Solar Irradiance: Instrument-Based Advances

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (A30) ◽  
pp. 354-357
Author(s):  
Greg Kopp

AbstractVariations of the total solar irradiance (TSI) over long periods of time provide natural Earth-climate forcing and are thus important to monitor. Variations over a solar cycle are at the 0.1 % level. Variations on multi-decadal to century timescales are (fortunately for our climate stability) very small, which drives the need for highly-accurate and stable measurements over correspondingly long periods of time to discern any such irradiance changes. Advances to TSI-measuring space-borne instruments are approaching the desired climate-driven measurement accuracies and on-orbit stabilities. I present a summary of the modern-instrument improvements enabling these measurements and present some of the solar-variability measurement results from recent space-borne instruments, including TSI variations on timescales from solar flares and large-scale convection to solar cycles.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodosios Chatzistergos ◽  
Ilaria Ermolli ◽  
Fabrizio Giorgi ◽  
Natalie A. Krivova ◽  
Cosmin Constantin Puiu

Total solar irradiance (TSI) has been monitored from space since 1978, i.e. for about four solar cycles. The measurements show a prominent variability in phase with the solar cycle, as well as fluctuations on timescales shorter than a few days. However, the measurements were done by multiple and usually relatively short-lived missions. The different absolute calibrations of the individual instruments and the unaccounted for instrumental trends make estimates of the possible long-term trend in the TSI highly uncertain. Furthermore, both the variability and the uncertainty are strongly wavelength-dependent. While the variability in the UV irradiance is clearly in-phase with the solar cycle, the phase of the variability in the visible range has been debated. In this paper, we aim at getting an insight into the long-term trend of TSI since 1996 and the phase of the solar irradiance variations in the visible part of the spectrum. We use independent ground-based full-disc photometric observations in Ca II K and continuum from the Rome and San Fernando observatories to compute the TSI since 1996. We follow the empirical San Fernando approach based on the photometric sum index. We find a weak declining trend in the TSI of $ {-7.8}_{-0.8}^{+4.9}\times 1{0}^{-3}$ Wm−2 y−1 between the 1996 and 2008 activity minima, while between 2008 and 2019 the reconstructed TSI shows no trend to a marginally decreasing (but statistically insignificant) trend of $ {-0.1}_{-0.02}^{+0.25}\times 1{0}^{-3}$ Wm−2 y−1. The reference TSI series used for the reconstruction does not significantly affect the determined trend. The variation in the blue continuum (409.2 nm) is rather flat, while the variation in the red continuum (607.1 nm) is marginally in anti-phase, although this result is extremely sensitive to the accurate assessment of the quiet Sun level in the images. These results provide further insights into the long-term variation of the TSI. The amplitude of the variations in the visible is below the uncertainties of the processing, which prevents an assessment of the phase of the variations.


Science ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 277 (5334) ◽  
pp. 1963-1965 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard C. Willson

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (S320) ◽  
pp. 309-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anqin Chen ◽  
Jingxiu Wang

AbstractComparing with solar cycles 21-23, the level of solar activity in the current cycle is very low. So far, there have been only five SARs and 45 X class flares. The monthly smoothed total solar irradiance decreased sharply by 0.09% from the maximum of cycle 23 to the minima between cycles 23 and 24. In this contribution, we present new studies on SARs in Cycle 24. The SARs in the current cycle have relatively smaller flare index (Iflare) and composite vector field index (Icom) comparing with the SARs in cycles 22 and 23. There is a clearly linear relationship between Iflare and Icom. The emphasis of this contribution is put on the similarity and different behaviors of vector magnetic fields of the SARs in the current solar cycle and the previous ones. We try to get a satisfactory account for the general characteristics and relatively lower level of solar flare activity in Cycle 24.


1996 ◽  
Vol 101 (A6) ◽  
pp. 13541-13548 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Chapman ◽  
A. M. Cookson ◽  
J. J. Dobias

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S294) ◽  
pp. 157-158
Author(s):  
Shangbin Yang ◽  
Hongqi Zhang

AbstractTo investigate the characteristics of large scale and long term evolution of magnetic helicity with solar cycles, we use the method of Local Correlation Tracking (LCT) to estimate the magnetic helicity evolution over the 23rd solar cycle from 1996 to 2009 by using 795 MDI magnetic synoptic charts. The main results are: the hemispheric helicity rule still holds in general, i.e. the large-scale negative (positive) magnetic helicity dominates the northern (southern) hemisphere. However, the large scale magnetic helicity fluxes show the same sign in both hemispheres around 2001 and 2005. The global, large scale magnetic helicity flux over the solar disk changes from negative value at the beginning of the 23rd solar cycle to positive value at the end of the cycle, which also shows the similar trend from the normalized magnetic flux by using the magnetic flux. The net accumulated magnetic helicity is negative in the period between 1996 and 2009.


2017 ◽  
Vol 844 (1) ◽  
pp. 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudip Mandal ◽  
Subhamoy Chatterjee ◽  
Dipankar Banerjee

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (S320) ◽  
pp. 330-332
Author(s):  
Ahmed A. Hady ◽  
Marwa H. Mostafa ◽  
Susan W. Samwel

AbstractDuring the declining phase of the Solar cycle 24, a new peak appeared on January 7, 2014. The release of x-class flares, with the high energetic particles, were found to be more intense than that occurred during the main peak of the same cycle. Few X-class flares were released, lately, during the year 2014. We note that during the last 5 solar cycles, a new peak has appeared, releasing high energetic particles and X-class solar flares, which are called the secondary peak or the double peak of solar cycle. The aim of this descriptive study is to follow the morphological and magnetic changes of the active region before, during, and after the production of X-class flares according to data analysis. Furthermore, the causes of the release of such eruptive storms have been discussed for the period, year 2014, during the double peak of the solar cycle 24.


2014 ◽  
Vol 787 (1) ◽  
pp. 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Samuel Moore ◽  
Phillip Clyde Chamberlin ◽  
Rachel Hock

1989 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-246
Author(s):  
Judit Pap ◽  
Bojan Vrsnak

A clear association is demonstrated between the dips in the total solar irradiance and flare occurrence. It is found that both the irradiance dips and flares are related to emerging new activity.


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