Related papers: Historical Sunspot Observations: A Review
Long-term observational data have information on the magnetic cycles of active stars and that of the Sun. The changes in the activity of our central star have basic effects on Earth, like variations in the global climate. Therefore…
Improving irradiance forecasting is critical to further increase the share of solar in the energy mix. On a short time scale, fish-eye cameras on the ground are used to capture cloud displacements causing the local variability of the…
Commenting the 11-year sunspot cycle, Wolf (1859, MNRAS 19, 85-86) conjectured that "the variations of spot frequency depend on the influences of Venus, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn". The high synchronization of our planetary system is…
The sunspots and other solar activity indicators tend to cluster on the surface of the Sun.These clusters very often occur at certain longitudes that persist in time.It is of general interest to find new and simple ways to characterize the…
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…
How has the solar wind evolved to reach what it is today? In this review, I discuss the long-term evolution of the solar wind, including the evolution of observed properties that are intimately linked to the solar wind: rotation, magnetism…
High-resolution time series of sunspots have been obtained with the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope between 2003 and 2006 at different locations on the solar disc. Proper motions in seven different active regions have been studied. The analysis…
Aims. Sunspot number is a benchmark series in many studies, but may still contain inhomogeneities and inconsistencies. In particular, an essential discrepancy exists between the two main sunspot number series, Wolf (WSN) and group (GSN)…
The solar group at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan is conducting synoptic solar observations with the Solar Flare Telescope. While it is a part of a long-term solar monitoring, contributing to the study of solar dynamo…
Daily records of sunspot group areas compiled by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, from May of 1874 through 1976 indicate a curious history for the penumbral areas of the smaller sunspot groups. On average, the ratio of penumbral area to…
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…
We analysed the combined Greenwich (1874-1976) and Solar Optical Observatories Network (1977-2011) data on sunspot groups. The daily rate of change of the area of a spot group is computed using the differences between the epochs of the spot…
Solar magnetic activity is expressed via variations of sunspots and active regions varying on different timescales. The most accepted is an 11-year period supposedly induced by the electromagnetic solar dynamo mechanism. There are also some…
It has recently been claimed that analysis of Greenwich sunspot data over 120 years reveals that sunspot activity clusters around two longitudes separated by 180 degrees (``active longitudes'') with clearly defined differential rotation…
Solar activity has a cyclic nature with the ~11-year Schwabe cycle dominating its variability on the interannual timescale. However, solar cycles are significantly modulated in length, shape and magnitude, from near-spotless grand minima to…
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…
The rotational profile of the Sun is considered to be one of the key inputs in a solar dynamo model. Hence, precise and long-term measurements of this quantity is important for our understanding of solar magnetism and its variability. In…
This review provides an introduction to the generation and evolution of the Sun's magnetic field, summarising both observational evidence and theoretical models. The eleven year solar cycle, which is well known from a variety of observed…
Through meticulous daily observation of the Sun's large-scale magnetic field the Wilcox Solar Observatory (WSO) has catalogued two magnetic (Hale) cycles of solar activity. Those two (~22-year long) Hale cycles have yielded four…
We study the evolution of the flows and horizontal proper motions in and around a decaying follower sunspot based on time sequences of two-dimensional spectroscopic observations in the visible and white light imaging data obtained over six…