The Sun’s magnetic poles are gradually disappearing, but there’s no need for alarm

The dipole phase is fleeting. With the sun’s rotation, the seemingly orderly magnetic field becomes twisted and strengthened. The field also rises towards the sun’s surface, usually near the solar equator, manifesting as sunspots. Sunspots appear dark because the enhanced magnetism impedes the transfer of heat to that area, creating a cooler zone, with less brightness compared to other parts of the solar surface.

Each sunspot comes in pairs, one with positive magnetism and the other with negative. As sunspots decay, most of these magnetic pairs (but not all) dissipate, leaving behind a little residual magnetic flux. This residual magnetism is usually opposite to the magnetic poles on the solar hemisphere. As material moves around the sun, this residual magnetic flux typically moves toward the magnetic poles of that hemisphere, usually canceling out some of the existing magnetic field there.

The residual magnetic flux generated by a pair of sunspots doesn’t have much impact on its own, but during more active periods of the solar cycle, the sun can easily generate 100 sunspots at any moment. With the formation and decay of all these sunspots, the residual minute charges gradually accumulate at the poles, canceling out their polarity.

Nonetheless, this process might stumble, depending on the sun’s activity and other aspects of the magnetic field that scientists are yet able to predict. Upton, while discussing the changes in the sun’s magnetic field, mentioned, “It’s not happening in an orderly fashion, it’s not a smooth function.”

At this point, several years of sunspot activity have almost eliminated the star’s magnetic poles, and reversal is imminent. Sanjay Gosain, a solar scientist at the National Solar Observatory, said, “The sun is quite active now. If it keeps going like this, I guess in about six months, we will see the poles fully flip.” Scientists are eagerly awaiting to see how the reversal process unfolds. Hoeksema said, “It’s always interesting to see how it develops, it never happens the same way twice.”