Thursday, February 5, 2009

sunspot magnetic polarity cycle

The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Sun
by Jay M. Pasachoff, Ph.D.
Alpha, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
QB 521.P37 2003
pp. 20-21

i had always thought that susspots changed magnetic polarity every 11 years simply uniformly throughout a hemisphere. that of course is ridiculous because there are no magnetic monopoles. sunspots occur is pairs with the field lines extending from one to the other. every 11 years the polarity of this pair changes, as the book points out. one of the pair leads the other and this relationship reverses. the relationship is opposite between north and south hemispheres.

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