Similar to Fig. 5, this plot shows the evolution of the slope. Here, the slope is plotted against a function of the normalised magnetic flux. This normalised flux is defined as the ratio of the AR flux to the peak flux that region achieves. The peak flux and the ratios are found separately for the positive and negative magnetic polarities. To distinguish between emergence and decay phases, the function f(F), defined by Eq. (12), is used in abscissa. The emergence phase is in the range [0,1] and the decay phase is for abscissa >1. Second-order polynomials were least-squares fitted; they show the general trend.