The morphological asymmetry of leading and following sunspots is a well-known characteristic of the solar surface. In the context of large-scale evolution of the surface magnetic field, the asymmetry has been assumed to have only a negligible effect. Using the surface flux transport model, we show that the morphological asymmetry of leading and following sunspots has a significant impact on the evolution of the large-scale magnetic field on the solar surface. By evaluating the effect of the morphological asymmetry of each bipolar magnetic region (BMR), we observe that the introduction of the asymmetry in the BMR model significantly reduces its contribution to the polar magnetic field, especially for large and high-latitude BMRs. Strongly asymmetric BMRs can even reverse the regular polar field formation. The surface flux transport simulations based on the observed sunspot record shows that the introduction of the morphological asymmetry reduces the root-mean-square difference from the observed axial dipole strength by 30--40 percent. These results indicate that the morphological asymmetry of leading and following sunspots has a significant effect on the solar cycle prediction.
We describe a new tool developed for solar flare forecasting on the base of some sunspot group properties. Assuming that the flare frequency follows the Poisson statistics, this tool uses a database containing the morphological characteristics of the suspot groups daily observed by the Equatorial Spar of INAF $-$ Catania Astrophysical Observatory since January 2002 up today. By means of a linear combination of the flare rates computed on the base of some properties of the sunspot groups, like area, number of pores and sunspots, Zurich class, relative importance between leading spot and density…
Catalogues of sunspots have been available with useful information about sunspots or sunspot groups for approximately the last 150 years. However, the task of merging these catalogues is not simple. In this paper, a method is suggested of converting the types of sunspot groups that were proposed by Cortie (1901) into the well-known Zurich types of sunspot groups. To achieve this, the sunspot catalogue of the Valencia University Observatory (from 1920 to 1928) was used in addition to the descriptions proposed by Cortie. To assess the quality of this conversion scheme, the Zurich type was comput…
It is widely assumed that the most probable sites of flare occurrences are the locations of high horizontal magnetic field gradients in the active regions. Instead of magnetograms the present work checks this assumption by using sunspot data, the targeted phenomenon is the pre-flare behaviour of the strong horizontal gradients of the magnetic field at the location of the flare. The empirical basis of the work is the SDD (SOHO/MDI-Debrecen sunspot Data) sunspot catalogue. Case studies of two active regions and five X-flares have been carried out to find possible candidates for pre-flare signatu…
Solar torsional oscillations are migrating bands of slower- and faster-than-average rotation, which are strongly related to the Sun's magnetic cycle. We perform a long-term study (16 yr) of hemispherical asymmetry in solar torsional oscillation velocity using helioseismic data for the first time. We study the north-south asymmetry in the velocity using the zonal flow velocities obtained by ring diagram analysis of the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) Doppler images. We find significant hemispherical asymmetry in the torsional oscillation velocity and explore its variation with respect t…
The distributions of sunspot longitude at first appearance and at disappearance display an east-west asymmetry that results from a reduction in visibility as one moves from disk centre to the limb. To first order, this is explicable in terms of simple geometrical foreshortening. However, the centre-to-limb visibility variation is much larger than that predicted by foreshortening. Sunspot visibility is also known to be affected by the Wilson effect: the apparent dish shape of the sunspot photosphere caused by the temperature-dependent variation of the geometrical position of the tau=1 layer. In…
Hemispheric irregularities of solar magnetic activity is a well-observed phenomenon -- the origin of which has been studied through numerical simulations and data-analysis techniques. In this work we explore possible causes generating north-south asymmetry in the reversal timing and the amplitude of polar field during cycle minimum. Additionally, we investigate how hemispheric asymmetry is translated from cycle to cycle. We pursue a three-step approach. Firstly, we explore the asymmetry present in the observed polar flux and sunspot area by analyzing observational data of the last 110 years. S…
