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Old 25-10-2010, 09:17 AM
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orestis
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: southern highlands, Australia
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Sunspots and Faculae ?

Hi everyone,

I was going to post this in the obs forum but this is a scientific question so i thought i'll post it here.

From what i understand,
Granules are convection cells on the photosphere and radiate away both light and heat.

Sunspots consist of an Umbra and Penumbra,they are considerably cooler than the photosphere,with the photosphere being 6000k,the penumbra 5600k and the umbra 4000k.

The faculae on the other hand are several hundred degrees hotter than the photosphere.

So heres my question are faculae a feature of sunspots and are there more faculae than sunspots.

I Ask this question because i had a recent discussion with a physicist in which we pondered the effect of the sun on climate change.I pointed out that if there more sunspots then the sun would be cooler Right?But then he goes to say that there are more faculae than sunspots therefore leading to a hotter sun.

Another question also if you don't mind-What is the purpose of sunspots are they like huge granules.How do they form and why do they always disappear and come back again?

I think that climate change is Anthropogenic but i think that the Scientist should be doing more studies on how the sun is affecting our climate.

What do you think?
cheers orestis
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