PICK OF THE WEEK
Pick of The Week
Magnetic Sunspots (June 21, 2002)
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This graphic shows how sunspots are really visible evidence of the
intense magnetic activity associated with them. The orange Sun (on
top) shows what the Sun looks like in a kind of "visible" light,"
with the dark sunspots groups being the most noticeable features.
The lower magnetogram, also from 29 May 2002, shows areas of
magnetic intensity that reveals a close correlation between the two.
The black and white areas indicate north and south polarity. Active
regions with their intense magnetic activity are often the sources of
solar storms. The video clip shows the two types of images for 22
days. Although the matching of the times of the images is not
precise throughout the clip, the message of the correlation holds up
well. Many magnetic features don't show up as sunspots. Those
features are either after the spots decay or show us where new spots
may appear. SOHO began its Weekly Pick some time after sending a weekly image or video clip to the American Museum of Natural History (Rose Center) in New York City. There, the SOHO Weekly Pick is displayed with some annotations on a large plasma display. If your institution would also like to receive the same Weekly Pick from us for display (usually in Photoshop or QuickTime format), please send your inquiry to steele.hill@gsfc.nasa.gov. |
