Sunspots in 2009

Answer 1

Pretty low! Here are the monthly average sunspot numbers by year and month from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The Sun is in an extended solar minimum, and we had expected the sunspot cycle to pick up last year some time.

But while the Sun is very quiet, this isn't unheard of. Unusual, yes.

Year Mo SS Dev

2007 1 16.8 7.3
2007 2 10.7 8.2
2007 3 4.5 4.9
2007 4 3.4 6.3
2007 5 11.7 6.8
2007 6 12.1 13.2
2007 7 9.7 8.2
2007 8 6.0 4.2
2007 9 2.4 4.2
2007 10 0.9 2.8
2007 11 1.7 3.6
2007 12 10.1 10.6
2008 1 3.3 4.3
2008 2 2.1 3.8
2008 3 9.3 13.2
2008 4 2.9 4.4
2008 5 3.2 4.9
2008 6 3.4 3.9
2008 7 0.8 2.5
2008 8 0.5 1.9
2008 9 1.1 2.8
2008 10 2.9 4.3
2008 11 4.1 4.9
2008 12 0.8 2.6
2009 1 1.3 3.1
2009 2 1.4 3.0
2009 3 0.7 2.3
2009 4 1.2 2.8
2009 5 2.9 4.0
2009 6 2.6 4.2
2009 7 3.5 5.9
2009 8 0.0 0.0

Answer 2

There were very few sunspots visible from the beginning of 2009 through the end of November, a total of 260 sunspot-less days. It was only in December that the Sun began to be more active. The solar activity since December 2009 continues to be well below average for the beginning of the solar cycle, but appears to no longer be pegged at zero.

You can see the daily sunspot numbers at spaceweather.com.

Answer 3

In 2009, the Sun experienced low levels of sunspot activity as it was approaching a solar minimum in its 11-year cycle. Sunspots are dark areas on the Sun's surface caused by intense magnetic activity, and their frequency tends to vary over the solar cycle.