Significance_Of_Sunspots

Significance Of Sunspots Significance of Sunspots A sunspot is a concentration of magnetic flux in the photosphere of the sun that normally occurs in bipolar clusters or groups. In contrast to its surroundings, a sunspot is observed as a dark spot because it is approximately 1500 K cooler than its surrounding area. The number of sunspots on our sun varies in “eleven year” cycles and in “three-hundred year” cycles. Although it may vary from seven to seventeen years, the “eleven year” cycle begins with the maximum number of sunspots being visible, sometimes reaching one-hundred or more at a time. Over the next several years, the number of sunspots dwindle close to or even zero, and then gradually begin to increase in quantity until the end of the cycle when the star is once again displaying up to one-hundred or more. The “three-hundred” year cycle illustrates the patterns of the “eleven year” cycle, obviously on a grander scale. It begins with longer cycles of low maximum sunspots and gradually increases to shorter cycles with a higher maximum sunspot count. This pattern then reverses itself approximately half way through the “three-hundred” year cycle, and we again observe a pattern of lengthening sunspots, year, sunspot, cycles, cycle, temperature, maximum, number, eleven, earth’s, three-hundred, sun, low, during, correlation, between, although, years, wars, warming, time, small, significant, several, quite, point, period, patterns, pattern, part, one-hundred, innovations, increases, important, ice