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Issue A&A
Volume 503, Number 1, August III 2009
Page(s) 197 - 201
Section The Sun
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200811430
Published online 15 June 2009

A&A 503, 197-201 (2009)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200811430

Long-term asymmetry in the wings of the butterfly diagram

N. V. Zolotova1, 2, D. I. Ponyavin1, N. Marwan2, 3, and J. Kurths3

1  Institute of Physics, Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
    e-mail: [ned;ponyavin]@geo.phys.spbu.ru
2  Interdisciplinary Center for Dynamics of Complex Systems, University of Potsdam, Germany
3  Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany
    e-mail: [marwan;juergen.kurths]@pik-potsdam.de

Received 27 November 2008 / Accepted 12 May 2009

Abstract
Aims. Sunspot distribution in the northern and southern solar hemispheres exibit striking synchronous behaviour on the scale of a Schwabe cycle. However, sometimes the bilateral symmetry of the Butterfly diagram relative to the solar equatorial plane breaks down. The investigation of this phenomenon is important to explaining the almost-periodic behaviour of solar cycles.
Methods. We use cross-recurrence plots for the study of the time-varying phase asymmetry of the northern and southern hemisphere and compare our results with the latitudinal distribution of the sunspots.
Results. We observe a long-term persistence of phase leading in one of the hemispheres, which lasts almost 4 solar cycles and probably corresponds to the Gleissberg cycle. Long-term variations in the hemispheric-leading do not demonstrate clear periodicity but are strongly anti-correlated with the long-term variations in the magnetic equator.


Key words: Sun: activity -- Sun: sunspots -- Sun: magnetic fields



© ESO 2009


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