Long and consistent sunspot area records are important for understanding the long-term solar activity and variability. Multiple observatories around the globe have regularly recorded sunspot areas, but such individual records only cover restricted periods of time. Furthermore, there are also systematic differences between them, so that these records need to be cross-calibrated before they can be reliably used for further studies. We produce a cross-calibrated and homogeneous record of total daily sunspot areas, both projected and corrected, covering the period between 1874 and 2019. A catalogue of calibrated individual group areas is also generated for the same period. We have compared the data from nine archives: Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO), Kislovodsk, Pulkovo, Debrecen, Kodaikanal, Solar Optical Observing Network (SOON), Rome, Catania, and Yunnan Observatories, covering the period between 1874 and 2019. Mutual comparisons of the individual records have been employed to produce homogeneous and inter-calibrated records of daily projected and corrected areas. As in earlier studies, the basis of the composite is formed by the data from RGO. After 1976, the only datasets used are those from Kislovodsk, Pulkovo and Debrecen observatories. This choice was made based on the temporal coverage and the quality of the data. In contrast to the SOON data used in previous area composites for the post-RGO period, the properties of the data from Kislovodsk and Pulkovo are very similar to those from the RGO series. They also directly overlap the RGO data in time, which makes their cross-calibration with RGO much more reliable. We have also computed and provide the daily Photometric Sunspot Index (PSI) widely used, e.g., in empirical reconstructions of solar irradiance.
A sunspot catalogue was maintained by the Astronomical Observatory of Valencia University (Spain) from 1920 to 1928. Here we present a machine-readable version of this catalogue (OV catalog or OVc), including a quality control analysis. Sunspot number (total and hemispheric) and sunspot area series are constructed using this catalogue. The OV catalog's data are compared with other available solar data, demonstrating that the present contribution provides the scientific community with a reliable catalogue of sunspot data.
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…
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…
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-…
R. C. Carrington, C. H. F. Peters, and W. de la Rue observed the sunspots in the second half of the 19th century, determining their heliographic positions between 1853 and 1870, before the establishment of the solar program of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. The large tables of sunspot positions included in the catalogues published by these observers have recently been converted to a machine readable format. The present work analyses this data by calculating the sunspot group velocities for each observer. These results are then fitted with a differential rotation law to compare the data of th…
We revise the sunspot observations made by Galileo Galilei and Christoph Scheiner in the context of their controversy on the nature of sunspots. Their sunspot records not included in the current sunspot group database, used as a basis to calculate the sunspot group number, are analyzed. Within the documentary sources consulted in this work, we can highlight the sunspot observations by Scheiner included in the letters sent under the pseudonym Apelles to Marcus Welser and the first sunspot observations made by Galileo, which can be consulted in Le opere di Galileo Galilei. These sunspot observat…
Sunspot area data are important for studying solar activity and its long term variations. At the Debrecen Heliophysical Observatory, we compiled three sunspot catalogues: the Debrecen Photoheliographic Data (DPD), the SDO/HMI Debrecen Data (HMIDD), and the SOHO/MDI Debrecen Data. For comparison, we also compiled an additional sunspot catalogue, the Greenwich Photoheliographic Data, from the digitized Royal Greenwich Observatory images for the 1974-76. By comparing these catalogues when they overlap in time, we can investigate how various factors influence the measured area of the sunspots, and…
The automated detection of solar features is a technique which is relatively underused but if we are to keep up with the flow of data from spacecraft such as the recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory, then such techniques will be very valuable to the solar community. Automated detection techniques allow us to examine a large set of data in a consistent way and in relatively short periods of time allowing for improved statistics to be carried out on any results obtained. This is particularly useful in the field of sunspot study as catalogues can be built with sunspots detected and tracke…
Long-term variations of solar differential rotation and sunspot activity are investigated through re-analyzing the data on parameters of the differential rotation law obtained by Makarov, Tlatov, and Callebaut (1997), Javaraiah, Bertello, and Ulrich (2005a, b), and Javaraiah et al. (2009). Our results indicate that the solar surface rotation rate at the Equator (indicated by the A parameter of the standard solar rotation law) shows a secular decrease since cycle 12 onwards, given by about $1\,-\,1.5\times10^{-3}$($deg\ day^{-1} year^{-1}$). The B parameter of the standard differential rotation…
In the 19th century, several astronomers made observations of sunspots, recording their positions and sometimes their areas. These observations were published in the form of extensive tables, but have been unhelpful until now. Three of these observers were Richard C. Carrington, Christian H. F. Peters, and Warren de la Rue (and their respective collaborators). They published, in various articles the data corresponding to 26 641 sunspot positions (Carrington, Peters, and de la Rue registered 4 900, 14 040, and 7 701 sunspot positions, respectively). In this paper we present a translation of mor…
Maunder Minimum forms an archetype for the Grand minima, and detailed knowledge of its temporal development has important consequences for the solar dynamo theory dealing with long-term solar activity evolution. Here we reconsider the current paradigm of the Grand minimum general scenario by using newly recovered sunspot observations by G. Marcgraf and revising some earlier uncertain data for the period 1636--1642, i.e., one solar cycle before the beginning of the Maunder Minimum. The new and revised data dramatically change the magnitude of the sunspot cycle just before the Maunder Minimum, f…
We have recovered the sunspot observations made by David E. Hadden during 1890-1931 from Alta, Iowa. We have digitized the available data published by Hadden in different astronomical journals. This data series have been analyzed and compared with the standard sunspot number series. Moreover, we provide additional information on two great sunspot groups, previously not described, that originated two important extreme episodes of space weather on February 1892 and September 1898.