The solar activity is asymmetric in both hemispheres in almost all cycles. This asymmetry is observed both in cycle amplitude and period. We have used about 90~years of sunspot-area data from the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory to study the North--South asymmetry in sunspot activity. The monthly mean sunspot-area showed the northern hemisphere dominated in Solar Cycles 16, 19, and 20, and the southern hemisphere dominated in Cycles 18, 22, and 23. The 13-months smoothed data indicated that in Cycle 17 and 21, the northern and southern hemisphere showed equal amplitude. Cumulative sunspot area sho…
In this study, we investigate magnetic properties of umbra of magneto-conjugate leading and following sunspots, i.e. connected through magnetic field lines. We established dependences between individual sunspot umbra field characteristics, and between these characteristics on the umbra area ($S$) separately for sunspot pairs, for which the minimal angle between the umbra magnetic field line of the leading ($L$) sunspot and the positive normal line to the Sun surface is smaller, than that in the following ($F$) sunspot ($α_{min-L}<α_{min-F}$; such sunspot pairs are the bulk) and, on the contrar…
Much of our knowledge about the solar dynamo is based on sunspot observations. It is thus desirable to extend the set of positional and morphological data of sunspots into the past. Gustav Spörer observed in Germany from Anklam (1861-1873) and Potsdam (1874-1894). He left detailed prints of sunspot groups, which we digitized and processed to mitigate artifacts left in the print by the passage of time. After careful geometrical correction, the sunspot data are now available as synoptic charts for almost 450 solar rotation periods. Individual sunspot positions can thus be precisely determined an…
The paper presents a study of a solar dynamo model operating in the bulk of the convection zone with the toroidal magnetic field flux concentrated in the subsurface rotational shear layer. We explore how this type of dynamo may depend on spatial variations of turbulent parameters and on the differential rotation near the surface. The mean-field dynamo model takes into account the evolution of magnetic helicity and describes its nonlinear feedback on the generation of large-scale magnetic field by the $α$-effect. We compare the magnetic cycle characteristics predicted by the model, including th…
We analysed the sunspot group data from Greenwich Photoheliographic Results (GPR) during 1874-1976 and Debrecen Photoheliographic Data (DPD) during 1977-2017 and studied the cycle-to-cycle variations in the values of 13-month smoothed monthly mean sunspot-group area in whole sphere (WSGA), northern hemisphere (NSGA), and southern hemisphere (SSGA) at the epochs of maxima of Sunspot Cycles 12-24, and at the epochs of maxima of WSGA, NSGA, and SSGA Cycles 12-24. The cosine fits to the values of WSGA, NSGA, and SSGA at the maxima of the sunspot number, WSGA, NSGA, and SSGA Cycles 12-24, and to th…
The Maunder Minimum (1645-1715 approximately) was a period of very low solar activity and a strong hemispheric asymmetry, with most of sunspots in the southern hemisphere. In this paper, two data sets of sunspot latitudes during the Maunder minimum have been recovered for the international scientific community. The first data set is constituted by latitudes of sunspots appearing in the catalogue published by Gustav Spörer nearly 130 years ago. The second data set is based on the sunspot latitudes displayed in the butterfly diagram for the Maunder Minimum which was published by Ribes and Nesme-…
Understanding the Travel-time Asymmetry of Acoustic Waves in Sunspots With Time-distance Helioseismology
Peking University（北京大学）；National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院国家空间科学中心）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利天体物理研究所）；Universidad de La Laguna（拉古纳大学）；Indian Institute of Astrophysics（印度天体物理研究所）；KU Leuven（荷语鲁汶大学）
According to Gnevyshev-Ohl (G-O) rule an odd-numbered cycle is stronger than its preceding even-numbered cycle. In the modern time the cycle pair (22, 23) violated this rule. By using the combined Greenwich Photoheliographic Results (GPR) and Solar Optical Observing Network (SOON) sunspot group data during the period 1874-2015, and Debrecen Photoheliographic Data (DPD) of sunspot groups during the period 1974-2015, here we have found that the solar cycle pair (22, 23) violated the G-O rule because, besides during cycle 23 a large deficiency of small sunspot groups in both the northern and the …
The hemispheric asymmetry of the sunspot cycle is a real feature of the Sun. However, its origin is still not well understood. Here we perform nonlinear time series analysis of the sunspot area (and number) asymmetry to explore its dynamics. By measuring the correlation dimension of the sunspot area asymmetry, we conclude that there is no strange attractor in the data. Further computing Higuchi's dimension, we conclude that the hemispheric asymmetry is largely governed by stochastic noise. However, the behaviour of Hurst exponent reveals that the time series is not completely determined by a m…
