Sunspot activity

Sir, you mentioned that sunspot activity reaches a maximum once every 11 years. What does that mean ... 

As we discussed, numerous neutrinos are produced by the proton-proton chain in the Sun. However, neutrinos interact only very weakly with matter. Every second over 100 billion neutrinos from the Sun pass through every square inch of our bodies and virtually none of them interact with us. Because neutrinos interact so weakly with matter, detecting them is very difficult. For example, in the first solar neutrino detection experiment, scientist Ray Davis used 100,000 gallons of cleaning fluid (for the chlorine the fluid contained) in a detector located in a South Dakota gold mine. Davis expected to detect on average of 1.8 solar neutrinos per day. Instead, Davis s observed rate has consistently been much lower than this. Also, the long-term rate, plotted as a function of time, shows an anticorrelation between neutrino rate and sunspot activity. 

The flux of cosmic rays varies with sunspot activity and other parameters, and the flux reaching the Earth s surface varies with latitude and altitude. Furthermore, reactions with 35C1 produce some 36C1, which causes a dependence in the distance from the ocean. Altogether, the production of 36Cl varies spatially by a factor of up to five. Hence, the 36C1 production rate is site specific and has to be determined for each study site, as outlined later. 

As solar energy output and radiocarbon production are both tied to sunspot activity, it might be possible to reconstruct past ir-radiance variations from the perturbations in the... 

The advent of satellite observations of the solar output made it clear that there is indeed a tie between energy output and sunspot activity (see Figure 10). However, as these variations are very small and the record covers only the last two decades, this finding made only a modest impact with regard to interest in the Sun as a driver of Earth climate fluctuations. 

Sunspot number— An international estimate of the total level of sunspot activity on the side of the sun facing the earth, tabulated at the Zurich Observatory. Observations from around the world are sent to Zurich, where they are converted into an official sunspot number. Since the sun rotates, the sunspot number changes daily. 

Low energy cosmic rays entering the solar system are convected away from the Sun by the solar wind. At lower energies solar flares contribute most of the particles, which tend to mask the galactic contribution. During periods of maximum sunspot activity, solar flares sporadically contaminate the solar system with these low energy particles. The tracks and induced radioactivity that these particles have been found to produce just below the surface of samples of Moon rock, indicate that flares have been a... 

Long-term variations, particularly those over the 11-year cycle of sunspot activity and perhaps the 22-year magnetic field cycle. 

Even the distance from the earth to the sun and the level of sunspot activity can affect sunlight, especially the UV wavelengths, significantly. 

A relatively dark, sharply defined region on the solar disk, marked by an umbra approximately 2000K cooler than the effective photospheric temperature, surrounded by a less dark but also sharply bounded penumbra. The average spot diameter is about 3700 km, but can range up to 245,000 km. Most sunspots are found in groups of two or more, but they can occur singly. Sunspots are cyclic, with a period of approximately 11 years. The quantitative description of sunspot activity is called the Wolf sunspot number, denoted R. The Wolf sunspot number is also referred to as Wolfer sunspot number, Zurich relative sunspot number, or relative sunspot number, surface air temperature... 

Mimetic storm A violent local variation in the earth s magnetic field, usually the result of sunspot activity. Ms etism Aproperty of iron and some other materials by which external magnetic fields are maintained, other magnets being thereby attracted or repelled. 

The K-II data were also of interest in connection with a possible time variation of the solar neutrino flux because the data-taking time extended over a period in which sunspot activity, reflecting the solar magnetic cycle, rose steeply from a minimum value at the end of solar magnetic cycle 21 to a maximum value approximately 15 times larger at the peak of solar cycle 22, as shown in Fig. 6. The time dependence of the K-II data is shown in Fig. 7, in which the data are separated into five time intervals, each approximately 200 live detector days. The reduced chi-squared value calculated under the assumption of a constant flux with respect to time is 0.40, which corresponds to a confidence level of 81% in the validity of the assumption. 

Figure 7.4. Monthly sunspot activity from year 1750 to 2007.

Listing 7.2. Code segment for analyzing solar sunspot activity with a linear model for years of maximum and minimum sunspot activity. 

File list 5.lua / Fourier analysis of sunspot activity require"Fourier" jk,yyd,ssd, ), ... 

Listing 7.5. Code for Fourier analysis of sunspot activity. 

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