THE motion of hot, ionised gas below the Sun鈥檚 visible surface is similar to
weather patterns on Earth, scientists announced last week.
Astronomers had expected convection on the Sun to make the gas rotate 鈥渧ery
smoothly and uniformly鈥�, says Douglas Gough of Cambridge University. But the
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has revealed unexpectedly fast jet
streams that ring the Sun beneath the surface, 75 degrees north and south of its
equator.
At lower latitudes, the Sun has bands of material that move across its
surface at different speeds鈥攖he solar equivalent of trade winds. SOHO has
shown they extend to depths of 20 000 kilometres. They may be linked to the
mysterious sunspot cycle.
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