JavaScript is required
JPL Logo
Image

Spotless February

March 4, 2019
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows that the Sun has gone an entire month without any sunspots (Feb. 1-18, 2019).

For the first time in a long time the Sun has gone an entire month without any sunspots (Feb. 1-18, 2019). To put this in context, for five years (2011-2015) surrounding the latest solar maximum in March 2014 - the period when the Sun's magnetic activity is the most intense - there were only three days without any sunspots[MH1]. What a difference! The change in the level of activity during the Sun's average 11-year solar cycle is quite dramatic. We are probably not quite at the minimum level of activity yet, but are certainly getting close. The images were taken in filtered white (visible) light.

Movies
PIA21218_SpotlessMonth_big.mp4
PIA21218_SpotlessMonth_sm.mp4

SDO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Its Atmosphere Imaging Assembly was built by the Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), Palo Alto, California.

Keep Exploring