Penumbrae are known to be area of mainly horizontal magnetic field surrounding umbrae of relatively large and mature sunspots. In this paper, we observationally studied the formation of penumbrae in NOAA10978, where several penumbral formations were observed in G-band images of SOT/Hinode. Thanks to the continuous observation by Hinode, we could morphologically follow the evolution of sunspots and found that there are several paths to the penumbral formation: (1) Active accumulation of magnetic flux, (2) Rapid emergence of magnetic field, and (3) Appearance of twisted or rotating magnetic tube…
The aim of the present study is to show the varying asymmetries during the decay of sunspot groups. The source of input data is the SoHO/MDI-Debrecen Database (SDD) sunspot catalog that contains the magnetic polarity data for time interval 1996-2010. Several types of asymmetries were examined on the selected sample of 142 sunspot groups. The leading-following asymmetry increases in three phases during the decay and exhibits anticorrelation with size. It is also related to a hemispheric asymmetry, during the decay the area asymmetry index has higher values in the southern hemisphere which may b…
The heliophysics catalogues published by the Ebro Observatory during 1910--1937 have been converted into a digital format in order to provide the data for computational processing. This has allowed us to study in detail the North-South (N-S) asymmetry of solar activity in that period, focusing on two different structures located at two different layers of the solar atmosphere: sunspots (Photosphere) and solar plages (Chromosphere). The examination of the absolute and normalised N-S asymmetry indices in terms of their monthly sum of occurrences and areas has made possible to find out a cyclic b…
The solar dipole moment at activity minimum is a good predictor of the strength of the subsequent solar cycle. Through a systematic analysis using a state-of-the-art 2$\times$2 D solar dynamo model, we found that bipolar magnetic regions (BMR) with atypical characteristics can modify the strength of the next cycle via their impact on the buildup of the dipole moment as a sunspot cycle unfolds. In addition to summarizing these results, we present further effects of such "rogue" BMRs. These have the ability to generate hemispheric asymmetry in the subsequent sunspot cycle, since they modify the …
A procedure is introduced to recognise sunspots automatically in solar full-disk photosphere images obtained from Huairou Solar Observing Station, National Astronomical Observatories of China. The images are first pre-processed through Gaussian algorithm. Sunspots are then recognised by the morphological Bot-hat operation and Otsu threshold. Wrong selection of sunspots is eliminated by a criterion of sunspot properties. Besides, in order to calculate the sunspots areas and the solar centre, the solar limb is extracted by a procedure using morphological closing and erosion operations and settin…
In this work we selected one particular fibril from a high resolution solar chromosphere observation from the Dutch Open Telescope, and tried to obtain a broad picture of the intricate mechanism that might be incorporated in the multiple layer of the Solar atmosphere in high cadence multi-wavelength observation. We analyzed the changingvfibril patter using multi-wavelength tomography, which consists of both H$α$ line center \& the blue wing, Doppler-signal, Ca II H, and the G-band. We have found that the intermittent ejected material through fibril from Doppler images has clearly shown oscilla…
The detailed sunspot catalogues, the DPD and SDD allow to study the leading and following parts of sunspot groups separately. We examine the equilibrium distance of the two parts, the speed of removal, the asymmetry of compactness and the area growth. The distributions of positive and negative tilts of sunspot groups are also examined.
We study the latitudinal distribution of sunspots observed from 1874 to 2009 using the center-of-latitude (COL). We calculate COL by taking the area-weighted mean latitude of sunspots for each calendar month. We then form the latitudinal distribution of COL for the sunspots appearing in the northern and southern hemispheres separately, and in both hemispheres with unsigned and signed latitudes, respectively. We repeat the analysis with subsets which are divided based on the criterion of which hemisphere is dominant for a given solar cycle. Our primary findings are as follows: (1) COL is not mo…
Observations of the sun suggest that solar activities systematically create north-south hemispheric asymmetries. For instance, the hemisphere in which the sunspot activity is more active tends to switch after the early half of each solar cycle. Svalgaard & Kamide (2013) recently pointed out that the time gaps of polar field reversal between the north and south hemispheres are simply consequences of the asymmetry of sunspot activity. However, the mechanism underlying the asymmetric feature in solar cycle activities is not yet well understood. In this paper, in order to explain the cause of the …