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 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 discuss recent papers very critical of our Group Sunspot Number Series (Svalgaard & Schatten [2016]). Unfortunately, we cannot support any of the concerns they raise. We first show that almost always there is simple proportionality between the group counts by different observers and that taking the small, occasional, non-linearities into account makes very little difference. Among other examples: we verify that the RGO group count was drifting the first twenty years of observations. We then show that our group count matches the diurnal variation of the geomagnetic field with high fidelity, …
We revisited the sunspot observations published by Johannes Hevelius in his book Machina Coelestis (1679) corresponding to the period 1653-1675 (just in the middle of the Maunder Minimum). We show detailed translations of the original Latin texts describing the sunspot records and provide the general context of these sunspot observations. From this source only, we present an estimate of the annual values of the Group Sunspot Number based only on the records that explicitly inform about the presence or absence of sunspots. Although we obtain very low values of the Group Sunspot Number, in accor…
The tilt angle of sunspot groups is crucial in the BL type dynamo. Some studies have shown that the tilt coefficient is anti-correlated with the cycle strength. If the anti-correlation exists, it will be shown to act as an effective nonlinearity of the BL-type dynamo to modulate the solar cycle. However, some studies have shown that the anti-correlation has no statistical significance. We aim to investigate the causes behind the controversial results of tilt angle studies and to establish whether the tilt coefficient is indeed anti-correlated with the cycle strength. We first analyzed the tilt…
Several papers provide evidences that the most probable sites of flare onset are the regions of high horizontal magnetic field gradients in solar active regions. Besides the localization of flare producing areas the present work intends to reveal the characteristic temporal variations in these regions prior to flares. This study uses sunspot data instead of magnetograms, it follows the behaviour of a suitable defined proxy measure representing the horizontal magnetic field gradient. The source of the data is the SDD (SOHO/MDI-Debrecen Data) sunspot catalogue. The most promising pre-flare signa…
William Cranch Bond, director of the Harvard College Observatory in mid-19th century, carried out detailed sunspot observations during the period 1847-1849. We highlight Bond was the observer with the highest daily number of sunspot groups observed in Solar Cycle 9 recording 18 groups on 26 December 1848 according to the current sunspot group database. However, we have detected significant mistakes in these counts due to the use of sunspot position tables instead of solar drawings. Therefore, we have revisited the sunspot observations made by Bond, establishing a new group counting. Our new co…
Naked-eye sunspot observations (NESO, hereafter) have been recorded for last two millennia, approximately. This kind of records were made around the world, mainly in Asian civilizations, and they are compiled in several catalogues. In this work, we analyze solar activity in days of the 19th century when NESO were recorded. We found that only more than five sunspot groups were recorded in 39 % of days corresponding to these NESO events. Furthermore, regarding the largest groups observed in days when NESO were reported, we show the uncorrected areas of these groups were below 200 millionths of s…
The sunspot groups have been observed since 1610 and their numbers have been used for evaluating the amplitude of solar activity. Daniel Mögling recorded his sunspot observations for more than 100 days in 1626 - 1629 and formed a significant dataset of sunspot records before the Maunder Minimum. Here, we have analysed his original manuscripts in the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt (ULBD) to review Mögling's personal profile and observational instruments and derive number and positions of the sunspot groups. In his manuscript, we have identified 134 days with an exact sunspot group…
The Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra has a huge collection of solar images, acquired daily since 1926. From the beginning, only spectroheliograms in the CaiiK line has been recorded, and since 1989 in the H_alpha line also. Such dataset requires efficient tools to detect and analyze solar activity features. The objective of this work is to create a tool that allows to automatic detect sunspots, umbra, and penumbra, that can be applied to the entire dataset. To achieve this, two different approaches have been developed, one based on mathematical morphology and another based…
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 long term study of the Sun is necessary if we are to determine the evolution of sunspot properties and thereby inform modeling of the solar dynamo, particularly on scales of a solar cycle. We aim to determine a number of sunspot properties over cycle 23 using the uniform database provided by the SOHO Michelson Doppler Imager data. We focus in particular on their distribution on the solar disk, maximum magnetic field and umbral/penumbral areas. We investigate whether the secular decrease in sunspot maximum magnetic field reported in Kitt Peak data is present also in MDI data. We have used t…
