Coronal Large-Scale Structure in Odd and Even 11-Year Cycles

1994 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
V. I. Makarov ◽  
V. P. Mikhailutsa ◽  
M. P. Fatianov ◽  
T. V. Stepanova

AbstractObservations of 22 solar eclipses (1914-1991) have been processed. Radial deviations of streamers in the polar and equatorial zones of the Sun in odd and even solar cycles have been studied. An essential difference of the degree of non-radiality of coronal rays at the same latitudes in odd and even cycles has been found. Deviations from the radial direction of streamers are large in the polar zones in the epoch of the maxima of even cycles and in the equatorial zones at the minima of odd cycles. Deviations from radiality at high latitudes are observed mainly in the poleward direction. The results obtained are interpreted in terms of a new model of the cycle, in which the properties of the solar magnetic field depend on the phase of a 22-year solar magnetic cycle.

1998 ◽  
Vol 167 ◽  
pp. 493-496
Author(s):  
Dmitri I. Ponyavin

AbstractA technique is used to restore the magnetic field of the Sun viewed as star from the filament distribution seen on Hα photographs. For this purpose synoptic charts of the large-scale magnetic field reconstructed by the McIntosh method have been compared with the Sun-asstar solar magnetic field observed at Stanford. We have established a close association between the Sun-as-star magnetic field and the mean magnetic field inferred from synoptic magnetic field maps. A filtering technique was applied to find correlations between the Sun-as-star and large-scale magnetic field distributions during the course of a solar cycle. The correlations found were then used to restore the Sun-as-star magnetic field and its evolution in the late 1950s and 1960s, when such measurements of the field were not being made. A stackplot display of the inferred data reveals large-scale magnetic field organization and evolution. Patterns of the Sun-as-star magnetic field during solar cycle 19 were obtained. The proposed technique can be useful for studying the solar magnetic field structure and evolution during times with no direct observations.


2001 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 159-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Malara ◽  
L. Primavera ◽  
P. Veltri

Abstract. Low-frequency turbulence in the solar wind is characterized by a high degree of Alfvénicity close to the Sun. Cross-helicity, which is a measure of Alfvénic correlation, tends to decrease with increasing distance from the Sun at high latitudes as well as in slow-speed streams at low latitudes. In the latter case, large scale inhomogeneities (velocity shears, the heliospheric current sheet) are present, which are sources of decorrelation; yet at high latitudes, the wind is much more homogeneous, and a possible evolution mechanism is represented by the parametric instability. The parametric decay of an circularly polarized broadband Alfvén wave is then investigated, as a source of decorrelation. The time evolution is followed by numerically integrating the full set of nonlinear MHD equations, up to instability saturation. We find that, for <beta>  ~ 1, the final cross-helicity is ~ 0.5, corresponding to a partial depletion of the initial correlation. Compressive fluctuations at a moderate level are also present. Most of the spectrum is dominated by forward propagating Alfvénic fluctuations, while backscattered fluctuations dominate large scales. With increasing time, the spectra of Elsässer variables tend to approach each other. Some results concerning quantities measured in the high-latitude wind are reviewed, and a qualitative agreement with the results of the numerical model is found.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (S328) ◽  
pp. 93-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Gibson ◽  
David Webb ◽  
Ian M. Hewins ◽  
Robert H. McFadden ◽  
Barbara A. Emery ◽  
...  

AbstractIn 1964 (Solar Cycle 20; SC 20), Patrick McIntosh began creating hand-drawn synoptic maps of solar magnetic features, based on Hα images. These synoptic maps were unique in that they traced magnetic polarity inversion lines, and connected widely separated filaments, fibril patterns, and plage corridors to reveal the large-scale organization of the solar magnetic field. Coronal hole boundaries were later added to the maps, which were produced, more or less continuously, into 2009 (i.e., the start of SC 24). The result was a record of ~45 years (~570 Carrington rotations), or nearly four complete solar cycles of synoptic maps. We are currently scanning, digitizing and archiving these maps, with the final, searchable versions publicly available at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. In this paper we present preliminary scientific studies using the archived maps from SC 23. We show the global evolution of closed magnetic structures (e.g., sunspots, plage, and filaments) in relation to open magnetic structures (e.g., coronal holes), and examine how both relate to the shifting patterns of large-scale positive and negative polarity regions.


2004 ◽  
Vol 219 ◽  
pp. 552-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Knaack ◽  
J. O. Stenflo

We have investigated the temporal evolution of the solar magnetic field during solar cycles 20, 21 and 22 by means of spherical harmonic decomposition and subsequent time series analysis. A 33 yr and a 25 yr time series of daily magnetic maps of the solar photosphere, recorded at the Mt. Wilson and NSO/Kitt Peak observatories respectively, were used to calculate the spherical coefficients of the radial magnetic field. Fourier and wavelet analysis were then applied to deduce the temporal variations. We compare the results of the two datasets and present examples of zonal modes which show significant variations, e. g. with a period of approx. 2.0—2.5 years. We provide evidence that this quasi-biennial oscillation originates mainly from the southern hemisphere. Furthermore, we show that low degree modes with odd l — m exhibit periods of 29.2 and 28.1 days while modes with even l — m show a dominant period of 26.9 days. A resonant modal structure of the solar magnetic field (apart from the 22 yr cycle) has not been found.