Context. The relation between solar surface rotation and sunspot activity still remains open. Sunspot activity has dramatically reduced in solar cycle 24 and several solar activity indices and flux measurements experienced unprecedentedly low levels during the last solar minimum. Aims. We aim to reveal the momentary variation of solar surface rotation, especially during the recent years of reducing solar activity. Methods. We used a dynamic, differentially rotating reference system to determine the best-fit annual values of the differential rotation parameters of active longitudes of solar X-r…
We analyzed the daily sunspot-group data reported by the Greenwich Photoheliographic Results (GPR) during the period 1874-1976 and Debrecen Photoheligraphic Data (DPD) during the period 1977-2017, and the revised Version-2 of ISSN during the period 1874-2017. We determined the amplitude of the Solar Cycles 12-24 and the 13-month smoothed monthly mean corrected areas of the sunspot groups in the Sun's whole-sphere (WSGA), northern hemisphere (NSGA), and southern hemisphere (SSGA) at the epochs of the maxima of the Solar Cycles 12-24. Using all these we obtained the relations similar to that fou…
The hemispheric asymmetry of sunspot activity observed possesses a regular component varying on a time scale of several solar cycles whose origin and properties are currently debated. This paper addresses the question of whether the long-term hemispheric asymmetry can result from random variations of solar dynamo parameters in time and latitude. Scatter in the observed tilt angles of sunspot groups is estimated to infer constraints on fluctuations in the dynamo mechanism for poloidal field regeneration. A dynamo model with fluctuations in the Babcock-Leighton type $α$-effect is designed in acc…
The Solar and Heliospheric Obseratory/Michelson Doppler Imager--Debrecen Data (SDD) sunspot catalogue provides an opportunity to study the details and development of sunspot groups on a large statistical sample. The SDD data allow, in particular, the differential study of the leading and following parts with a temporal resolution of 1.5 hours. In this study, we analyse the equilibrium distance of sunspot groups as well as the evolution of this distance over the lifetime of the groups and the shifts in longitude associated with these groups. We also study the asymmetry between the compactness o…
The combined Greenwich and Solar Optical Observing Network (SOON) sunspot group data during 1874-2013 are analyzed and studied the relatively long-term variations in the annual sums of the areas of sunspot groups in 0-10 deg, 10-20 deg, and 20-30 deg latitude intervals of the Sun's northern and southern hemispheres. The variations in the corresponding north-south differences are also studied. Long periodicities in these parameters are determined from the fast Fourier transform (FFT), maximum entropy method (MEM), and Morlet wavelet analysis. It is found that in the difference between the sums …
The existence of ~12-year and ~51-year periodicities in the north-south asymmetry of solar activity is well known. However, the origin of these as well as the well-known relatively short periodicities in the north-south asymmetry is not yet clear. Here we have analyzed the combined daily data of sunspot groups reported in Greenwich Photoheliographic Results (GPR) and Debrecen Photoheligraphic Data (DPD) during the period 1874-2017 and the data of the orbital positions (ecliptic longitudes) of the giant planets in ten-day intervals during the period 1600-2099. Our analysis suggests that ~12-yea…
Extreme solar activity fluctuations and the occurrence of solar grand minima and maxima episodes, are well established, observed features of the solar cycle. Nevertheless, such extreme activity fluctuations and the dynamics of the solar cycle during Maunder minima-like episodes remain ill-understood. We explore the origin of such extreme solar activity fluctuations and the role of dual poloidal field sources, namely the Babcock-Leighton mechanism and the mean-field alpha effect in the dynamics of the solar cycle. We mainly concentrate on entry and recovery from grand minima episodes such as th…
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 studied 16 sunspots with different sizes and shapes using the observations with the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope. The ratio of G-band and CaII H images reveal rich structures both within the umbra and penumbra of most spots. The striking features are the compact blob at the foot point of the umbra side of the penumbral fibrils with disk center-limb side asymmetry. In this paper, we present properties of these features using the spectropolarimetry and images in G-band, CaII and blue filters. We discuss the results using the contemporary models of the sunspots.
