A helioseismic map of the solar interior. Tilted red-yellow bands trace solar jet streams. Black contours denote sunspot activity. When the jet streams reach a critical latitude around 22º, sunspot activity intensifies.
Credit: NASA/NSO
In this case, researchers combined data from a network of telescopes (the Global Oscillation Network Group or GONG) that measures solar vibrations from various locations around Earth and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) in space.
"This is an important discovery," commented Dean Pesnell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, USA. "It shows how flows inside the Sun are tied to the creation of sunspots and how jet streams can affect the timing of the solar cycle."
There is, however, much more to learn. "We still don't understand exactly how jet streams trigger sunspot production," said Pesnell. "Nor do we fully understand how the jet streams themselves are generated."
To solve these mysteries, and others, NASA plans to launch the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) later this year. SDO is equipped with sophisticated helioseismology sensors that will allow it to probe the solar interior better than ever before.
"The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on SDO will improve our understanding of these jet streams and other internal flows by providing full disk images at ever-increasing depths in the sun," said Pesnell.
Continued tracking and study of solar jet streams could help researchers do something unprecedented – accurately predict the unfolding of future solar cycles.
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Dr Tony Phillips is a science writer and editor at NASA.
This is an edited version of a feature first published on the Science@NASA web site.