1971 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 744-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Wilcox

The solar sector structure consists of a boundary in the north-south direction such that on one side of the boundary the large-scale weak photospheric magnetic field is predominantly directed out of the Sun, and on the other side of the boundary this field is directed into the Sun. The region westward of a solar sector boundary tends to be unusually quiet and the region eastward of a solar sector boundary tends to be unusually active. This tendency is discussed in terms of flares, coronal enhancements, plage structure and geomagnetic response.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (S335) ◽  
pp. 94-97
Author(s):  
Milton Munroe

All recent models of solar magnetic cycle behaviour assume that the Ω-effect stretches an existing poloidal magnetic field into a toroidal field using differential rotation (Featherstone and Miesch 2015). The α-effect recycles the toroidal field back to a poloidal field by convection and rotation and this is repeated throughout the cycle. Computer simulations based on that conceptual model still leave many questions unanswered. It has not resolved where the solar dynamo is located, what it is or what causes the differential rotation which it takes for granted. Does this paradigm need changing? The conceptual model presented here examines the sun in horizontal sections, analyses its internal structure, presents new characterizations for the solar wind and structures found and shows how their interaction creates rotation, differential rotation, the solar dynamo and the magnetic cycle.


1976 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 135-135
Author(s):  
Leif Svalgaard ◽  
John M. Wilcox

The large-scale structure of the solar magnetic field during the past five sunspot cycles (representing by implication a much longer interval of time) has been investigated using the polarity (toward or away from the Sun) of the interplanetary magnetic field as inferred from polar geomagnetic observations. The polarity of the interplanetary magnetic field has previously been shown to be closely related to the polarity (into or out of the Sun) of the large-scale solar magnetic field. It appears that a solar structure with four sectors per rotation persisted through the past five sunspot cycles, with a synodic rotation period near 27.0 days, and a small relative westward drift during the first half of each sunspot cycle and a relative eastward drift during the second half of each cycle. Superposed on this four-sector structure there is another structure with inward field polarity, a width in solar longitude of about 100° and a synodic rotation period of about 28 to 29 days. This 28.5 day structure is usually most prominent during a few years near sunspot maximum. Some preliminary comparisons of these observed solar structures with theoretical considerations are given.


1983 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 437-437
Author(s):  
Robert Howard

AbstractA series of digitized synoptic observations of solar magnetic and velocity fields has been carried out at the Mount Wilson Observatory since 1967. In recent studies (Howard and LaBonte, 1980; LaBonte and Howard, 1981), the existence of slow, large-scale torsional (toroidal) oscillations of the Sun has been demonstrated. Two modes have been identified. The first is a travelling wave, symmetric about the equator, with wave number 2 per hemisphere. The pattern-alternately slower and faster than the average rotation–starts at the poles and drifts to the equator in an interval of 22 years. At any one latitude on the Sun, the period of the oscillation is 11 years, and the amplitude is 3 m s-1. The magnetic flux emergence that is seen as the solar cycle occurs on average at the latitude of one shear zone of this oscillation. The amplitude of the shear is quite constant from the polar latitudes to the equator. The other mode of torsional oscillation, superposed on the first mode, is a wave number 1 per hemisphere pattern consisting of faster than average rotation at high latitudes around solar maximum and faster than average rotation at low latitudes near solar minimum. The amplitude of the effect is about 5 m s1-. For the first mode, the close relationship in latitude between the activity-related magnetic flux eruption and the torsional shear zone suggests strongly that there is a close connection between these motions and the cycle mechanism. It has been suggested (Yoshimura, 1981; Schüssler, 1981) that the effect is caused by a subsurface Lorentz force wave resulting from the dynamo action of magnetic flux ropes. But, this seems unlikely because of the high latitudes at which the shear wave is seen to originate and the constancy of the magnitude of the shear throughout the life time of the wave.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S294) ◽  
pp. 429-430
Author(s):  
L. L. Kitchatinov ◽  
S. V. Olemskoy

AbstractSunspot data and large-scale solar magnetic field data are used to demonstrate the operation of the Babcock-Leighton mechanism on the Sun. A dynamo model is developed that employs jointly a nonlocal alpha-effect of the Babcock-Leighton type and diamagnetic downward pumping. The pumping concentrates magnetic fields to the base of the convection zone. The magnetic cycle period, equatorial symmetry of the generated fields, their meridional drift, and the polar-to-toroidal field ratio obtained in the model agree with observations.


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