Preserving a Unique Archive for Long‐Term Solar Variability Studies

Webb, D. F.; Gibson, S. E.; Hewins, Ian; McFadden, Robert; Emery, B. A.; Denig, W. F.; McIntosh, P. S.

doi:10.1002/2017sw001740

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The overall science objective which is enabled by the newly processed McIntosh Archive (McA) maps is to investigate the long-term variability of solar surface features. Our work highlights understanding the sources and evolution of active regions, CHs, filaments and PILs, how the rotation rates of these features vary over SCs, and the long-term variation of the toroidal and poloidal components of the magnetic field and their connection to the interior dynamo (see also Webb et al, 2017).…”

Section: Science Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Global Solar Magnetic Field Evolution Over 4 Solar Cycles: Use of the McIntosh Archive

Webb

Gibson

Hewins

et al. 2018

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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The McIntosh Archive consists of a set of hand-drawn solar Carrington maps created by Patrick McIntosh from 1964 to 2009. McIntosh used mainly Hα, He-I 10830 Å and photospheric magnetic measurements from both ground-based and NASA satellite observations. With these he traced polarity inversion lines (PILs), filaments, sunspots and plage and, later, coronal holes over a ∼45-year period. This yielded a unique record of synoptic maps of features associated with the large-scale solar magnetic field over four complete solar cycles. We first discuss how these and similar maps have been used in the past to investigate long-term solar variability. Then we describe our work in preserving and digitizing this archive, developing a digital, searchable format, and creating a website and an archival repository at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Next we show examples of how the data base can be utilized for scientific applications. Finally, we present some preliminary results on the solar-cycle evolution of the solar magnetic field, including the polar field reversal process, the evolution of active longitudes, and the role of differential solar rotation.

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Section: Science Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our method is also discussed inWebb et al (2017).Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences | www.frontiersin.org…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Solar Magnetic Field Evolution Over 4 Solar Cycles: Use of the McIntosh Archive

Webb

Gibson

Hewins

et al. 2018

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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“…In this paper, we analyze observational data preserved in the McIntosh archive (McA: Gibson et al 2016;Webb et al 2017) containing positional information of various observational features such as filaments, PILs, coronal holes, sunspots and plages during solar cycles 20 to 23. We mainly focus on the variation of filament length and its hemispheric asymmetry.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Association of Filaments, Polarity Inversion Lines, and Coronal Hole Properties with the Sunspot Cycle: An Analysis of the McIntosh Database

Mazumder

Bhowmik

Nandy

2018

ApJ

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Filaments and coronal holes, two principal features observed in the solar corona are sources of space weather variations. Filament formation is closely associated with polarity inversion lines (PIL) on the solar photosphere which separate positive and negative polarities of the surface magnetic field. The origin of coronal holes is governed by largescale unipolar magnetic patches on the photosphere from where open magnetic field lines extend to the heliosphere. We study properties of filaments, PILs and coronal holes in solar cycles 20, 21, 22 and 23 utilizing the McIntosh archive. We detect a prominent cyclic behavior of filament length, PIL length, and coronal hole area with significant correspondence with the solar magnetic cycle. The spatio-temporal evolution of the geometric centers of filaments shows a butterfly-like structure and distinguishable pole-ward migration of long filaments during cycle maxima. We identify this rush to the poles of filaments to be co-temporal with the initiation of polar field reversal as gleaned from Mount Wilson and Wilcox Solar Observatory polar field observations and quantitatively establish their temporal correspondence. We analyze the filament tilt angle distribution to constrain their possible origins. Majority of the filaments exhibit negative and positive tilt angles in the northern and the southern hemispheres, respectively -strongly suggesting that their formation is governed by the overall large-scale magnetic field distribution on the solar photosphere and not by the small-scale intra-active region magnetic field configurations. We also investigate the hemispheric asymmetry in filaments, PILs, and coronal holes. We find that the hemispheric asymmetry in filaments and PILs are positively correlated -whereas coronal hole asymmetry is uncorrelated -with sunspot area asymmetry.

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“…In this work we have used data from the McIntosh archive (McA) (Gibson et al (2016) Webb et al (2017)) for our analyses. Patrick McIntosh, a scientist in NOAA's Space Center in Boulder created hand-drawn Carrington maps (from 1964 to 2009) using both ground and space based observations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Properties of Coronal Holes in Solar Cycle 21-23 using McIntosh archive

2018

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We study the properties of coronal holes during solar cycle 21-23 from the McIntosh archive. In the spatial distribution of coronal hole area we find that there is a sharp increase in coronal hole area at high latitude in agreement with expected open flux configuration there. In overall spatiotemporal distribution of coronal hole centroids, we find the dominance of high latitude coronal holes except for the maximum of the solar cycle, when coronal holes mostly appear in low latitudes. This is in agreement with the expected solar cycle evolution of surface magnetic flux.

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Preserving a Unique Archive for Long‐Term Solar Variability Studies

Cited by 9 publications

References 23 publications

Global Solar Magnetic Field Evolution Over 4 Solar Cycles: Use of the McIntosh Archive

Global Solar Magnetic Field Evolution Over 4 Solar Cycles: Use of the McIntosh Archive

The Association of Filaments, Polarity Inversion Lines, and Coronal Hole Properties with the Sunspot Cycle: An Analysis of the McIntosh Database

Properties of Coronal Holes in Solar Cycle 21-23 using McIntosh archive

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