Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Integrating a Triplet-triplet Annihilation Up-conversion System to Enhance Dye-sensitized Solar Cell Response to Sub-bandgap Light
Published on: September 12, 2014
Triggering The Birth of New Cycle's Sunspots by Solar Tsunami
Mausumi Dikpati1, Scott W McIntosh2, Subhamoy Chatterjee3
1High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, 3080 Center Green, Boulder, CO, 80301, USA. dikpati@ucar.edu.
Abstract:
When will a new cycle's sunspots appear? We demonstrate a novel physical mechanism, namely, that a "solar tsunami" occurring in the Sun's interior shear-fluid layer can trigger new cycle's magnetic flux emergence at high latitudes, a few weeks after the cessation of old cycle's flux emergence near the equator. This tsunami is excited at the equator when magnetic dams, created by the oppositely-directed old cycle's toroidal field in North and South hemispheres, break due to mutual annihilation of toroidal flux there. The fluid supported by these dams rushes to the equator; the surplus of fluid cannot be contained there, so it reflects back towards high latitudes, causing a tsunami. This tsunami propagates poleward at a speed of ~300 m/s until it encounters the new cycle's spot-producing toroidal fields in mid-latitudes, where it perturbs the fields, triggering their surface-eruption in the form of new cycle spots. A new sunspot cycle is preceded for several years by other forms of high-latitude magnetic activity, such as coronal bright points and ephemeral regions, until the tsunami causes the birth of new cycle's spots. The next tsunami is due by 2020, portending the start of intense 'space weather' that can adversely impact the Earth.
Related Concept Videos
Nuclear Fusion
A helium nucleus has a mass that is 0.7% less than that of four hydrogen nuclei; this lost mass is converted into energy during the fusion. This reaction produces about...
Mutations
Chromosomal Alterations Are Large-Scale Mutations
While point mutations are changes in a single nucleotide in...
Tidal Forces
Generating Electromagnetic Radiations
Momentum And Radiation Pressure
Radiation Pressure: Problem Solving
The average value of the rate of momentum transfer divided by the absorbing area represents the average force per...

