Long-term synoptic observations in the resonance line of Ca II K constitute a fundamental database for a variety of retrospective analyses of the state of the solar magnetism. Synoptic Ca II K observations began in late 1904 at the Kodaikanal Observatory, in India. In early 1970s, the National Solar Observatory (NSO) at Sacramento Peak (USA) started a new program of daily Sun-as-a-star observations in the Ca II K line. Today the NSO is continuing these observations through its Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun (SOLIS) facility. These different data sets can be combined into a single disk-integrated Ca II K index time series that describes the average properties of the chromospheric emission over several solar cycles. We present such a Ca II K composite and discuss its correlation with the new entirely revised sunspot number data series. For this preliminary investigation, the scaling factor between pairs of time series was determined assuming a simple linear model for the relationship between the monthly mean values during the duration of overlapping observations.
Relative variations in the number of sunspots and sunspot groups in activity cycles have been analyzed based on data from the Kislovodsk Mountain Astronomical Station and international indices. The following regularities have been established: (1) The relative fraction of small sunspots decreases linearly and that of large sunspots increase with increasing activity cycle amplitude. (2) The variation in the average number of sunspots in one group has a trend, and this number decreased from 12 in cycle 19 to 7.5 in cycle 24. (3) The ratio of the sunspot index (Ri) to the sunspot group number ind…
The sunspot number is analyzed by using detailed sunspot data, including aspects of observability, sunspot sizes, and proper identification of sunspot groups as discrete entities of the solar activity. The tests show that besides the subjective factors there are also objective causes of the ambiguities in the series of sunspot numbers. To introduce an alternative activity measure the physical meaning of the sunspot number has to be reconsidered. It contains two components whose numbers are governed by different physical mechanisms, this is one source of the ambiguity. This article suggests an …
A sunspot catalogue was published by the Coimbra Astronomical Observatory (Portugal), now named Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra, for the period 1929-1941. We digitalized data included in that catalogue and provide a machine-readable version. We show the reconstructions for the (total and hemispheric) sunspot number index and sunspot area according to this catalogue, comparing it with the sunspot number index (version 2) and Balmaceda sunspot area series (Balmaceda et al., J. Geophys. Res. 114, A07104, 2009). Moreover, we also compared the Coimbra catalogue…
A new normalized sunspot-area series has been reconstructed from the series obtained by the Royal Greenwich Observatory and other contemporary institutions for the period 1874 - 2008 and the area series compiled by De la Rue, Stewart, and Loewy from 1832 to 1868. Since the two sets of series do not overlap in time, we used as a link between them the new version of sunspot index number (Version 2) published by SILSO (Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations). We also present a spectral analysis of the normalized area series in search of periodicities beyond the well-known solar cycle of 1…
The solar F10.7 index is has been a reliable and sensitive activity index since 1947. As with other indices, it has been showing unusual behavior in the Cycle 23/24 minimum. The origins of the solar microwave flux lie in a variety of features, and in two main emission mechanisms: free-free and gyroresonance. In past solar cycles F10.7 has correlated well with the sunspot number SSN. We find that this correlation has broken down in Cycle~23, confirming this with Japanese fixed-frequency radiometric microwave data.
