ENIGMA OF THE SOLAR CYCLE 4 STILL NOT RESOLVED

In this paper, the problem of the unusually long 4th sunspot cycle is discussed: was the length of this cycle exceptionally large or really composed of two short cycles? Analyzing the latitude-time diagram in 1784-1798, reconstructed from the drawings by Staudacher, Hamilton, and Gimingham, we sugge...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2011-08, Vol.736 (2), p.115-jQuery1323905508083='48'
Main Authors: Zolotova, N. V., Ponyavin, D. I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR CYCLE
STARS
STARSPOTS
STELLAR ACTIVITY
SUN
SUNSPOTS
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Summary:In this paper, the problem of the unusually long 4th sunspot cycle is discussed: was the length of this cycle exceptionally large or really composed of two short cycles? Analyzing the latitude-time diagram in 1784-1798, reconstructed from the drawings by Staudacher, Hamilton, and Gimingham, we suggest that the 4th cycle length can be a result of an impulse of activity in the northern hemisphere during the descending phase. The local minimum in 1793 can be just a gap between impulses of the solar activity, similar to the declining phase in the southern hemisphere of the long cycle 20. The long declining phase of cycle 4 is that the minimum in 1793 may also be due to lack of data. We have shown that sparse observations of the sunspots, in the second half of cycle 4, do not prove the existence of the 'lost' tiny cycle from 1793 to 1800.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/736/2/115