The vector representation of sunspots is used to study the nonaxisymmetric features of the solar activity distribution (sunspot data from Greenwich - USAF/NOAA, 1874 - 2016).The vector of the longitudinal asymmetry is defined for each Carrington rotation; its modulus characterizes the magnitude of the asymmetry, while its phase points to the active longitude. These characteristics are to a large extent free from the influence of a stochastic component and emphasize the deviations from the axisymmetry. For the sunspot area, the modulus of the vector of the longitudinal asymmetry changes with th…
In this article, we report an evidence of very high and statistically significant relationship between hemispheric asymmetry in solar coronal rotation rate and solar activity. Our approach is based on cross correlation of hemispheric asymmetry index (AI) in rotation rate with annual solar activity indicators. To obtain hemispheric asymmetry in solar rotation rate, we use solar full disc (SFD) images at 30.4 nm, 19.5 nm, and 28.4 nm wavelengths for 24th Solar Cycle i.e., for the period from 2008 to 2018, as recorded by the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) space mission. Our anal…
Filaments and coronal holes, two principal features observed in the solar corona are sources of space weather variations. Filament formation is closely associated with polarity inversion lines (PIL) on the solar photosphere which separate positive and negative polarities of the surface magnetic field. The origin of coronal holes is governed by large-scale unipolar magnetic patches on the photosphere from where open magnetic field lines extend to the heliosphere. We study properties of filaments, PILs and coronal holes in solar cycles 20, 21, 22 and 23 utilizing the McIntosh archive. We detect …
A study on North South (NS) asymmetry of different solar activity features (DSAF) such as solar proton events, solar active prominences, H alpha flare index, soft X ray flares, monthly mean sunspot area and monthly mean sunspot number were carried out from 1996 to 2008. It is found in our result that solar cycle 23 is magnetically weak compared to solar cycle 22. Study shows the Southern dominance of DSAF during the time period of study. During the rising phase of the cycle the numbers of DSAF approximately equal on the North and South Hemisphere. However, these activities tend to shift from N…
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 shape of sunspot cycles using the Wolf sunspot numbers and group sunspot numbers of solar cycles 1-23. We determine the most typical "model" cycles and the most asymmetric cycles, and test the validity of the two Waldmeier rules: the anti-correlation between cycle height and the length of its ascending phase (rule 1), and between cycle height and the length of the preceding cycle (rule 2). We applied the principal component analysis to sunspot cycles and studied the first two components, which describe the average cycle shape and cycle asymmetry, respectively. We also calculated t…
Although sunspots have been systematically observed on the Sun's surface over the last four centuries, their magnetic properties have been revealed and documented only since the early 1900s. Sunspots typically appear in pairs of opposite magnetic polarities which have a systematic orientation. This polarity orientation is opposite across the equator -- a trend that has persisted over the last century over which magnetic field observations exist. Taken together with the configuration of the global poloidal field of the Sun -- that governs the heliospheric open flux and cosmic ray flux at Earth …
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…
Rieger-type periodicity has been detected in different activity indices over many solar cycles. It was recently shown that the periodicity correlates with solar activity having a shorter period during stronger cycles. Solar activity level is generally asymmetric between northern and southern hemispheres, which could suggest the presence of a similar behavior in the Rieger-type periodicity. We analyse the sunspot area/number and the total magnetic flux data for northern and southern hemispheres during solar cycles 19-23 which had remarkable north-south asymmetry. Using wavelet analysis of sunsp…
Observations reveal a relatively small but statistically significant North-South (NS) asymmetry in sunspot activity varying on a time scale of several solar cycles. This paper proposes a dynamo model for the phenomenon of long-term NS asymmetry. The model separates dynamo equations for magnetic fields of dipolar and quadrupolar equatorial parity. The NS asymmetry results from the superposition of dipolar and quadrupolar fields. Model computations confirm the formerly proposed excitation of the quadrupolar dynamo mode by a dominant dipolar mode mediated by the equator-symmetric fluctuations in …
We create a continuous series of daily and monthly hemispheric sunspot numbers (HSNs) from 1874 to 2020, which will be continuously expanded in the future with the HSNs provided by SILSO. Based on the available daily measurements of hemispheric sunspot areas from 1874 to 2016 from Greenwich Royal Observatory and NOAA, we derive the relative fractions of the northern and southern activity. These fractions are applied to the international sunspot number (ISN) to derive the HSNs. This method and obtained data are validated against published HSNs for the period 1945--2020. We provide a continuous …
Tilt angles of close to 30,600 sunspots are determined using Mount Wilson daily averaged magnetograms taken from 1974 to 2012, and MDI/SoHO magnetograms taken from 1996 to 2010. Within a cycle, more than 90% of sunspots have a normal polarity alignment along the east-west direction following Hale's law. The median tilts increase with increasing latitude (Joy's law) at a rate of ~0.5 degree per degree of latitude. Tilt angles of spots appear largely invariant with respect to time at a given latitude, but they decrease by ~0.9degree per year on average, a trend which largely reflects Joy's law f…
