Faculae and Sunspots at Solar Maximum and Solar Minimum
Visualizations by
Tom Bridgman
Released on January 18, 2022
The solar 'constant', the amount of energy received from the Sun during the course of the 11 year solar cycle, is not strictly constant. There is small variation during the course of the cycle due to the change in solar activity.
Sunspots form in regions with stronger magnetic fields on the photosphere and appear dark against the hotter solar surface, even though they are still quite hot. Faculae are extended regions that tend to form around sunspots and are hotter, and brighter, than the photosphere. Faculae are barely visible in solar imagery taken in visible light, but are more obvious in specific wavelengths (such as 1700 Angstroms used here) as the brighter speckled regions around many of the sunspots.
The hotter and more extended area of the faculae add more to the solar energy output than is taken away by the cooler and smaller sunspots, yielding a slight net increase in the solar luminosity around solar maximum.
Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer Joy Ng (USRA): Lead Producer Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support
Please give credit for this item to: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation:
Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0