Hi Sierra,

Sunspots are concentrated in two latitude bands on either side of the equator, and when their locations are plotted over the solar cycle they form a pattern that looks like a butterfly. These bands form first at mid-latitudes (about 30 degrees latitude) and then move towards the Sun's equator (0 degrees latitude) as the solar cycle progresses. You can see what the butterfly diagram looks like here: http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/images/bfly.gif

The poles of the Sun are located at 90 degrees latitude, so you are correct that sunspots are not found very close to the poles at all. It is difficult to see the Sun's poles from Earth, so we don't know a whole lot about these regions of the Sun. However flybys of the Ulysses spacecraft have provided some information about the Sun's poles. Thanks to data from the Ulysses mission, we now know that understanding what happens at the Sun's poles may be the key to understanding the solar cycle. This is because when a sunspot starts to dissipate, its decaying magnetic fields are carried up to the poles by currents inside the Sun. Near the poles, these decaying magnetic fields sink far below the Sun's surface, into the dynamo that creates the Sun's global magnetic field. Other peculiar things happen near the Sun's poles. A high speed solar wind streams out from the Sun's poles, and during the last solar cycle, the Sun's magnetic north pole was cooler than its south pole. The Sun's poles really are quite interesting and mysterious!

You can read more about the recent Ulysses flyby of the Sun's poles here: http://science.nasa.gov/h.../14jan_northpole.htm

Kris