The calling card of solar magnetism is the sunspot cycle, during which sunspots regularly reverse their polarity sense every 11 years. However, a number of more complicated time-dependent behaviors have also been identified. In particular, there are temporal modulations associated with active longitudes and hemispheric asymmetry, when sunspots appear at certain solar longitudes or else in one hemisphere preferentially. So far, a direct link between between this asymmetric temporal behavior and the underlying solar dynamo has remained elusive. In this work, we present results from global, 3D ma…
Solar Active Region (AR) 12673 is the most flare productive AR in the solar cycle 24. It produced four X-class flares including the X9.3 flare on 06 September 2017 and the X8.2 limb event on 10 September. Sun and Norton (2017) reported that this region had an unusual high rate of flux emergence, while Huang et al. (2018) reported that the X9.3 flare had extremely strong white-light flare emissions. Yang at al. (2017) described the detailed morphological evolution of this AR. In this report, we focus on usual behaviors of the light bridge (LB) dividing the delta configuration of this AR, namely…
The umbral oscillations of velocity are commonly observed in the chromosphere of a sunspot. Their sources are considered to be either the external p-mode driving or the internal excitation by magnetoconvection. Even though the possibility of the p-mode driving has been often considered, the internal excitation has been rarely investigated. We report the identification of the oscillation patterns that may be closely related to the events of internal excitation from the observations of velocity oscillations in the temperature minimum region of two sunspots. The velocities were determined from th…
Efficient prediction of solar flares relies on parameters that quantify the eruptive capability of solar active regions. Several such quantitative predictors have been proposed in the literature, inferred mostly from photospheric magnetograms and/or white-light observations. Two of them are the Ising energy and the sum of the total horizontal magnetic field gradient. The former has been developed from line-of-sight magnetograms, while the latter uses sunspot detections and characteristics, based on continuum images. Aiming to include these parameters in an automated prediction scheme, we test …
We analyzed the daily sunspot-group data reported by the Greenwich Photoheliographic Results (GPR) during the period 1874-1976 and Debrecen Photoheliographic Data (DPD) during the period 1977-2017 and studied North-South asymmetry in the maxima and minima of the Solar Cycles 12-24. We derived the time series of the 13-month smoothed monthly mean corrected whole-spot areas of the sunspot groups in the Sun's whole sphere (WSGA), northern hemisphere (NSGA), and southern hemisphere (SSGA). From these smoothed time series we obtained the values of the maxima and minima, and the corresponding epochs…
Observations of long-term north-south asymmetry in solar activity demand the equator-symmetric (quadrupolar) mode be present in the solar magnetic field in line with the dominant antisymmetric (dipolar) mode. This paper proposes treating the sunspot area as a proxy for subsurface toroidal magnetic flux to infer the quadrupolar mode of the solar dynamo from sunspot data. Toroidal pseudo-fluxes (PF) in the northern and southern hemispheres are defined as a signed sunspot area with plus or minus sign prescribed to them in accord with the Hale's sunspot polarity rules. Statistical correlation anal…
Solar cycles are studied with the Version 2 monthly smoothed international sunspot number, the variations of which are found to be well represented by the modified logistic differential equation with four parameters: maximum cumulative sunspot number or total sunspot number $x_m$, initial cumulative sunspot number $x_0$, maximum emergence rate $r_0$, and asymmetry $α$. A two-parameter function is obtained by taking $α$ and $r_0$ as fixed value. In addition, it is found that $x_m$ and $x_0$ can be well determined at the start of a cycle. Therefore, a prediction model of sunspot number is establ…
Large and magnetically complex sunspot groups are known to be associated with flares. To date, the Mount Wilson scheme has been used to classify sunspot groups based on their morphological and magnetic properties. The most flare prolific class, the delta sunspot-group, is characterised by opposite polarity umbrae within a common penumbra, separated by less than 2 degrees. In this article, we present a new system, called the Solar Monitor Active Region Tracker - Delta Finder (SMART-DF), that can be used to automatically detect and classify magnetic deltas in near-realtime. Using continuum image…
Waves and oscillations are important solar phenomena, not only because they can propagate and dissipate energy in the chromosphere, but also because they carry information about the structure of the atmosphere in which they propagate. The nature of the three-minute oscillations observed in the umbral region of sunspots is considered to be an effect of propagation of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves upward from below the photosphere. We present a study of sunspot oscillations and wave propagation in NOAA AR 12470 using an approximately one-hour long data set acquired on 2015 December 17 by the A…
The line profile asymmetry defining the Evershed effect in sunspot penumbrae, disappears abruptly at the outer sunspot boundary over a horizontal distance of less than 500 km immediately at the outermost ends of the dark penumbral continuum structures ('filaments'). This is indicated from the non-magnetic lines Ni I 5435.9 (g=0.5) and Fe I 5434.5 (g=0), which loose their profile asymmetries at the same spatial location although formed at a vertical height distance of 300 km. The widely accepted 'canopy' picture conflicts with this finding which, in contrary, suggests that the gas motion associ…
