sunspots - 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 11:23 AM by Yan Li

sunspots

1 Replies

Sort:


You are not authorized to post a reply.

Author

Messages

Anonymous

Posts:

10/7/2009 6:22 AM
Rachael H (Fx) Can NASA's stereo mission detect sunspots we can't see yet? If so, has any sunspots been seen near the sun's poles?

Yan Li

New Member

Posts:55

10/7/2009 11:23 AM
Hi Rachael, STEREO mission is not particularly designed to detect sunspots. But the imaging instruments on board take pictures of the Sun in four different wavelengths, where solar active regions over sunspots can be seen as bright regions. If you mean whether STEREO can see 'sunspots' that we can't see yet from Earth, then, yes, STEREO B spacecraft behind the Earth can see part of the Sun before we can see it from the Earth, due to the viewing angle. STEREO satellites travel almost within the ecliptic plane, that is near the solar equator, and therefore are not designed to observe the solar polar region either. Also in general, sunspots appear below 50 degrees of solar latitudes, that is to say, we do not observe sunspots near the solar polar regions. Yan