VIDEO: Black spots on the sun are visible from Ontario
Published May 10, 2024 at 1:51 pm
Ontario residents who kept their eclipse glasses from the April solar eclipse might be able to catch a glimpse of dark spots on the sun, also known as sunspots.
A cluster of sunspots currently appears to be growing in size, making them visible in non-cloudy conditions — and while they seem small at a glance, the entire cluster is approximately 200,000 kilometres across.
These dark spots are a temporary phenomenon caused by intense magnetic activity, where magnetic field lines inhibit the flow of hot gases from below the surface, resulting in cooler regions that appear darker.
They’re also responsible for the extreme geomagnetic storms which are expected to produce auroras across North America throughout the weekend.
A video showing a close-up of the sunspots can be seen here:
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On Thursday, May 9, the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Centre issued a severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch, the first since January 2005.
“Several strong flares have been observed over the past few days and were associated with a large and magnetically complex sunspot cluster which is 16 times the diamater of Earth,” the centre said in a statement on Thursday.
Additional solar eruptions could cause geomagnetic storm conditions to persist through the weekend, the centre says.
Three separate coronal mass ejections or explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun’s corona were observed. These explosions can impact communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations if they are directed at the Earth.
While aurora borealis are usually only visible in northern regions, the conditions of a severe geomagnetic storm may make them visible in southern Ontario and even as far south as Alabama and Northern California, the centre notes.
Residents are reminded not to look directly at the sun without proper eye protection such as solar eclipse glasses.
With files from Karen Longwell
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