Related papers: Fluctuating Sunspot Numbers Exhibit A Non-Markovia…
The Maunder minimum (MM) of greatly reduced solar activity took place in 1645-1715, but the exact level of sunspot activity is uncertain as based, to a large extent, on historical generic statements of the absence of spots on the Sun. Here…
The moat flow, a radial outflow surrounding fully fledged sunspots, is a well characterised phenomenon. Nevertheless, its origin and especially its relation to the penumbra is still a controversial topic. We investigate the evolution of the…
Observing and counting sunspots constitutes one of the longest-running scientific experiment, with first observations dating back to Galileo and the invention of the telescope around 1610. Today the sunspot number (SN) time series acts as a…
Sunspot engravings and measurements in 1660-1676 are analyzed to retrieve sunspot area and heliocoordinates. Based on these data, we revise the Hoyt and Schatten (The role of the sun in climate change, 1997) hypothesis of long-lived…
The stability of sunspots is one of the long-standing unsolved puzzles in the field of solar magnetism. We study the effects that destabilise and stabilise the flux tube of a simulated sunspot in the upper convection zone. The depth-varying…
Disintegration of sunspots (and starspots) by fluxtube erosion, originally proposed by Simon and Leighton, is considered. A moving boundary problem is formulated for a nonlinear diffusion equation that describes the sunspot magnetic field…
Solar variability occurs over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, from the Sun's brightening over its lifetime to the fluctuations commonly associated with magnetic activity over minutes to years. The latter activity includes most…
Sunspot activity is highly variable and challenging to forecast. Yet forecasts are important, since peak activity has profound effects on major geophysical phenomena including space weather (satellite drag, telecommunications outages) and…
Solar activity in all its varied manifestations is driven by the magnetic field. Particularly important for many purposes are two global quantities, the Sun's total and open magnetic flux, which can be computed from sunspot number records…
Forecasting the solar cycle amplitude is important for a better understanding of the solar dynamo as well as for many space weather applications. We demonstrated a steady relationship between the maximal growth rate of sunspot activity in…
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…
The parameter G, which is determined from the general number of sunspots groups Ng according to the daily observations G=Sum(1/Ng)^2, is offered. This parameter is calculated for the days when there is at least one sunspots group. It…
Systematic studies of the rotation rate of sunspot groups using white-light images yield controversial results on the variations of the rotation rate: sunspot groups were found to either accelerate or decelerate systematically. This…
We explore properties and behavior of slow-decaying unipolar sunspot groups in the framework of the turbulent erosion model suggested by Petrovay and Moreno-Insertis (1997). The basic concept of the model is the suppression of a turbulent…
The occurrence of grand minima like the Maunder minimum is an intriguing aspect of the sunspot cycle. We use the flux transport dynamo model to explain the grand minima, showing that they arise when either the poloidal field or the…
Using the Solar Optical Observing Network (SOON) sunspot-group data for the period 1985-2010, the variations in the annual mean equatorial-rotation rates of the sunspot groups are determined and compared with the known variations in the…
We study the role of rotating sunspots in relation to the evolution of various physical parameters characterizing the non-potentiality of the active region NOAA 11158 and its eruptive events using the magnetic field data from the…
Context. The Sun shows an activity cycle that is caused by its varying global magnetic field. During a solar cycle, sunspots, i.e. extended regions of strong magnetic fields, occur in activity belts that are slowly migrating from middle to…
Context: The evolution of solar active regions is still not fully understood. The growth and decay of active regions have mostly been studied in case-by-case studies. Aims: Instead of studying the evolution of active regions case by case,…
The recent solar minimum and rise phase of solar cycle 24 have been unlike any period since the early 1900s. This article examines some of the properties of sunspot umbrae over the last 17 years with three different instruments on the…