The newly revised sunspot number series allows for placing historical geoeffective storms in the context of several hundred years of solar activity. Using statistical analyses of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) X-ray observations from the past ~30 years and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) catalog (1996-present), we present sunspot-number-dependent flare and CME rates. In particular, we present X-ray flare rates as a function of sunspot number for the past three cycles. We a…
In the present work, we introduce and explain a method of solution of the radiative transfer equation based on a thin cloud model. The efficiency of this method to retrieve dynamical chromospheric parameters from Stokes I profiles of Ca II 854.2 nm line showing spectral emission is investigated. The analyzed data were recorded with the Crisp Imaging Spectro-Polarimeter (CRISP) at Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope on La Palma on 2012 May 5 between 8:11 - 9:00 UT. The target was a large decaying sunspot (NOAA 11471) at heliocentric position W 15 deg S 19 deg. This sunspot has a large umbra divided int…
We investigate the relationship between the monthly averaged maximal speeds of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), international sunspot number (ISSN), and the geomagnetic Dst and Ap indices covering the 1996-2008 time interval (solar cycle 23). Our new findings are as follows. (1) There is a noteworthy relationship between monthly averaged maximum CME speeds and sunspot numbers, Ap and Dst indices. Various peculiarities in the monthly Dst index are correlated better with the fine structures in the CME speed profile than that in the ISSN data. (2) Unlike the sunspot numbers, the CME speed index doe…
We analyze spectropolarimetric sunspot umbra observations taken in the near-infrared Si i 1082.7 nm line taking NLTE effects into account. The data were obtained with the GRIS instrument installed at the German GREGOR telescope. A point spread function (PSF) was constructed using prior Mercury observations with GRIS and the information provided by the adaptive optics system of the GREGOR telescope. The data were then deconvolved from the PSF using a principal component analysis deconvolution method and were analyzed via the NICOLE inversion code. The Si i 1082.7 nm line seems to be in emission…
Solar flares are known to generate seismic waves in the Sun. We present a detailed analysis of seismic emission in sunspots accompanying M- and X-class solar flares. For this purpose, we have used high-resolution Dopplergrams and line-of-sight magnetograms at a cadence of 45 s, along with vector magnetograms at a cadence of 135 s obtained from Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument aboard the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) space mission. In order to identify the location of flare ribbons and hard X-ray foot-points, we have also used H-alpha chromospheric intensity observations obta…
Observations of slow magneto-acoustic waves have been demonstrated to possess a number of applications in coronal seismology. Determination of the polytropic index ($γ$) is one such important application. Analysing the amplitudes of oscillations in temperature and density corresponding to a slow magneto-acoustic wave, the polytropic index in the solar corona has been calculated and based on the obtained value it has been inferred that thermal conduction is highly suppressed in a very hot loop in contrast to an earlier report of high thermal conduction in a relatively colder loop. In this study…
The data of sunspot numbers, sunspot areas and solar flare index during cycle 23 are analyzed to investigate the intermediate-term periodicities. Power spectral analysis has been performed separately for the data of the whole disk, northern and southern hemispheres of the Sun. Several significant midrange periodicities ($\sim$175, 133, 113, 104, 84, 63 days) are detected in sunspot activity. Most of the periodicities in sunspot numbers generally agree with those of sunspot areas during the solar cycle 23. The study reveals that the periodic variations in the northern and southern hemispheres o…
On modern satellite observations of the Sun in the continuum with high spatial resolution, as well as on high-quality ground observations, a large number of small dark areas can be observed. These regions have no penumbra, have a contrast of up to 20% and are similar to solar pores. The characteristic area of such structures is $0.3\div5\ μ$hm or $0.5\div5$ Mm. The number of such points in one image can be several hundred. The nature of such formations remains unclear. We have performed the selection of dark regions with a contrast of at least 3% of the level of the quiet Sun on the SDO/HMI ob…
Using SDO/HMI and SDO/AIA data for sunspot groups of the 24th solar cycle, we analyzed magnetic properties and He II 304 emission in leading and following sunspots separately. Simultaneous examination of umbral magnetic properties and atmospheric characteristics above the umbrae draws on average differences in He II 304 contrast over the umbrae of leading and following spots we discovered earlier for solar cycle 23 sunspot groups based on SOHO data as well as on the hypothetical relationship between contrast asymmetry and magnetic field asymmetry in umbrae. We use a more accurate and faster al…
We investigate the upper chromosphere and the transition region of the sunspot umbra using the radio brightness temperature at 34 GHz (corresponding to 8.8-mm observations) as observed by the Nobeyama Radioheliograph (NoRH). Radio free-free emission in the longer millimeter range is generated around the transition region, and its brightness temperature yields the region's temperature and density distribution. We use the NoRH data at 34 GHz by applying the Steer-CLEAN image synthesis. These data and the analysis method enable us to investigate the chromospheric structures in the longer millimet…
