What are sunspots caused by? How would the climate of Earth be affected by sunspots?

Answer 1

They are disturbances in the magnetic field of the Sun. They are still not well understood. The Sun goes through cycles of sunspot activity about every 11 years, and the brightness of the sun varies by about a tenth of a percent during that cycle. Since heat from the Sun causes all the weather on Earth, this might be expected to have a major impact on the weather, but I am not aware of any known 11 year cycle in the weather.

Answer 2

Sunspots are places on the sun's surface that are cooler than the surrounding surface. They are upwellings from the sun's cooler interior...(yes, the sun is cooler under its apparent disk where the wavelengths of energy are shorter and atoms/molecules cannot move as fast...remember heat is LONG wave radiation). Energy begins as gamma radiation at the sun's core. Gamma rays are NOT heat rays. They are much to short wavelength.

Anyway, some theorize they are a kind of pressure release - or safety valve for the sun. They are either the result of, or producers of strong electromagnetic disturbances on the sun's "surface" or photosphere. They frequently appear as groups where the electromagnetic lines of flux connect them. The 22 year solar cycle is probably due to the amount of time required for the pressures and other conditions to build up to start the cycle over again. Yes...it is a 22 year cycle since each 11 years the polarity of the system reverses.

During times of sunspot activity we see more auroras, radio communications are effected, power lines shut down due to power surges, etc. There has been some effect on the climate as witnessed by changes in the stock market in items like corn production and other crops. The total solar energy output in the wavelengths that are important to our weather is somewhat less during sunspot years. Although it seems to be slight, there might be a yet untraced "domino effect".

Since climates are defined as the AVERAGE condition of the atmosphere over a more than 30 year period, the "11" year cycle would be too short to impact it with the small variations the sunspots presently are responsible for.

Answer 3

The theory I find most compelling regarding sunspots and cooling is by Henrik Svensmark. He posits that when the sun is bare of spots, as it is now, the solar wind is also waning which allows more cosmic rays to hit the Earth and interact with our atmosphere, causing cloud formation. The additional clouds have an overall cooling effect. We get similar gamma radiation from the sun but it has less effect since it's less energetic, moving at a slower speed if I recall the theory correctly. CERN is going to test his theory. I doubt this effect is enough to trigger a return to the glacial part of our current ice age, but it could cause a new Little Ice Age. Then again, by many measures we're due for the return to the glacial stage now and nothing in our science could prevent it when it happens. Here's food for thought. CO2 is .04% of our atmosphere and causes 9% or about 3C of the 33C warming that makes Earth habitable. At the current rate of increase, CO2 levels won't double until about 2250. Yet they claim that increasing CO2, not even doubling the current amount, will cause warming of up to 8C by 2100. It's a sad day for science when charlatans run the conferences and twaddle like that is treated as gospel. We're in the sixth year of cooling according to satellite observation, yet they still yell about global warming. No matter how much CO2 we produce, most will go into the oceans and we won't be able to stave off an ice age with such a weak gas. Yet despite the cooling they're dumping tons of iron into the oceans to feed more algae. I hope they don't go too far as plants begin to suffocate if CO2 levels decline too far below what they were during the Little Ice Age.

Answer 4

the sunspots are caused by the intensive magnetic field of sun if the magnetic fields activity rich to its maximum peak the sunspots enhanced to the maximum but when the magnetic field is in its minimum activity the sunspots reduce to the minimum. sun spots temperature is between 3500 to 3800 kelvin and of course if the magnetic field has maximum activity the solar winds are maximum so earth contact to the more electrons so we can see intensive polar twilights

Answer 5

The answers above mine are excellent and I need not refine them. However, what needs to be understood is that the energy of the sun takes place within the solar corona in the form of nuclear fusion. This fusion process emits solar particles such positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons; all which takes place in the Solar Corona. The negatively charged electrons are retarded while the positively charged protons are accelerated out in what is known as Solar Wind. This wind is electrical in nature and it is for this reason that the sun emits more electricity than it does light. By all accounts the sun's corona is negatively charged while the vast outer reaches of our solar system are positively charged. This is what is known as the solar capacitor. A good example of this is your backyard Bug Zapper. If you broach this positive and negatively charge field, like a bug, what happens? You would see a discharge of electricity very much comparable to what we see in terms of solar flaring. It is this solar wind that affects the earth's electromagnetic field and causes it to contract and expand very quickly depending on the intensity of the flare. This flaring, given if it is strong enough, causes the earth changes such as weather, volcanism, earthquakes, cyclonic storms and alters the earth's magnetic field. It is this solar wind evidenced by increased sunspot activity that determines why our sun is active or not. This is why we are experiencing MACRO-WARMING trends as well as the other planets and moons in our solar system. Something is causing our "bug zapper" (sun) to be incredibly active and thus causing our solar capacitor to fire. What is causing this is still being determined. Global warming is indeed happening, but the disinformation of it being strictly manmade is hogwash. Yes, there are MICRO-WARMING examples such as CO2 to contend with, however this does not explain why our whole solar system is warming up? Please check out the source below for a better and more complete understanding of our earth, sun and solar system

Answer 6

Sunspots are cool regions of the sun with concentrations of magnetic fields. Read here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspot