Measurements of Global Magnetic Properties of Sunspots

Speaker: Jing Li

Sep 12, 2023 11:00 PDT

Solar activity regulates the magnetic field in heliospheric space, and has enormous influence on the geomagnetic environment. The most predictable solar activity is the 11-year activity cycle, or 22-year magnetic cycle. This periodic activity is driven by a solar dynamo which can be observed by many surface phenomena.

I will present a large study of sunspot physical properties measured using magnetographs on Mt. Wilson, MDI/SoHO, and HMI/SDO from 1974 to 2018, a 44 year period covering two complete magnetic cycles. I will discuss the distribution of sunspot physical parameters including magnetic tilt angles, magnetic flux, pole separation and the statistics of Hale and anti-Hale sunspots. I will also discuss the hemispheric dependence of these parameters.


Watch the recording.