We developed a method to compute the temperature and density structure along the line of sight by inversion of the differential emission measure (DEM), under the assumptions of stratification and hydrostatic equilibrium. We applied this method to the DEM obtained from AIA observations and used the results, together with potential extrapolations of the photosheric magnetic field, to compute the microwave emission of three sunspots, which we compared with observations from the RATAN-600 radio telescope and the Nobeyama Radioheliograph (NoRH). Our DEM based models reproduced very well the observa…
We analyse 3-min oscillations of microwave and EUV emission generated at different heights of a sunspot atmosphere, studying the amplitude and frequency modulation of the oscillations, and its relationship with the variation of the spatial structure of the oscillations. High-resolution data obtained with the Nobeyama Radioheliograph, TRACE and SDO/AIA are analysed with the use of the Pixelised Wavelet Filtering and wavelet skeleton techniques. 3-min oscillations in sunspots appear in the form of repetitive trains of the duration 8-20 min (13 min in average). The typical interval between the tr…
We report spectropolarimetric observations of a supersonic downflow impacting the lower atmosphere within a large sunspot umbra. This work is an extension of Schad et al. 2016 using observations acquired in the He I 10830 Angstrom triplet by the Facility Infrared Spectropolarimeter. Downflowing material accelerating along a cooled coronal loop reaches peak speeds near 200 km s$^{-1}$ and exhibits both high speed emission and absorption within the umbra, which we determine to be a consequence of the strong height dependence of the radiatively-controlled source function above the sunspot umbra. …
A sunspot is an ideal waveguide for a variety of magnetohydrodynamic waves, which carry a significant amount of energy to the upper atmosphere and could be used as a tool to probe magnetic and thermal structure of a sunspot. In this study, we used the New Vacuum Solar Telescope and took high-resolution image sequences simultaneously in both TiO (7058$\pm$10 Å) and H$_α$ (6562$\pm$2.5 Å) bandpasses. We extracted the area and total emission intensity variations of sunspot umbra and analyzed the signals with synchrosqueezing transform. We found that the area and emission intensity varied with bot…
The aim of this work is to create a long (410 years) series of average annual total sunspot areas AR - physically-based index of sunspot activity. We used telescopic observations of the AR index in 1832-1868 and 1875-2020, as well as the relationship between AR and long series of sunspot indices SN (ISN version 2.0) and sunspot groups GN (Svalgaard and Schatten (2016) GSN version). The Royal Greenwich observatory series after 1976 is extended by the Kislovodsk Mountain Astronomical Station data. When reconstructing AR from SN, it is taken into account that the function AR = f (SN) has a nonlin…
The brightness temperature of the radio free-free emission at millimeter range is an effective tool for characterizing the vertical structure of the solar chromosphere. In this paper, we report on the first single-dish observation of a sunspot at 85 and 115 GHz with sufficient spatial resolution for resolving the sunspot umbra using the Nobeyama 45 m telescope. We used radio attenuation material, i.e. a solar filter, to prevent the saturation of the receivers. Considering the contamination from the plage by the side-lobes, we found that the brightness temperature of the umbra should be lower t…
Sizes of the sunspots vary in a wide range during the progression of a solar cycle. Long-term variation study of different sunspot sizes are key to better understand the underlying process of sunspot formation and their connection to the solar dynamo. Kodaikanal white-light digitized archive provides daily sunspot observations for a period of 90 years (1921-2011). Using different size criteria on the detected individual sunspots, we have generated yearly averaged sunspot area time series for the full Sun as well as for the individual hemispheres. In this paper, we have used the sunspot area va…
We study the TR properties above sunspots and the surrounding plage regions, by analyzing several sunspot spectra obtained by SUMER in March 1999 and November 2006. We compare the SUMER spectra observed in the umbra, penumbra, plage, and sunspot plume regions. The Lyman line profiles averaged in each region are presented. For the sunspot observed in 2006, the electron densities, DEM, and filling factors of the TR plasma in the four regions are also investigated. The self-reversals of the Lyman line profiles are almost absent in umbral regions at different locations (heliocentric angle up to $4…
Three-minute oscillations over sunspot's umbra in AR 11131 were observed simultaneously in UV/EUV emission by SDO/AIA and in radio emission by Nobeyama Radioheliograph (NoRH). We use 24-hours series of SDO and 8-hours series of NoRH observations to study spectral, spatial and temporal variations of pulsations in the 5-9 mHz frequency range at different layers of the solar atmosphere. High spatial and temporal resolution of SDO/AIA in combination with long-duration observations allowed us to trace the variations of the cut-off frequency and spectrum of oscillations across the umbra. We found th…
