Kodaikanal Solar Observatory Data Reveals Clues on Sun’s Supergranulation and 11-Year Solar Cycle

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Kodaikanal Solar Observatory Data Reveals Clues on Sun’s Supergranulation and 11-Year Solar Cycle

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Key Scientific Concepts Explained from this article in PIB:

Solar Convection and Granules

1. The Sun generates enormous energy at its core. Much like a boiling pot of water on a stove, this energy travels outward to the surface through a process called convection. Hot plasma rises to the surface, cools down, and sinks back down.
2. This boiling movement creates distinct, cell-like patterns visible on the solar surface.
3. Smaller patterns are called granulations, while massive, large-scale networks are called supergranulations.

Characteristics of Supergranulation Cells

1. Size and Lifespan: These giant network cells have an average lifetime of about 24 hours and span a massive width of roughly 30,000 km.
2. Intergranular Lanes: The boundaries where the cooled plasma sinks back down are cooler and darker. These surrounding lanes have a width of about 6,000 km.

The 11-Year Solar Cycle Link

1. The Sun undergoes a periodic 11-year Solar Cycle, switching between phases of low activity (Solar Minimum) and high activity with lots of sunspots and solar flares (Solar Maximum).
2. Scientists from the IIA (an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology) analyzed more than 100 years of continuous solar data collected at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory.
3. By tracking physical characteristics like the widths and brightness intensities of these intergranular lanes across a century, the study helps solve the long-standing puzzle of how surface convection networks respond to the Sun's changing internal magnetic clock.

 

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