scholarly journals Using Sidereal Rotation Period Expressions to Calculate the Sun’s Rotation Period through Observation of Sunspots

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsung-Ching Chen ◽  
Jiann-Shing Lih ◽  
Tien-Tang Chang ◽  
Chih-Hung Yang ◽  
Ming-Chi Lu ◽  
...  

We utilize sidereal rotation period expressions to calculate the sun’s rotation period via sunspot observation. From the well-known astronomical sites, we collected sunspot diagrams for 14 months, from January 2013 to February 2014, to analyze, compare, and implement statistical research. In addition to acquiring the average angular rate of the movement of sunspots, we found that even the same number of sunspots moved at different angular rates, and generally the life of larger sunspots is longer than 10 days. Therefore the larger sunspots moved around the back of the sun, and a handful of relatively smaller sunspots disappeared within a few days. The results show that the solar rotation period varied with the latitude. However, if we take the average of the sunspots at high and low latitudes, we find that the calculated value is very close to the accredited values.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timofey Sagitov ◽  
Roman Kislov

<p>High speed streams originating from coronal holes are long-lived plasma structures that form corotating interaction regions (CIRs) or stream interface regions (SIRs) in the solar wind. The term CIR is used for streams existing for at least one solar rotation period, and the SIR stands for streams with a shorter lifetime. Since the plasma flows from coronal holes quasi-continuously, CIRs/SIRs simultaneously expand and rotate around the Sun, approximately following the Parker spiral shape up to the Earth’s orbit.</p><p>Coronal hole streams rotate not only around the Sun but also around their own axis of simmetry, resembling a screw. This effect may occur because of the following mechanisms: (1) the existence of a difference between the solar wind speed at different sides of the stream, (2) twisting of the magnetic field frozen into the plasma, and  (3) a vortex-like motion of the edge of the mothering coronal hole at the Sun. The screw type of the rotation of a CIR/SIR can lead to centrifugal instability if CIR/SIR inner layers have a larger angular velocity than the outer. Furthermore, the rotational plasma movement and the stream distortion can twist magnetic field lines. The latter contributes to the pinch effect in accordance with a well-known criterion of Suydam instability (Newcomb, 1960, doi: 10.1016/0003-4916(60)90023-3). Owing to the presence of a cylindrical current sheet at the boundary of a coronal hole, conditions for tearing instability can also appear at the CIR/SIR boundary. Regardless of their geometry, large scale current sheets are subject to various instabilities generating plasmoids. Altogether, these effects can lead to the formation of a turbulent region within CIRs/SIRs, making them filled with current sheets and plasmoids. </p><p>We study a substructure of CIRs/SIRs, characteristics of their rotation in the solar wind, and give qualitative estimations of possible mechanisms which lead to splitting of the leading edge a coronal hole flow and consequent formation of current sheets within CIRs/SIRs.</p>


1967 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. F. Smerd

Dodson and Hedeman discovered an unexpected effect in the occurrence of solar proton events as revealed by polarcap absorption (PCA). When the 48 events in Bailey’s Catalog of the Principal PCA Events, 1952-1963 are distributed with the phase of the moon there is a gap of several days near full moon; also, many more events occur when the moon waxes than when it wanes. Dodson and Hedeman did not find similar, apparent departures from random distribution either with a mean solar rotation period of 27.3 days or for solar flare events. They concluded that ‘at the present time it is not clear whether the 29.5 day “effect” is related to the sun or the moon or is only a statistical accident’.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Bemporad ◽  
Olga Katushkina ◽  
Vladislav Izmodenov ◽  
Dimitra Koutroumpa ◽  
Eric Quemerais

<p>The Sun modulates with the solar wind flow the shape of the whole Heliosphere interacting with the surrounding interstellar medium. Recent results from IBEX and INCA experiments, as well as recent measurements from Voyager 1 and 2, demonstrated that this interaction is much more complex and subject to temporal and heliolatitudinal variations than previously thought. These variations could be also related with the evolution of solar wind during its journey through the Heliosphere. Hence, understanding how the solar wind evolves from its acceleration region in the inner corona to the Heliospheric boundaries is very important.</p><p>In this work, SWAN Lyman-α full-sky observations from SOHO are combined for the very first time with measurements acquired in the inner corona by SOHO UVCS and LASCO instruments, to trace the solar wind expansion from the Sun to 1 AU. The solar wind mass flux in the inner corona was derived over one full solar rotation period in 1997, based on LASCO polarized brightness measurements, and on the Doppler dimming technique applied to UVCS Lyman-α emission from neutral H coronal atoms due to resonant scattering of chromospheric radiation. On the other hand, the SWAN Lyman-α emission (due to back-scattering from neutral H atoms in the interstellar medium) was analyzed based on numerical models of the interstellar hydrogen distribution in the heliosphere and the radiation transfer. The SWAN full-sky Lyman-α intensity maps are used for solving of the inverse problem and deriving of the solar wind mass flux at 1 AU from the Sun as a function of heliolatitude. First results from this comparison for a chosen time period in 1997 are described here, and possible future applications for Solar Orbiter data are discussed.</p>


Solar Physics ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 159 (2) ◽  
pp. 393-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Roša ◽  
R. Brajša ◽  
B. Vršnak ◽  
H. Wöhl

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. A9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thierry Dudok de Wit ◽  
Sean Bruinsma