We present a seismological method to probe the solar atmosphere above sunspot umbrae with three-minute oscillations. Our technique allows us to estimate both the vertical distance between atmospheric layers and the wave-propagation speed without specifying any extra parameters, in particular, the phase speed of the wave or the emission formation heights. Our method uses the projected wave paths of slow MHD waves propagating through the atmospheric layers of different heights and guided by the magnetic field. The length of the projected wave path depends upon the distance between the layers and…
Plages are the magnetically active chromospheric structures prominently visible in Ca $\scriptsize{\textrm{II}}$ K line (3933.67 Å). A plage may or may not be associated with a sunspot which is a magnetic structure visible in the solar photosphere. In this study we explore this aspect of association of plages with sunspots using the newly digitized Kodaikanal Ca $\scriptsize{\textrm{II}}$ K plage data and the Greenwich sunspot area data. Instead of using the plage index or fractional plage area and their comparison with the sunspot number, we use, to our knowledge for the first time, the indiv…
Ludendorff coronal flattening index of the Total Solar Eclipse (TSE) on March 9, 2016, was calculated at various distances in solar radius. As a result, we obtained the coronal flattening index $\left(ε=a+b\right)$ at a distance of 2 solar radii is 0.16. The $24^{th}$ solar cycle phase based on the 2016 TSE event obtained -0.64 which showed the corona is pre-minimum type. Resulted coronal flattening index value gives a predicted maximum amplitude of the monthly sunspot number ($W_{max}$) for the $25^{th}$ solar cycle to be $70\pm65$. Therefore, the solar activity for $25^{th}$ solar cycle pred…
The importance of the periodicity in sunspot appearance was well recognized by the mid of 19th century. Several observatories around the globe have made the record of sunspots in the form of drawings and preserved them safely for posterity. At the Kodaikanal Observatory (KO), the sunspot observations have begun in 1905. In those times observations were recorded on photographic plates and after the development of those plates in the laboratory, the drawings of the same were made on the Stonyhurst grids. In these drawings, called {\em sun charts}, different features on the sun's disk, e.g., suns…
The present paper reviews results derived from statistical studies on solar activity indices. The prolonged minimum phase of cycle 23 raised the question of peculiarities inherent in cycle 23. The most important solar activity index is the relative sunspot number and though most of other indices are closely related, shifts are obtained between their peak activity of the order of 1-2 years. These shifts reveal a 22-yr pattern which can be attributed to solar interior or dynamo related processes. The minimum phase of cycle 23 is not found to be exceptional. Investigating the relative sunspot num…
The relationships between solar flare parameters (total importance, time duration, flare index, and flux) and sunspot activity (Rz) as well as those between geomagnetic activity (aa index) and the flare parameters can be well described by an integral response model with the response time scales of about eight and thirteen months, respectively. Compared with linear relationships, the correlation coefficients of the flare parameters with Rz, of aa with the flare parameters, and of aa with Rz based on this model have increased about 6%, 17%, and 47% on average, respectively. The time delays of th…
A phenomenological relationship between oscillations in a sunspot and quasi-periodic pulsations in flaring energy releases at an active region above the sunspot, is established. The analysis of the microwave emission recorded by the Nobeyama Radioheliograph at 17 GHz shows a gradual increase in the power of the 3-min oscillation train in the sunspot associated with AR 10756 before flares in this active region. The flaring light curves are found to be bursty with a period of 3 min. Our analysis of the spatial distribution of the 3-min oscillation power implies that the oscillations follow from …
Three- and five-minute oscillations are commonly found in any sunspot. As they are modulated by the internal thermal and magnetic structures of a sunspot, therehence, they could be used as an effective tool for sunspot seismology. In this paper, we investigate the properties of oscillations in sunspot groups with varying size and magnetic field, and aim to establish the relationships between sunspot oscillations and its internal structure comparatively. We selected three groups of unipolar sunspot with approximately axial-symmetric magnetic field and calculated their Fourier spectra based on t…
We decompose the monthly aa-index of cycles 10-23 using principal component analysis (PCA). We show that the first component (PC1) is related to solar cycle, and accounts for 41.5 % of the variance of the data. The second component (PC2) is related to 22-year Hale cycle, and explains 23.6% of the variance of the data. The PC1 time series of aa cycles 10-23 has only one peak in its power spectrum at the period 10.95 years, which is the average solar cycle period for the interval SC10-SC23. The PC2 time series of the same cycles has a clear peak at period 21.90 (Hale cycle) and a smaller peak at…
We have reconstructed the sunspot group count, not by comparisons with other reconstructions and correcting those where they were deemed to be deficient, but by a re-assessment of original sources. The resulting series is a pure solar index and does not rely on input from other proxies, e.g. radionuclides, auroral sightings, or geomagnetic records. 'Backboning' the data sets, our chosen method, provides substance and rigidity by using long-time observers as a stiffness character. Solar activity, as defined by the Group Number, appears to reach and sustain for extended intervals of time the sam…
