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The Butterfly diagram leopard skin pattern

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2011

Maurizio Ternullo
Maurizio Ternullo*
Affiliation:
INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, v. S. Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italia email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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A time-latitude diagram where spotgroups are given proportional relevance to their area is presented. The diagram reveals that the spotted area distribution is higly dishomogeneous, most of it being concentrated in few, small portions (“knots”) of the Butterfly Diagram; because of this structure, the BD may be properly described as a cluster of knots. The description, assuming that spots scatter around the “spot mean latitude” steadily drifting equatorward, is challenged. Indeed, spots cluster around at as many latitudes as knots; a knot may appear at either lower or higher latitudes than previous ones, in a seemingly random way; accordingly, the spot mean latitude abruptly drifts equatorward or even poleward at any knot activation, in spite of any smoothing procedure. Preliminary analyses suggest that the activity splits, in any hemisphere, into two or more distinct “activity waves”, drifting equatorward at a rate higher than the spot zone as a whole.

Keywords

Sun: activitysun: magnetic fieldssun: sunspots
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 6 , Symposium S273: The Physics of Sun and Star Spots , August 2010 , pp. 195 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

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