Investigation of the Hemispheric Asymmetry in Solar Flare Index During Solar Cycle 21 – 24 from the Kandilli Observatory

• Published in: Solar physics 2020-07, Vol.295 (7), Article 100
• Main Authors: Roy, Soumya, Prasad, Amrita, Ghosh, Koushik, Panja, Subhash Chandra, Patra, Sankar Narayan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astrophysics and Astroparticles; Asymmetry; Atmospheric Sciences; Correlation analysis; Cross correlation; Empirical analysis; Fourier transforms; Observatories; Periodicities; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quasi-biennial oscillation; Solar cycle; Solar flares; Solar physics; Southern Hemisphere; Space Exploration and Astronautics; Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics
• ISSN: 0038-0938; 1573-093X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11207-020-01656-6

The hemispheric asymmetry of the solar-flare index during 1976 – 2018 from the Kandilli Observatory is studied in this investigation. The temporal duration covers Solar Cycles 21 – 23 and almost the whole of Solar Cycle 24. Different methodologies, such as cross-correlation analysis, rescaled-range analysis, empirical mode decomposition, and date-compensated discrete Fourier transform, have been used on the hemispheric solar-flare index as well as on absolute asymmetry data to study various inherent characteristics. We observed that: i) the temporal characteristics in the northern and southern hemispheres are different during the progression of a solar cycle; ii) the T-test indicates that Solar Cycles 21 and 23 do not have any dominant hemispheric effect, whereas Solar Cycle 22 and 24 have South-dominated hemispheric characteristics; iii) the southern hemisphere is leading by ten, three, and one months during Solar Cycles 21, 22, and 24, respectively, and for Solar Cycle 23 the hemispheres are in phase; iv) anti-persistence as well as short memory-dependent characteristics are present in both the hemispheric solar-flare index and the absolute asymmetry data; v) all of the time-series data have well-known periods of 11 years and 27 days as well as short-term periods around 7 days and 14 days. Apart from those, several mid-term periodicities such as the Rieger periodicity and quasi-biennial oscillations (QBOs) are also found in both hemispheric solar-flare index as well as absolute asymmetry index data; vi) the Waldmeier effect is also validated using solar-flare-index data. These results will enrich our knowledge about the distribution of hemispheric asymmetry in solar-flare-index data and may reveal some valuable points about asymmetry behaviors.