• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.139-148
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• 2022

We explore the latitudinal distribution of sunspots and pursue to establish a correlation between the statistical parameters of the latitudinal distribution of sunspots and characteristics of solar activity. For this purpose, we have statistically analyzed the daily sunspot areas and latitudes observed from May in 1874 to September in 2016. As results, we confirm that the maximum of the monthly averaged International Sunspot Number (ISN) strongly correlates with the mean number of sunspots per day, while the maximum ISN strongly anti-correlates with the number of spotless days. We find that both the maximum ISN and the mean number of sunspots per day strongly correlate with the the average latitude, the standard deviation, the skewness of the the latitudinal distribution of sunspots, while they appears to marginally correlate with the kurtosis. It is also found that the northern and southern hemispheres seem to show a correlated behavior in a different way when sunspots appearing in the northern and southern hemispheres are examined separately.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.87.2-87.2
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• 2011

Proper motion of sunspots in several active regions was studied to detect their indicator on flare onset, using data from the Solar Flare Telescope at Mitaka (four flaring active regions), TRACE (e.g. NOAA 0424, M1.7 flare on 5 Aug. 2003) and Hinode (e.g. NOAA 10930, X3.4 flare on 13 Dec. 2006). The proper motion of individual sunspots was derived using a local correlation tracking method. As a result, we found that the sunspots that are located under or close to a part of chromospheric flaring patches showed a change in their moving direction prior to the flare onset. The change in their movements took place a half to two hours before the flare onset. On the other hand, sunspots in non-flaring areas or non-flaring active regions did not show this kind of change. It is likely, therefore, that if a sunspot shows the particular movement, a chromospheric flare is to occur in its nearby region. In the most active regions, the part of flare ribbons was located on an emerging bipolar pair of sunspots. The disturbance in the usual motion of the bipolar sunspots and in other sunspots as well can be interpreted as a sign of magnetic shear development leading to final magnetic energy buildup before its sudden release. We suggest that the change in sunspot motion in a short time scale prior to the flare onset can be regarded as a good indicator in predicting the onset timing and location of chromospheric flares.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.523-523
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• 2000

We have developed a method to build time series prediction models by Genetic Programming (GP). Our proposed CP includes two new techniques. One is the parameter optimization algorithm, and the other is the new mutation operator. In this paper, the sunspot prediction experiment by our proposed CP was performed. The sunspot prediction is good benchmark, because many researchers have predicted them with various kinds of models. We make three experiments. The first is to compare our proposed method with the conventional methods. The second is to investigate about the relation between a model-building period and prediction precision. In the first and the second experiments, the long-term data of annual sunspots are used. The third is to try the prediction using monthly sunspots. The annual sunspots are a mean of the monthly sunspots. The behaviors of the monthly sunspot cycles in tile annual sunspot data become invisible. In the long-term data of the monthly sunspots, the behavior appears and is complicated. We estimate that the monthly sunspot prediction is more difficult than the annual sunspot prediction. The usefulness of our method in time series prediction is verified by these experiments.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.325-331
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• 2015

We study an association between the duration of solar activity and characteristics of the latitude distribution of sunspots by means of center-of-latitude (COL) of sunspots observed during the period from 1878 to 2008 spanning solar cycles 12 to 23. We first calculate COL by taking the area-weighted mean latitude of sunspots for each calendar month to determine the latitudinal distribution of COL of sunspots appearing in the long and short cycles separately. The data set for the long solar cycles consists of the solar cycles 12, 13, 14, 20, and 23. The short solar cycles include the solar cycles 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, and 22. We then fit a double Gaussian function to compare properties of the latitudinal distribution resulting from the two data sets. Our main findings are as follows: (1) The main component of the double Gaussian function does not show any significant change in the central position and in the full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM), except in the amplitude. They are all centered at ~ 11° with FWHM of ~ 5°. (2) The secondary component of the double Gaussian function at higher latitudes seems to differ in that even though their width remains fixed at ~ 4°, their central position peaks at ~ 22.1° for the short cycles and at ~ 20.7° for the long cycles with quite small errors. (3) No significant correlation could be established between the duration of an individual cycle and the parameters of the double Gaussian. Finally, we conclude by briefly discussing the implications of these findings on the issue of the cycle 4 concerning a lost cycle.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.79.4-80
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• 2021

