Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Magnetic Activity But No Sunspots
There are currently two magnetic storms on the surface of the Sun, but either they are remnants of old sun spots which started on the side away from us or they are new magnetic storms which lack the strength to establish a relatively dark core. Still they are visible in different areas of the spectrum and are high latitude, that is, Cycle 24 variety, near sun spots. The flux density is up to 74, still low (it ranges from 64 to 268) but higher than it has been in weeks. Who knows, maybe Cycle 24 will actually have some sunspots soon.
This is the sun in ultraviolet light. Mr. Maunder may have had access in the 19th Century to the technology to see in UV light, but the earlier sun gazers certainly did not. Based on his studies of the earlier astronomers, Maunder discovered that there were only about 50 sunspots from 1645 to 1715. After that it got real cold for about 135 years.
Labels: Sun Spots
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 4:55 AM 