We use 5 test data series to quantify putative discontinuities around 1946 in 5 annual-mean sunspot number or group number sequences. The series tested are: the original and new versions of the Wolf/Zurich/International sunspot number composite [$R_{ISNv1}$ and $R_{ISNv2}$] ; the corrected version of $R_{ISNv1}$ [$R_C$]; the backbone group number [$R_{BB}$]; and the group number composite [$R_{UEA}$]. The test data are: the group number $N_G$ and total sunspot area $A_G$ from the RGO photoheliographic data; the CaK index from re-analysis of MWO CaII K spectroheliograms; the group number from t…
The recalibration of the sunspot number series, the primary long-term record of the solar cycle, requires the recovery of the entire collection of raw sunspot counts collected by the Zurich Observatory for the production of this index between 1849 and 1980. Here, we report about the major progresses accomplished recently in the construction of this global digital sunspot number database, and we derive global statistics of all the individual observers and professional observatories who provided sunspot data over more than 130 years. First, we can announce the full recovery of long-lost source-d…
The historical record of sunspot areas is a valuable and widely used proxy of solar activity and variability. The Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO) regularly measured this and other parameters between 1874 and 1976. After that time records from a number of different observatories are available. These, however, show systematic differences and often have significants gaps. Our goal is to obtain a uniform and complete sunspot area time series by combining different data sets. A homogeneus composite of sunspot areas is essential for different applications in solar physics, among others for irradia…
Wavelet analysis of different solar activity indices, sunspot numbers, sunspot areas, flare index, magnetic fields, etc., allows us to investigate the time evolution of some specific features of the solar activity and the underlying dynamo mechanism. The main aim of this work is the analysis of the time-frequency behavior of some magnetic strengtht indices currently taken at the Mt. Wilson Observatory 150-Foot Solar Tower. In particular, we analyzed both the long time series (Jan 19, 1970 - Jan 22, 2013) of the Magnetic Plage Strength Index (MPSI) values and of the Mt. Wilson Sunspot Index (MW…
Aims. In this paper, we investigate the temporal evolution and north-south (N-S) asymmetry in the occurrence of solar flares during cycle 21, 22, and 23, and compare the results with traditional solar activity indices. Methods. The flare activity is characterized by a soft X-ray (SXR) flare index, which incorporates information about flare occurrences during a selected interval along with the peak intensity of individual events. Results. The SXR flare index correlates well with other conventional parameters of solar activity. Further, it exhibits a significantly higher correlation with sunspot…
On the basis of morphological analysis of yearly values of the maximum CME (coronal mass ejection) speed index, the sunspot number and total sunspot area, sunspot magnetic field, and solar flare index, the solar wind speed and interplanetary magnetic field strength, and the geomagnetic Ap and Dst indices, we point out the particularities of solar and geomagnetic activity during the last cycle 23, the long minimum which followed it and the ascending branch of cycle 24. We also analyze temporal offset between the maximum CME speed index and the above-mentioned solar, geomagnetic, and interplanet…
This paper develops a planetary model to predict the occurrence of intermediate range periodicity in solar activity, in particular the ~155 day Rieger periodicity in flare activity. It is shown that periodicity at half integer multiples of the period of Mercury occurs consistently in indices of solar activity. For this reason the planetary model is based on the triggering of sunspot emergence when planetary tides peak at times of conjunction of Mercury with Venus, Earth and/or Jupiter. The periodicity of components in the planetary model match reasonably well the observed intermediate periodic…
The use of different solar activity indices like sunspot numbers, sunspot areas, flare index, magnetic fields, etc., allows us to investigate the time evolution of some specific features of the solar activity and the underlying dynamo mechanism. One of the problems when using these activity indices for some statistical analyses is the reliable determination of the maximum phases of different solar cycles which are generally characterized by a multi-peaked structure due to the presence of the so-called \emph {Gnevyshev gap}. The main aim of this work is to propose a general method, without the …
In this study we report detailed observations of magnetic environment at four footpoints of two warm coronal loops observed on 5 May 2016 in NOAA AR 12542 (Loop I) and 17 Dec 2015 in NOAA AR 12470 (Loop II). These loops were connecting a plage region with sunspot periphery (Loop I) and a sunspot umbra (Loop II). We used Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Goode Solar Telescope (GST) data to describe the phenomenon and understand its causes. The study indicates loop brightening episodes were associated with magnetic flux emergence and cancellation processes observed in SDO's Helioseismic and M…
Our knowledge of the long-term evolution of solar activity and of its primary modulation, the 11-year cycle, largely depends on a single direct observational record: the visual sunspot counts that retrace the last 4 centuries, since the invention of the astronomical telescope. Currently, this activity index is available in two main forms: the International Sunspot Number initiated by R. Wolf in 1849 and the Group Number constructed more recently by Hoyt and Schatten (1998a,b). Unfortunately, those two series do not match by various aspects, inducing confusions and contradictions when used in c…