Sunspots' subsurface structure is an important subject to explain their stability and energy transport. Previous studies suggested two models for the subsurface structure of sunspots: monolithic model and cluster model. However, it is not revealed which model is more plausible so far. We obtain clues about the subsurface structure of sunspots by analyzing the motion of umbral flashes observed by the IRIS Mg II 2796Å slit-jaw images (SJI). The umbral flashes are believed as shock phenomena developed from upward propagating slow magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves. If the MHD waves are generated by convective motion below sunspots, the apparent origin of the umbral flashes known as oscillation center will indicate the horizontal position of convection cells. Thus, the distribution of the oscillation centers is useful to investigate the subsurface structure of sunspots. We analyze the spatial distribution of oscillation centers in the merged sunspot. As a result, we found that the oscillation centers distributed over the whole umbra regardless of the convergent interface between two merged sunspots. It implies that the subsurface structure of the sunspot is not much different from the convergent interface, and supports that many field-free gaps may exist below the umbra as the cluster model expected. For more concrete results, we should confirm that the oscillation centers determined by the umbral flashes accurately reflect the position of wave sources.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.9-24
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• 2009

We compare the relation among the annual distribution of sunspots: coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and geomagnetic storms and North-South asymmetry during solar cycle 23. For this purpose, we calculate correlation coefficients between (i) annual distribution and N-S asymmetry of CMEs - sunspots (ii) distribution of CMEs - occurrence number of geomagnetic storms (iii) distribution of sunspots - occurrence number of geomagnetic storms. We find that (i) the annual distribution of total CMEs has good correlation with distribution of annual average of sunspots but poor correlation with N-S asymmetry of sunspots, N-S asymmetry of CMEs has good correlation with N-S asymmetry of sunspots: (ii) total and N-S asymmetry of CMEs have poor correlation with occurrence number of geomagnetic storms, it's, however, well correlated with the classified groups of CMEs (Ap, Dst and an indices vs. fast CMEs($\upsilon$ > $1000kms^{-1}$), Dst index vs. Halo CMEs), and (iii) sunspot numbers and area are correlated with occurrence number of geomagnetic storms. We conclude that annual distribution of CMEs and sunspots have well correlated with geomagnetic storms, N-S asymmetry of CMEs and sunspots have poor correlated with the geomagnetic storms.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 2011

The latitudinal variation of sunspots appearing during the period from 1874 to 2009 has been studied in terms of centerof-latitude (COL). The butterfly diagram has been used to study the evolution of the magnetic field and the dynamics at the bottom of the solar convection zone. Short-term periodicities have been of particular interest, in that they are somehow related to the structure and dynamics of the solar interior. We thus have focused our investigation on shortterm periodicities. We first calculated COL by averaging the latitude of sunspots with the weight function in area. Then, we analyzed the time series of COL using the wavelet transform technique. We found that a periodicity of ~5 years is the most dominant feature in the time series of COL, with the exception of the ~11 year solar cycle itself. This periodicity can be easily understood by considering small humps between the minima in the area-weighted butterfly diagram. However, we find that periodicities of ~1.3 (0.064), ~1.5 (0.056), or ~1.8 (0.046) years ($\frac{1}{month}$), month ), which have been previously suggested as evidence of links between the changing structure of the sunspot zone and the tachocline rotation rate oscillations, are insignificant and inconsistent. We therefore conclude that the only existing short-term periodicity is of ~5 years, and that periodicities of ~1.3, ~1.5, or ~1.8 years are likely to be artifacts due to random noise of small sunspots.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.15-17
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• 1973

Observational implication for a possible presence of a magnetic monopole-like field in the visible layers of sunspots is examined by constructing a magnetostatic model of sunspots with a monopole-like field configuration. The resulting monopole approximation for a magnetic structure of spots is found to be compatible with the observations within a certain limited range of optical depth, which happens to lie mostly in its visible range.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 1970

The earlier findings on the radiative heating through the umbral walls in large sunspots are further investigated. No significant evidence for the umbra! heating has been found in small-sized sunspot umbrae.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.55-66
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• 2018

The solar magnetic field plays a central role in the field of solar research, both theoretically and practically. Sunspots are an important observational constraint since they are considered a discernable tracer of emerged magnetic flux tubes, providing the longest running records of solar magnetic activity. In this presentation, we first review the statistical properties of the latitudinal distribution of sunspots and discuss their implications. The phase difference between paired wings of the butterfly diagram has been revealed. Sunspots seem to emerge with the exponential distribution on top of slowly varying trends by periods of ~11 years, which is considered multiplicative rather than additive. We also present a concept for the center-of-latitude (COL) and its use. With this, one may sort out a traditional butterfly diagram and find new features. It is found that the centroid of the COL does not migrate monotonically toward the equator, appearing to form an 'active latitude'. Furthermore, distributions of the COL as a function of latitude depend on solar activity and the solar North-South asymmetry. We believe that these findings serve as crucial diagnostic tools for any potential model of the solar dynamo. Finally, we find that as the Sun modulates the amount of observed galactic cosmic ray influx, the solar North-South asymmetry seems to contribute to the relationship between the solar variability and terrestrial climate change.