Related papers: Active Longitudes Revealed by Large-scale and Long…

Hinode observations have provided a new view of outflows from the Sun. These have been focussed in particular on flows emanating from the edges of active regions. These flows are long lasting and seem to exist to some extent in every active…

We present a comprehensive physical model explaining the origin of Periodic Density Structures (PDS) observed in white-light coronagraphs with characteristic periods of approximately 45, 80, and 120 minutes. Through systematic investigation…

Recent observations of sunspot's umbra suggested that it may be finely structured at a sub-arcsecond scale representing a mix of hot and cool plasma elements. In this study we report the first detailed observations of the umbral spikes,…

Using Greenwich and SOON sunspot group data during the period 1874 -- 2005, we find that the sums of the areas of the sunspot groups in $0^\circ$ -- $10^\circ$ latitude-interval of the Sun's northern hemisphere and in the time-interval,…

Major solar flares are prone to occur in active region atmospheres associated with large, complex, dynamically-evolving sunspots. This points to the importance of monitoring the evolution of starspots, not only in visible but also in ultra…

Solar Cycle 24 data are used to determine how often the Sun emerges sunspots in `activity nests', i.e., regions where sunspots and active regions (ARs) repeatedly emerge. We use the Solar Photospheric Ephemeral Active Region (SPEAR) catalog…

We study the visibility of sunspots and its influence on observed values of sunspot region parameters. We use Virtual Observatory tools provided by AstroGrid to analyse a sample of 6862 sunspot regions. By studying the distributions of…

Longitudinal distributions of the photospheric magnetic field studied on the base of National Solar Observatory (Kitt Peak) data (1976 - 2003) displayed two opposite patterns during different parts of the 11-year solar cycle.…

In 1844 Schwabe discovered that the number of sunspots increased and decreased over a period of about 11 years, that variation became known as the sunspot cycle. Almost eighty years later, Hale described the nature of the Sun's magnetic…

In this study, we investigate the spatial distribution of highly varying plasma composition around one of the largest sunspots of solar cycle 24. Observations of the photosphere, chromosphere, and corona are brought together with magnetic…

The correlation between geomagnetic activity and the sunspot number in the 11-year solar cycle exhibits long-term variations due to the varying time lag between the sunspot-related and non-sunspot related geomagnetic activity, and the…

Sunspots are of basic interest in the study of the Sun. Their relevance ranges from them being an activity indicator of magnetic fields to being the place where coronal mass ejections and flares erupt. They are therefore also an important…

The quiescent or dynamic nature of fine scale ray-like features in the sun corona, observed in visible light, is still an open question. Here, we show that most of daily and hourly periodic variations in visible light brightness of the high…

We present observations of the extended solar cycle activity in white-light coronagraphs, and compare them with the more familiar features seen in the Fe XIV green-line corona. We show that the coronal activity zones seen in the emission…

A recent analysis has suggested that the heating of plasma loops in the solar corona depends not just on the Poynting flux but also on processes yet to be identified. This discovery reflects and refines earlier questions such as, why and…

Many sunspot cycles are double peaked. In 1967 Gnevyshev suggested that actually all cycles have two peaks generated by different physical mechanisms, but sometimes the gap between them is too short for the maxima to be distinguished in…

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…

Plasma loops or plumes rooted in sunspot umbrae often harbor downflows with speeds of 100 km/s. These downflows are supersonic at transition region temperatures of 0.1 MK. The source of these flows is not well understood. We aim to…

We use time series observations from the SOHO and Yohkoh spacecraft to study solar polar rays. Contrary to our expectations, we find that the rays are associated with active regions on the sun and are not features of the polar coronal…

Context. The solar corona maintains temperatures of a million Kelvin or more. The plasma heating mechanisms responsible for these extreme temperatures are still unclear. Large regions of magnetic activity in the photosphere cause extreme…