The 10.7 cm radio flux (F10.7) is widely used as a proxy for solar UV forcing of the upper atmosphere. However, radio emissions at other centimetric wavelengths have been routinely monitored since the 1950 s, thereby offering prospects for building proxies that may be better tailored to space weather needs. Here we advocate the 30 cm flux (F30) as a proxy that is more sensitive than F10.7 to longer wavelengths in the UV and show that it improves the response of the thermospheric density to solar forcing, as modelled with DTM (Drag Temperature Model). In particular, the model bias drops on average by 0–20% when replacing F10.7 by F30; it is also more stable (the standard deviation of the bias is 15–40% smaller) and the density variation at the the solar rotation period is reproduced with a 35–50% smaller error. We compare F30 to other solar proxies and discuss its assets and limitations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (12) ◽  
pp. 1159-1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter Benjamin Kotzé

Abstract. In this paper we use wavelets and Lomb–Scargle spectral analysis techniques to investigate the changing pattern of the different harmonics of the 27-day solar rotation period of the AE (auroral electrojet) index during various phases of different solar cycles between 1960 and 2014. Previous investigations have revealed that the solar minimum of cycles 23–24 exhibited strong 13.5- and 9.0-day recurrence in geomagnetic data in comparison to the usual dominant 27.0-day synodic solar rotation period. Daily mean AE indices are utilized to show how several harmonics of the 27-day recurrent period change during every solar cycle subject to a 95 % confidence rule by performing a wavelet analysis of each individual year's AE indices. Results show that particularly during the solar minimum of 23–24 during 2008 the 27-day period is no longer detectable above the 95 % confidence level. During this interval geomagnetic activity is now dominated by the second (13.5-day) and third (9.0-day) harmonics. A Pearson correlation analysis between AE and various spherical harmonic coefficients describing the solar magnetic field during each Carrington rotation period confirms that the solar dynamo has been dominated by an unusual combination of sectorial harmonic structure during 23–24, which can be responsible for the observed anomalously low solar activity. These findings clearly show that, during the unusual low-activity interval of 2008, auroral geomagnetic activity was predominantly driven by high-speed solar wind streams originating from multiple low-latitude coronal holes distributed at regular solar longitude intervals.


2018 ◽  
Vol 620 ◽  
pp. A91 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Ďurech ◽  
J. Hanuš

Context. In addition to stellar data, Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) also contains accurate astrometry and photometry of about 14 000 asteroids covering 22 months of observations. Aims. We used Gaia asteroid photometry to reconstruct rotation periods, spin axis directions, and the coarse shapes of a subset of asteroids with enough observations. One of our aims was to test the reliability of the models with respect to the number of data points and to check the consistency of these models with independent data. Another aim was to produce new asteroid models to enlarge the sample of asteroids with known spin and shape. Methods. We used the lightcurve inversion method to scan the period and pole parameter space to create final shape models that best reproduce the observed data. To search for the sidereal rotation period, we also used a simpler model of a geometrically scattering triaxial ellipsoid. Results. By processing about 5400 asteroids with at least 10 observations in DR2, we derived models for 173 asteroids, 129 of which are new. Models of the remaining asteroids were already known from the inversion of independent data, and we used them for verification and error estimation. We also compared the formally best rotation periods based on Gaia data with those derived from dense lightcurves. Conclusions. We show that a correct rotation period can be determined even when the number of observations N is less than 20, but the rate of false solutions is high. For N > 30, the solution of the inverse problem is often successful and the parameters are likely to be correct in most cases. These results are very promising because the final Gaia catalogue should contain photometry for hundreds of thousands of asteroids, typically with several tens of data points per object, which should be sufficient for reliable spin reconstruction.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-51
Author(s):  
Yonatan Givon ◽  
Chaim I. Garfinkel ◽  
Ian White

AbstractAn intermediate complexity General Circulation Model is used to investigate the transient response of the NH winter stratosphere to modulated ultraviolet (UV) radiation by imposing a step-wise, deliberately exaggerated UV perturbation and analyzing the lagged response. Enhanced UV radiation is accompanied by an immediate warming of the tropical upper stratosphere. The warming then spreads into the winter subtropics due to an accelerated Brewer Dobson Circulation in the tropical upper stratosphere. The poleward meridional velocity in the subtropics leads to an increase in zonal wind in midlatitudes between 20N and 50N due to Coriolis torque. The increase in mid-latitude zonal wind is accompanied by a dipole in Eliassen-Palm flux convergence, with decreased convergence near the winter pole and increased convergence in mid-latitudes (where winds are strengthening due to the Coriolis torque); this dipole subsequently extends the anomalous westerlies to subpolar latitudes within the first ten days. The initial radiatively-driven acceleration of the Brewer-Dobson circulation due to enhanced shortwave absorption is replaced in the subpolar winter stratosphere by a wave-driven deceleration of the Brewer-Dobson circulation, and after a month the wave-driven deceleration of the Brewer-Dobson circulation encompasses most of the winter stratosphere. Approximately a month after UV is first modified, a significant poleward jet shift is evident in the troposphere. The results of this study may have implications for the observed stratospheric and tropospheric responses to solar variability associated with the 27-day solar rotation period, and also to solar variability on longer timescales.


1988 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
pp. 561-575
Author(s):  
Arthur N. Cox

This review of the conference will necessarily consider the seismological data implications for only stellar astrophysics. While there are some aspects of this conference that interface with subjects like relativity, gravity, stellar systems, studies of chaos, etc., these will not be discussed here. What we are doing here is discussing the interiors of stars. We want to learn about their masses and composition structures. Pulsation periods can be used to measure stellar mean densities. Further details that seem accessible are the solar rotation speed versus depth and latitude and the structure of both solar and stellar atmospheres.Most of the contributions at this conference dealt with the hard problems of our understanding oscillations of the sun. As we shall see in many cases, the problems in understanding the stars by observing their pulsation periods are even more difficult. Similarities and differences between helioseismology and asteroseismology will be a principal theme of this review.


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