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Does the Sun have a face?
Author(s) -
Tuominen I.,
Pelt J.,
Brooke J.,
Korpi M.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.200710845
Subject(s) - greenwich , sunspot , differential rotation , rotation (mathematics) , helioseismology , solar rotation , geodesy , physics , longitude , kinematics , zoom , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , astronomy , meteorology , geography , computer science , latitude , solar physics , geology , computer vision , optics , classical mechanics , stars , quantum mechanics , magnetic field , soil science , lens (geology)
Abstract We analyse the Greenwich sunspot data with methods using kinematic frames, which allow to detect and filter off any systematic motion, such as differential rotation, of the longitudinal activity traces. The aim is to check the recent claim of the existence of century‐scale persistent solar active longitudes exhibiting antisolar differential rotation. As a result, we find no evidence for such features. Nevertheless, as is well known, the sunspot distribution is highly clustered in longitude (activity nests); the simple cell‐counting statistics allows us to estimate the coherence time of these features, giving roughly10 Carrington rotations. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)