Sunspot - Multiverse - Solar Week Message Board

Solar Week - Ask a Question

Come here during Solar Week (next one: March 22-26, 2021) to interact. To post a question, click on your area of interest from the topics below, and then click on the "Ask New Question" button. Or EMAIL or tweet or plant in Answer Garden your question about the Sun or life as a scientist to us -- and watch for it to appear here. You can also visit our FAQs (frequently asked questions). In between Solar Weeks in October and March, you can view all the archives here.

Forums
Search Forum
Advanced SearchTopicsPosts

Prev Go to previous topic

Go to next topic

Last Post 10/7/2009 4:34 AM by Emilia Kilpua

Sunspot

1 Replies

Sort:


You are not authorized to post a reply.

Author

Messages

Anonymous

Posts:

10/6/2009 8:29 AM
Leslie S (Fx) Why do some spots happen as only one "spot", while others occur like a cluster? thanks

Emilia Kilpua

New Member

Posts:88

10/7/2009 4:34 AM
<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> Hi Leslie! As you may have noticed from the solar images, sunspots typically appear in pairs/groups. Sunspots form when bundles of magnetic field (flux tubes) arise inside the Sun to the surface. The magnetic field lines break through the surface from one spot and then go back inside through the other spot. Solar activity (e.g. flares and coronal mass ejections) and strong magnetic fields are concentrated in so-called active regions. Active regions may have several sunspot pairs. I think single sunspots you could find in the early or decay phase of the sunspot pair. Also sometimes a group of sunspot may appear like one big sunspot due to low resolution.