutive CMEs produced brilliant aurorae, reported as far south as Oklahoma and Alabama.

Although the flare was not Earth-directed, radiation created waves of ionization in Earth's upper atmosphere, briefly disrupting communications at some VLF and HF radio frequencies.

The Sun unleashed eight M-class flares this month, being the strongest the M3.9 event, followed by an Earth-directed CME, produced by sunspot 1305 on October 2.

[49] On November 3, 2011, active region 1339, one of the largest sunspots in years - 40,000 km wide and at least twice that in length - unleashed an X1.9-class solar flare.

The CME hit the Earth's magnetic field in the early hours of January 22, with minor geomagnetic disturbances reported.

The wave of high energy electromagnetic rays, reaching Earth in minutes, caused an R3 (strong) radio blackout over China, India and Australia, according to NOAA.

[63] Months later, in June, NASA reported that its Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected in this powerful flare the highest flux of gamma rays — greater than 100 MeV — ever associated with an eruption on the Sun.

[65] NASA also reported that these powerful flares heated the Earth's upper atmosphere with the biggest dose of infrared radiation since 2005.

Infrared radiation from carbon dioxide and nitric oxide, the two most efficient coolants in the thermosphere, re-radiated 95% of that total back into space.

This so-called "monster" sunspot complex, the largest active region of the cycle to date, was about the size of Jupiter, or eleven times the diameter of Earth.

Six days after, sunspot 1520, the largest active region of Solar Cycle 24 to date, unleashed an X1.4-class flare, peaking at 12:52 PM EDT.

This huge group of sunspots, which rotated into view on July 6, was located in the center of the Sun at the time of this event.

On August 31, 2012, a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun's atmosphere (the corona) erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m.

These powerful bursts all surged from the just-numbered sunspot AR1748, located on the eastern limb of the Sun and barely rotating around the front of the solar disk.

Larger than the planet Jupiter, the AR 12192 sunspot was visible during a partial solar eclipse seen in North America.

[85] In early November 2015, solar flares disrupted the air traffic control system in central and southern Sweden, causing heavy delays for passengers.

[91][92] Then, when this region was just crossing the west limb, another X-class flare (SOL2017-09-10, X8.2) produced only the second ground-level particle event of the cycle.

A small active region, NOAA 12694, appeared at the surprisingly high latitude of S32, near the disk center (January 8).