Enduring Sunspots

[Newbie]

I notice that sunspot 2833, (formerly sunspot 2826), will traverse the earth facing side of the sun again as an active region. is it common for sunspots to remain this long?   

[Christopher S.]

2 hours ago, Newbie said:

I notice that sunspot 2833, (formerly sunspot 2826), will traverse the earth facing side of the sun again as an active region. is it common for sunspots to remain this long?   

It's a different sunspot region. It is not uncommon for them to occur at roughly the same latitude within this short of a timeframe, but the longitude of this spot is different enough from 2826 to be considered distinct - which is why it has a new number. Otherwise, yeah sunspots can survive more than a single rotation.

[Newbie]

Thanks again for your reply Christopher S.

It is my understanding that returning sunspots are always assigned a new sunspot number. I didn't look closely into the co-ordinates of the newly numbered sunspot group, assuming that the old sunspot group had, by convention, received a new number. 

The sunspot was more active during its time out of earth's view on the previous rotation. I don't expect we'll be observing it again. 

[3gMike]

1 hour ago, Christopher S. said:

It's a different sunspot region. It is not uncommon for them to occur at roughly the same latitude within this short of a timeframe, but the longitude of this spot is different enough from 2826 to be considered distinct - which is why it has a new number. Otherwise, yeah sunspots can survive more than a single rotation.

Hi Christopher, 

 My understanding, based on information from NASA, is that all sunspots are given new numbers as they appear / reappear on the earth facing side. Looking at the archive I would say it is very likely this is the same region as 2826, which was only present earth facing for 4 days towards the end of May. It is on almost exactly the same latitude,, and appeared close to the expected time. However, going against that, region 2833 was first recorded on 13 Jun at S00E63. That seems a bit strange ! Then, on 14th Jun, it was recorded at N27E52, and subsequently has remained in a latitude range N22 to N25.

[Vancanneyt Sander]

Sunspot regions always get new numbers even if they survive a rotation. If a region might return, it’s displayed on the site/app with the old number so you can look out to see if it returns or not. If it returns it gets his new number. 
big sunspot regions can survive multiple rotations but doesn’t mean that they will be still very active, it all depends on how the region evolves.

[Christopher S.]

1 hour ago, Vancanneyt Sander said:

Sunspot regions always get new numbers even if they survive a rotation. If a region might return, it’s displayed on the site/app with the old number so you can look out to see if it returns or not. If it returns it gets his new number. 

There is a logical contradiction in what you just said. If a region might return, it's displayed on the site with the old number, yet it gets a new number? Can you elaborate on this?

Disregarding the conventions for re-numbering the spots, I suppose it makes sense that the fluid plasma on the surface can migrate quite a distance over the course of a solar rotation, so is that what has likely has happened here?

Edited June 22, 2021 by Christopher S.

[Newbie]

I think what was meant was that the original numbers pertaining to returning sunspot groups are shown on this site so we can see which groups have survived their 'farside' traverse . Once the groups have crossed the east limb of the sun and appear as new sunspot regions Nasa assigns new numbers to them.

Hope this helps

 

 

[Vancanneyt Sander]

2 uren geleden, Christopher S. zei:

There is a logical contradiction in what you just said. If a region might return, it's displayed on the site with the old number, yet it gets a new number? Can you elaborate on this?

Disregarding the conventions for re-numbering the spots, I suppose it makes sense that the fluid plasma on the surface can migrate quite a distance over the course of a solar rotation, so is that what has likely has happened here?

On the solar activity page you’ll see that region 2830 might return on latitude 25° Southern Hemisphere. If it actually survived and we see it on the visible disk, SWPC will assign a new number. 

[Newbie]

Was that C3 flare a limb event or our old friend 2833?

[Vancanneyt Sander]

A limb event 

[daniel anderson]

I find it odd there was a c flare reported depsite the fact that there were no sunspots.

[Vancanneyt Sander]

21 minuten geleden, daniel anderson zei:

I find it odd there was a c flare reported depsite the fact that there were no sunspots.

The spot is still behind the limb that’s why you couldn’t see it

[abc]

So it means that (1) there is a sunspot that will become very visible (2) the flare is likely to be stronger than c3.4

Is that right ?

[Vancanneyt Sander]

1 uur terug, abc zei:

So it means that (1) there is a sunspot that will become very visible (2) the flare is likely to be stronger than c3.4

Is that right ?

It wasn’t much stronger as the x-ray peak isn’t much topped off 

[Newbie]

A little bit of delving:

SWPC (Space Weather Prediction Centre/er is part of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is an American agency, devoted to all things Space Weather. NASA, along with a lot of other agencies, is a customer of NOAA. I take it SWPC is the main source of space weather information and ultimately determines when a sunspot is numbered, it's classification, probability of flaring etc. etc.