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Spotless Sun

March 20, 2017
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory sees the sun has been virtually spotless, as in no sunspots, a 11-day spotless stretch not seen since the last solar minimum many years ago.

The sun has been virtually spotless, as in no sunspots, over the past 11 days, a spotless stretch that we have not seen since the last solar minimum many years ago. This video shows the past four days (Mar. 14-17, 2017) with a combination of an extreme ultraviolet image blended with just the filtered sun. If we just showed the filtered sun with no spots for reference points, any viewer would have a hard time telling that the sun was even rotating. The sun is trending again towards the solar minimum period of its 11 year cycle, which is predicted to be around 2020 (see monthly prediction chart here: https://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/images/ssn_predict_l.gif).

Movies
PIA21582_Spotless_combo_big.mp4
PIA21582_Spotless_combo_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.

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