More sunspots mean increased solar activity, when great blooms of radiation known as solar flares or bursts of solar material known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) shoot off the sun's surface. The highest number of sun spots in any given cycle is designated \"solar maximum,\" while the lowest number is designated \"solar minimum.\" Each cycle, varies dramatically in intensity, with some solar maxima being so low as to be almost indistinguishable from the preceding minimum.
Sunspots are a magnetic phenomenon and the entire sun is magnetized with a north and a south magnetic pole just like a bar magnet. The comparison to a simple bar magnet ends there, however, as the sun's interior is constantly on the move.
By tracking sound waves that course through the center of the sun, an area of research known as helioseismology, scientists can gain an understanding of what's deep inside the sun. They have found that the magnetic material inside the sun is constantly stretching, twisting, and crossing as it bubbles up to the surface. The exact pattern of movements is not conclusively mapped out, but over time they eventually lead to the poles reversing completely.
The sunspot cycle happens because of this poles flip — north becomes south and south becomes north—approximately every 11 years. Some 11 years later, the poles reverse again back to where they started, making the full solar cycle actually a 22-year phenomenon. The sun behaves similarly over the course of each 11-year cycle no matter which pole is on top, however, so this shorter cycle tends to receive more attention.", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 350798, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10804/#media_group_350798", "widget": "Video player", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "Short, narrated video about the solar cycle.
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"role": "Animator", "people": [ { "name": "Scott Wiessinger", "employer": "USRA" }, { "name": "Walt Feimer", "employer": "HTSI" }, { "name": "Tom Bridgman", "employer": "Global Science and Technology, Inc." } ] }, { "role": "Video editor", "people": [ { "name": "Scott Wiessinger", "employer": "USRA" } ] }, { "role": "Narrator", "people": [ { "name": "Karen Fox", "employer": "ADNET Systems, Inc." } ] }, { "role": "Producer", "people": [ { "name": "Scott Wiessinger", "employer": "USRA" } ] }, { "role": "Videographer", "people": [ { "name": "Rob Andreoli", "employer": "Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc." } ] }, { "role": "Writer", "people": [ { "name": "Karen Fox", "employer": "ADNET Systems, Inc." }, { "name": "Scott Wiessinger", "employer": "USRA" } ] } ], "missions": [], "series": [ "Goddard Shorts", "Narrated Movies" ], "tapes": [ "Solar Cycle (Produced by: Robert Crippen)" ], "papers": [], "datasets": [], "nasa_science_categories": [ "Sun" ], "keywords": [ "Coronal Mass 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To scientists, these planet-sized phenomena indicate the location where strong magnetic fields that power solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) emerge from the sun's interior. The number of sunspots increases and decreases over time in a regular, approximately 11-year cycle, called the sunspot cycle. During each cycle sunspots migrate from the sun's mid-latitude regions towards the equator, with the highest number observed in any given cycle designated \"solar maximum\" and the lowest number designated \"solar minimum.\" Each cycle varies dramatically in number, with some solar maxima being so low as to be almost indistinguishable from the preceding minimum. Learn more about the sunspot cycle and see actual footage of sunspots in the videos below. || ", "release_date": "2011-12-22T00:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:53:22.003983-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 480328, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010834/magneticsunspots_cover_1024x576.jpg", "filename": "magneticsunspots_cover_1024x576.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Like clockwork, dark spots the size of Earth speckle our sun.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 10846, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10846/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) Blast Their Way Through the Solar System", "description": "A coronal mass ejection erupts from the Sun and propagates out through the Solar System. Along the way it is detected by the spacecraft at Jupiter and Saturn. Eventually it is detected by the two Voyager spacecraft beyond the orbit of Pluto. This animation is based on CMEs produced during the Halloween storms of 2003. It is an update to a previous animation. || ", "release_date": "2011-10-18T12:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:53:34.449480-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 482809, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010846/CME_Thru_System_Still.jpg", "filename": "CME_Thru_System_Still.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Animation with no labels.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } ], "sources": [ { "id": 3521, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3521/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "The Solar Dynamo: Toroidal and Poloidal Magnetic Fields", "description": "Using the solar plasma flows as input (see The Solar Dynamo: Plasma Flows), the equations of magnetohydrodynamics, and 'seeding' the calculations with an initial small magnetic field, one can compute how a magnetic field can grow and be maintained. This is the dynamo process, the net result being that part of the Sun's outflowing thermal convective energy from nuclear processes is used to create the magnetic field.In this view of the solar dynamo mechanism, we examine the evolution of the toroidal magnetic field, the field intensity represented by colors on the right-hand cross-section, and the poloidal magnetic potential field, represented by colors on the left-hand cross-section. The poloidal magnetic potential is a scalar quantity that contains information about the radial and latitudinal magnetic field vectors. To see the radial magnetic field, see The Solar Dynamo: Toroidal and Radial Magnetic Fields.In this visualization, the magnetic field lines (represented by the 'copper wire' structures) are 'snapshots' of the field structure constructed at each time step of the model. These field lines should not be considered as 'moving' or 'stretching' as the model evolves in time. Even this simplified model reproduces a number of characteristics observed in the actual solar magnetic field. Cyclic behavior with oscillations in the magnetic field amplitude.Magnetic regions at the surface migrate from high latitudes towards the equator as the solar cycle progresses. This reproduces the \"Butterfly Diagram\" pattern.Surface magnetic polarities reverse with each cycleBecause this model is axisymmetric, it cannot simulate non-axisymmetric features such as active longitudes. || ", "release_date": "2008-08-19T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-01-05T00:00:35.645697-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 500907, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003500/a003521/Dynamo.Fields.1000.jpg", "filename": "Dynamo.Fields.1000.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This movie starts with a view of the Sun with sunspots changing as part of the solar cycle. The surface opens to reveal the interior magnetic field structure.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } } ], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }