Previous Animation Next Animation The Solar 'Constant' - Faculae vs. Sunspots Three views of the Sun showing different levels of solar activity. The color table has been altered to enhance the appearance of the faculae (white regions) which are hotter than sunspots (red-black regions) and whose greater total area contribute to increasing the solar flux reaching the Earth.    Low solar activity - October 28, 1998 Available formats:   2048 x 2048     TIFF 1 MB   320 x 320         JPEG     21 KB    Moderate solar activity - April 27, 2002 Available formats:   2048 x 2048     TIFF 1 MB   320 x 320         JPEG     25 KB    High solar activity - March 28, 2001 Available formats:   2048 x 2048     TIFF 2 MB   160 x 80           PNG       18 KB   320 x 320         JPEG     26 KB   80 x 40             PNG         5 KB Animation Number: 2644 Completed: 2002-11-30 Animator: Tom Bridgman (GST) (Lead) Scientists: William R. Ochs (NASA/GSFC)   Robert F. Cahalan (NASA/GSFC)   Gary Rottman (University of Colorado/LASP) Platforms/Sensors/Data Sets: PSPT/CaIIK camera   SORCE Data Collected: 2002-04-27T18:03:48.864Z, 2001-03-28T18:03:20.113Z, 1998-10-28T19:33:41.000Z Series: SORCE Prelaunch Keywords: SVS >> Faculae SVS >> Solar Cycle DLESE >> Space science SVS >> Sun GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Sun-earth Interactions >> Solar Activity >> Sunspots     Please give credit for this item to: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Source data courtesy of HAO & NSO PSPT project team. HAO is a division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research which is supported by the National Science Foundation.Special thanks to Vanessa George (University of Colorado/LASP) and Randy Meisner(Michigan State University) Back to Top

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