Physics
Scientific paper
Jul 1987
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987stin...8813210b&link_type=abstract
Unknown
Physics
Laws, Solar Activity, Solar Physics, Sunspot Cycle, Buoyancy, Fourier Analysis, Magnetic Effects, Nonlinear Systems, Oscillations, Sunspots
Scientific paper
Annual mean sunspot numbers R(t) since 1700 show evidence of a nonlinear effect, first evidenced by the detection of third harmonic in R +/- (t), the alternating representation of the magnetic (22 year) cycle of solar activity. The form of the nonlinearity proves to be a three-halves law R(t) = 100(absolute value Rlin (t)/83) to the 3/2 power, where Rlin (t), also an alternating quantity, is a presumed underlying or linearized sunspot number. The nonlinearity is of such a nature as to cause strong semicycles to be sharper than sinusoidal and to produce the inflexion in R +/- (t) noted at sunspot minimum. A search for a physical explanation of a three-halves law reveals that just such a law results because large sunspot groups, such as occur around strong sunspot maxima, enter into the sunspot number, as conventionally defined, over more days than small groups, simply because large groups last longer. Semicycle asymmetry, which cannot result from a simple nonlinear law, is here ascribed to magnetic buoyancy acting preferentially on the antinodal layers of a traveling wave. Profiles for semicycles of different strengths have been constructed on the assumption that the underlying influence is sinusoidal. Each sinusoid is distorted by the three-halves law, and then made unsymmetrical by applying a buoyancy theory for magnetized plasma rising against viscous drag. The majority of past semicycles, including those of the 18th century, can be matched quite well by the artificial profiles, a conclusion that supports the idea of an underlying influence that is sinusoidal, and the hypothesis that sunspots result from an upward traveling wave from a submerged 22-year oscillator.
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