ON THE 'EXTENDED' SOLAR CYCLE IN CORONAL EMISSION

Journal Article · Thu Jun 10 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/716/1/693· OSTI ID:21451101

Robbrecht, E; Wang, Y -M; Sheeley, N R

Butterfly diagrams (latitude-time plots) of coronal emission show a zone of enhanced brightness that appears near the poles just after solar maximum and migrates toward lower latitudes; a bifurcation seems to occur at sunspot minimum, with one branch continuing to migrate equatorward with the sunspots of the new cycle and the other branch heading back to the poles. The resulting patterns have been likened to those seen in torsional oscillations and have been taken as evidence for an extended solar cycle lasting over {approx}17 yr. In order to clarify the nature of the overlapping bands of coronal emission, we construct butterfly diagrams from green-line simulations covering the period 1967-2009 and from 19.5 nm and 30.4 nm observations taken with the Extreme-Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope during 1996-2009. As anticipated from earlier studies, we find that the high-latitude enhancements mark the footpoint areas of closed loops with one end rooted outside the evolving boundaries of the polar coronal holes. The strong underlying fields were built up over the declining phase of the cycle through the poleward transport of active-region flux by the surface meridional flow. Rather than being a precursor of the new-cycle sunspot activity zone, the high-latitude emission forms a physically distinct, U-shaped band that curves upward again as active-region fields emerge at midlatitudes and reconnect with the receding polar-hole boundaries. We conclude that the so-called extended cycle in coronal emission is a manifestation not of early new-cycle activity, but of the poleward concentration of old-cycle trailing-polarity flux by meridional flow.

• OSTI ID: 21451101
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 716; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ATMOSPHERES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EMISSION
EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
MAGNETISM
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
MATHEMATICS
PHOTON EMISSION
RADIATIONS
SIMULATION
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR ATMOSPHERE
SOLAR CORONA
SOLAR CYCLE
STARS
STARSPOTS
STELLAR ACTIVITY
STELLAR ATMOSPHERES
STELLAR CORONAE
SUN
SUNSPOTS
TELESCOPES
TOPOLOGY
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION