What causes the Suns 11-year cycle?
What causes the Suns 11-year cycle?
The Sun’s magnetic field goes through a cycle, called the solar cycle. Every 11 years or so, the Sun’s magnetic field completely flips. This means that the Sun’s north and south poles switch places. Then it takes about another 11 years for the Sun’s north and south poles to flip back again.
What happens to the Sun’s poles every 11 years?
The sun’s magnetic field changes polarity approximately every 11 years. Solar physicist Phil Scherrer, also at Stanford, describes what happens: “The sun’s polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. This is a regular part of the solar cycle.”
What causes the movement of sunspots?
Because sunspots are cooler than the rest of the sun’s surface, they look darker. To an observer on Earth, sunspots appear to move because sun’s surface itself is moving (though not in one piece, as we discussed).
Why are scientists tracking sunspot cycles?
Scientists use sunspots to track solar cycle progress; the dark blotches on the Sun are associated with solar activity, often as the origins for giant explosions – such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections – which can spew light, energy, and solar material into space.
What cycle is the Sun in currently?
The Sun has a cycle lasting roughly 11 years during which its activity is tracked by counting how many sunspots are counted by solar scientists. That’s been done since 1755, which is classed as Solar Cycle 1.
Does the Sun change polarity every 11 years?
Unlike the Earth however, the Sun’s global dipole magnetic field flips or reverses polarity every 11 years around the maximum phase of each 11 year solar cycle. During the reversal, the polarity of the solar polar fields in both hemispheres reverses or changes to the opposite polarity.
Why does the Sun have an 11 year cycle?
Similarly, the sun undergoes an 11 year cycle where it transitions from intense solar activity (when it sees several solar events a day) to being quiet (with potentially several days between events). The cause of this cycle has long been the center of much debate within the scientific community.
How are sunspots related to the solar cycle?
As the sunspots increase, so does the frequency and severity of flares and CMEs. The sun’s 11 year cycle is a symptom of a longer 22 year cycle called the solar cycle, or Hale Cycle, which affects the sun’s magnetic fields. Every 11 years, the sun’s poles flip. North becomes south and south becomes north.
How does the moon affect the solar cycle?
The result is comparable to the way the Moon ‘s gravity influences Earth’s tides, producing a regularly timed ebb and flow. The team has traced back 1,000 years of solar cycles, between the years 1000 and 2009 CE, comparing that data against the movements of the planets in that time. They found an impressively strong link between the two.
What is the cause of the solar cycle?
The cause of this cycle has long been the center of much debate within the scientific community. In recent years, it has become more widely accepted that the reason for this cycle comes from interactions within the Sun’s convection zone.