Left column, from top to bottom: distribution of different variables characterising activity for ΔT_spot1 and for different time series: complete without noise (solid lines), degraded sampling without noise (dashed lines), and degraded sampling with noise (dotted lines). Variables are the angle at which the skewness is highest (90° and 270° represent the Y direction), inclination for simulations in which the rms in this direction is higher than in the orthogonal direction, and inclination for simulations in which the rms in this direction is lower than in the orthogonal direction. Right column: same for ΔT_spot2.