The study of active region tilt angles and their variations in different time scales plays an important role in revealing the subsurface dynamics of magnetic flux ropes and in understanding the dynamo mechanism. In order to reveal the exact characteristics of tilt angles, precise long-term tilt angle data bases are needed. However, there are only a few different data sets at present, which are difficult to be compared and cross-calibrate because of their substantial deviations. In this paper, we describe new tilt angle data bases derived from the Debrecen Photoheliographic Data ($DPD$) (1974--…
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…
Since the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) began recording ~ 1 TB of data per day, there has been an increased need to automatically extract features and events for further analysis. Here we compare the overall detection performance, correlations between extracted properties, and usability for feature tracking of four solar feature-detection algorithms: the Solar Monitor Active Region Tracker (SMART) detects active regions in line-of-sight magnetograms; the Automated Solar Activity Prediction code (ASAP) detects sunspots and pores in white-light continuum images; the Sunspot Tracking And Recog…
The Debrecen Photoheliographic Data catalogue is a continuation of the Greenwich Photoheliographic Results providing daily positions of sunspots and sunspot groups. We analyse the data for sunspot groups focusing on meridional motions and transfer of angular momentum towards the solar equator. Velocities are calculated with a daily shift method including an automatic iterative process of removing the outliers. Apart from the standard differential rotation profile, we find meridional motion directed towards the zone of solar activity. The difference in measured meridional flow in comparison to …
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 …
University of Bradford（布拉德福德大学）；French National Centre for Scientific Research（法国国家科学研究中心）
Received: 1st December 2018; Accepted: 18th February 2019; Published: 1st April 2019 Abstract: The calculated filling factors (FFs) for a feature reflect the fraction of the solar disc covered by that feature, and the assignment of reference synthetic spectra. In this paper, the FFs, specified as a function of radial position on the solar disc, are computed for each image in a tabular form. The filling factor (FF) is an important parameter and is defined as the fraction of area in a pixel covered with the magnetic field, whereas the rest of the area in the pixel is field-free. However, this do…
The ratio of penumbral to umbral area of sunspots is an important topic for solar and geophysical studies. Hathaway (Solar Physics, 286, 347, 2013) found a curious behaviour in this parameter for small sunspot groups (areas smaller than 100 millionths of solar hemisphere, msh) using records from Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO). Hathaway showed that penumbra-umbra ratio decreased smoothly from more than 7 in 1905 to lower than 3 by 1930 and then increased to almost 8 in 1961. Thus, Hathaway proposed the existence of a secular variation in the penumbra-umbra area ratio. In order to confirm tha…
The Maunder Minimum (1645-1715) is currently considered the only grand minimum within telescopic sunspot observations since 1610. During this epoch, the Sun was extremely quiet and unusually free from sunspots. However, despite reduced frequency, candidate aurorae were reported in the mid-European sector during this period and have been associated with occurrences of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), whereas some of them have been identified as misinterpretations. Here, we have analysed reports of candidate aurorae on 1 June 1680 with simultaneous observations in mid-Europe, and c…
Aims: Although the time of the Maunder minimum (1645--1715) is widely known as a period of extremely low solar activity, claims are still debated that solar activity during that period might still have been moderate, even higher than the current solar cycle #24. We have revisited all the existing pieces of evidence and datasets, both direct and indirect, to assess the level of solar activity during the Maunder minimum. Methods: We discuss the East Asian naked-eye sunspot observations, the telescopic solar observations, the fraction of sunspot active days, the latitudinal extent of sunspot posi…
The study of historical great geomagnetic storms is crucial for assessing the possible risks to the technological infrastructure of a modern society, caused by extreme space-weather events. The normal benchmark has been the great geomagnetic storm of September 1859, the so-called "Carrington Event". However, there are numerous records of another great geomagnetic storm in February 1872. This storm, about 12 years after the Carrington Event, resulted in comparable magnetic disturbances and auroral displays over large areas of the Earth. We have revisited this great geomagnetic storm in terms of…