We study the sunspot activity in relation to spotless days (SLDs) during the descending phase of solar cycle $11$--$24$ to predict the amplitude of sunspot cycle $25$. For this purpose, in addition to SLD, we also use the geomagnetic activity (aa index) during the descending phase of a given cycle. A very strong correlation of the SLD (R=$0.68$) and aa index (R=$0.86$) during the descending phase of a given cycle with the maximum amplitude of next solar cycle has been estimated.The empirical relationship led us to deduce the amplitude of cycle $25$ to be 99.13$\pm$ 14.97 and 104.23$\pm$ 17.35 …
We describe a revised collection of the number of sunspot groups from 1610 to the present. This new collection is based on the work of Hoyt and Schatten (Solar Phys. 179, 189, 1998). The main changes are the elimination of a considerable number of observations during the Maunder Minimum (hereafter, MM) and the inclusion of several long series of observations. Numerous minor changes are also described. Moreover, we have calculated the active-day percentage during the MM from this new collection as a reliable index of the solar activity. Thus, the level of solar activity obtained in this work is…
Images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) at 211A are used to identify the solar source of the type III radio bursts seen in WIND/WAVES dynamic spectra. We analyse a 2.5 hour period during which six strong bursts are seen. The radio bursts correlate very well with the EUV jets coming from the western side of a sunspot in AR11092. The EUV jet emission also correlates well with brightening at what looks like their footpoint at the edge of the umbra. For 10-15 min after strong EUV jets are ejected, the footpoint brightens at roughly 3 min intervals. In both the EUV images and the extracted…
Reliable historical records of total solar irradiance (TSI) are needed for climate change attribution and research to assess the extent to which long-term variations in the Sun's radiant energy incident on the Earth may exacerbate (or mitigate) the more dominant warming in recent centuries due to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. We investigate potential impacts of the new Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations (SILSO) sunspot-number time series on model reconstructions of TSI. In contemporary TSI records, variations on time scales longer than about a day are dominated by …
How global faculae and network coverage relates to that of sunspots is relevant to the brightness variations of the Sun and Sun-like stars. We extend earlier studies that found the facular-to-sunspot-area ratio diminishes with total sunspot coverage. Chromospheric indices and the total magnetic flux enclosed in network and faculae, referred to here as 'facular indices', are modulated by the amount of facular and network present. We probed the relationship between various facular and sunspot indices through an empirical model that takes into account how active regions evolve. This model was inc…
Sunspots are concentrations of magnetic field visible on the solar surface (photosphere). It was considered implausible that solar flares, as resulted from magnetic reconnection in the tenuous corona, would cause a direct perturbation of the dense photosphere involving bulk motion. Here we report the sudden flare-induced rotation of a sunspot using the unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution of the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope, supplemented by magnetic data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. It is clearly observed that the rotation is non-uniform over the sunspot: as the flare ribbon sweeps acr…
Three Japanese sunspot drawings associated with Iwahashi Zenbei (1756-1811) are shown here from contemporary manuscripts and woodprint documents with the relevant texts. We revealed the observational date of one of the drawings to be 26 August 1793, and the overall observations lasted for over a year. Moreover, we identified the observational site for the dated drawing at Fushimi in Japan. We then compared his observations with group sunspot number and raw group count from Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations (SILSO) to reveal its data context, and concluded that these drawings fille…
The present study is an attempt to investigate the long term variations in coronal rotation by analyzing the time series of the solar radio emission data at 2.8 GHz frequency for the period 1947 - 2009. Here, daily adjusted radio flux (known as Penticton flux) data are used. The autocorrelation analysis shows that the rotation period varies between 19.0 to 29.5 sidereal days (mean sidereal rotation period is 24.3 days). This variation in the coronal rotation period shows evidence of two components in the variation; (1) 22-years component which may be related to the solar magnetic field reversa…
Numerous analyses suggest the existence of various quasi-periodicities in solar activity. The power spectrum of solar activity recorded in sunspot data is dominated by the $\sim$11-year quasi-periodicity, known as the Schwabe cycle. In the mid-term range (1 month -- 11 years) a pronounced variability known as a quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) is widely discussed. In the shorter time scale a pronounced peak, corresponding to the synodic solar rotation period ($\sim$ 27 days) is observed. Here we revisited the mid-term solar variability in terms of statistical dynamic of fully turbulent systems…
