Name_____________________________________________________________ Date___________________ Period__________
Exploring Earth: How Does the Sunspot Cycle Affect Earth?
Start at Ms. Nevel’s website, http://nevelscience.wordpress.com, and click on the link for Thursday
9/20/2012. Use complete sentences to answer these questions.
1. Why do sunspots move across the face of the sun?
The sun spins on its axis, and the spots stay in one place as the sun spins
2. What do the sunspot regions look like in visible light images? What do they look like in the xray images?
Visible: dark spots
X-ray: They are bright red.
3. Earth is 150 million kilometers from the sun, and the solar "wind" travels at about 400 km/sec.
How many hours does it take particles from a solar storm to reach Earth? (Hint: Time = Distance
/ Speed; to convert from seconds to hours, divide the time in seconds by 3600.)
104.167 hours
4. What do you think would happen if Earth's magnetic field became weaker or disappeared
entirely?
We’d be hit full force by the solar winds; we’d be like Mars.
5. In the illustration, where do you see weaknesses in Earth's magnetic shield—places where the
magnetic field may allow solar wind particles near the surface?
At the north and south poles
6. Describe three ways that solar storms can affect your daily life.
1. Causes Earth’s atmosphere to heat up and expand which slows down satellites so they fall; can
damage electronics and sensors; 2. Astronauts and solar radiation. 3. Auroras. 4. Air navigation
and communication damage; radiation levels to passengers & crew. 5. Radio waves and
communication systems disrupted. 6. Electrical currents along transmission lines damaging
power distribution. 7. Migratory compasses in animals disrupted. 8. Air/ship radio
communications for determining their positions; radar affected. 9. Pipelines as long metallic
conductors, electrical currents; electrical monitoring systems disrupted.
7. What is the average time interval between solar maxima?
10-11 years
8.Predict the year in which you think the next solar maximum will occur.
2012?
9. Write the names of the long term environmental measurements graphed on webpage 5, and
tell whether you think there is a correlation (connection) between the measurement and the
sunspot number. Which measurement seems to have the closest correlation?
Earthquakes, ocean temps ppt, hurricanes, magnetic disturbances, tree rings. Magnetic
disturbances has the closest correlation
10. Identify three jobs held by people who would need to check the space weather report
regularly, and explain why the report is important to each.