Solar proton events during solar cycles 19, 20, and 21

Solar proton events have been studied for over thirty years and a great deal of lore has grown around them. It is the purpose of this paper to test some of this lore against the actual data. Data on solar proton events now exist for the period from 1956 to 1985 during which time 140 events took place in which the event integrated fluxes for protons of energy > 30 MeV was larger than 10⁵ particles cm^-2. We have studied statistical properties of event integrated fluxes for particles with energy > 10 MeV and for particles with energy > 30 MeV. Earlier studies based on a single solar cycle had resulted in a sharp division of events into ordinary and anomalously large events.Two such entirely separate distributions imply two entirely separate acceleration mechanisms, one common and the other very rare. We find that the sharp division is neither required nor justified by this larger sample. Instead the event intensity forms a smooth distribution for intensities up to the largest observed implying that any second acceleration mechanism cannot be rare. We have also studied the relation of event sizes to the sunspot number and the solar cycle phase. We find a clear bimodal variation of annual integrated flux with solar cycle phase but no statistically significant tendency for the large events to avoid sunspot maximum. We show there is almost no relation between the maximum sunspot number in a solar cycle and the solar cycle integrated flux. We also find that for annual sunspot numbers greater than 35 (i.e., non-minimum solar cycle conditions) there is no relation whatsoever between the annual sunspot numbers and annual integrated flux.     

Determination of solar Doppler widths by Goldberg's method

The so-called Goldberg or profile intercomparison method of determining Doppler widths from spectral line profiles was used to analyze a group of high quality solar profiles which were observed with the McMath solar telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The observations consisted of profiles of eight lines of calcium and chromium, made at either four or five positions on the solar disk.A depth dependence of solar microturbulence could not be derived by applying the Goldberg method to a single pair of lines at a single disk position. When the depth dependence was determined from line pairs at different disk positions, a depth dependent turbulence model was obtained. The final model was anisotropic with radial and tangential components increasing with depth in the atmosphere.Now at Teledyne Brown Engineering, Huntsville, Alabama.Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.     

Recurrence of solar activity: Evidence for active longitudes

The autocorrelation coefficients of the daily Wolf sunspot numbers over a period of 128 years reveal a number of interesting features of the variability of solar activity. In addition to establishing periodicities for the solar rotation, the solar activity cycle, and perhaps the Gleissberg Cycle, they suggest that active longitudes do exist, but with much greater strength and persistence in some solar cycles than in others. There is evidence for a variation in the solar rotation period, as measured by sunspot number, of as much as two days between different solar cycles.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

THE RESONANT ABSORPTION OF 5-MIN OSCILLATIONS IN THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE

The model calculations of 5-min solar oscillations are performed with consideration for the presence of canopy magnetic field in the solar chromosphere. It is shown that the occurrence of Alfvén resonances for 5-min oscillations in the solar chromosphere leads on the one hand to some change of the 5-min oscillation frequencies (up to a few µHz), and on the other hand to the heating of the chromosphere. The acoustic energy flux incoming to the chromosphere is of order 1 × 10 5 erg cm-2 s-1.     

Lines in the wavelength range λλ 4300–6700 Å with large stokes V amplitudes outside sunspots

A list of solar spectral lines in the wavelength 4300–6700 exhibiting large Stokes V amplitudes in observed spectra of active region plages and the quiet network is presented.Visiting astronomer at National Solar Observatory, operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.     

Evolution of Migrating Planet Pairs in Resonance

Numerical simulations of the evolution of planets or massive satellites captured in the 2/1 and 3/1 resonances, under the action of an anti-dissipative tidal force. The evolution of resonant trapped bodies show a richness of solutions: librations around stationary symmetric solutions with aligned periapses ( = 0) or anti-aligned periapses ( = ), librations around stationary asymmetric solutions in which the periapses configuration is fixed, but with taking values in a wide range of angles. Many of these solutions exist for large values of the eccentricities and, during the semimajor axes drift, the solutions show turnabouts from one configuration to another. The presented results are valid for other non-conservative anti-dissipative forces leading to adiabatic convergent migration and capture into one of these resonances.     

The rise of solar Cycle number 22

The new solar cycle, denoted Cycle 22, has risen faster than of any of the previous 21 cycles, indicating that the cycle is likely to be of large amplitude. Moreover, the rapid rise suggests that the cycle could be arriving early, perhaps similar to the phase advance which occurred during Cycles 1–4. The rapid early rise of Cycle 22 also suggests that there might be a connection with the period of extraordinarily low geomagnetic activity centred on 1980. If this is the case, then the suppression of geomagnetic activity is the first sign of a new cycle, in this case approximately 7 years prior to the official start of the cycle. This idea is consistent with recent ideas on the solar cycle and has significant implications for geomagnetic disturbance forecasting.     

Eclipse Observations of Compact Sources in the Outer Solar Corona

We report here on high angular resolution observations of solar noise storm sources at a frequency of 75 MHz. The data for the study were obtained at the Gauribidanur Radio Observatory (long.: 77°2612 E, lat.: 13°3612 N) about 100 km north of Bangalore, India, during the solar eclipse of 24 October 1995. Our main conclusion is that there are structures of angular size 2.5 arc min in the outer solar corona.     

INTERPRETING THE LARGE LIMB ERUPTION OF JULY 9, 1982

A time series of K3 spectroheliograms taken at the Coimbra Observatory exhibits an erupting loop on the east limb on July 9, 1982 in active region NOAA 3804. The Goddard SMM Hard X-Ray Burst Spectrometer (HXRBS) observations taken during this period reveal a hard X-ray flare occurring just before the loop eruption is observed, and SMS-GOES soft X-ray observations reveal a strong long-duration event (LDE) following the impulsive phase of the flare. A Solwind coronagram exhibits a powerful coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with the erupting loop. H flare and prominence observations as well as centimeter and decimeter radio observations of the event are also reviewed. A large, north–south-oriented quiescent prominence reported within the upper part of the CME expansion region may play a role in the eruption as well. The spatial and temporal correlations among these observations are examined in the light of two different current models for prominence eruption and CME activation: (1) The CME is triggered by the observed hard X-ray impulsive flare. (2) The CME is not triggered by a flare, and the observed soft X-ray flare is an LDE due to reconnection within the CME bubble. It is concluded that this event is probably of a mixed type that combines characteristics of models (1) and (2). The July 9 event is then compared to three other energetic CME and flare eruptions associated with the same active-region complex, all occurring in the period July 9 through September 4, 1982. It is noted that these four energetic events coincide with the final evolutionary phase of a long-lasting active-region complex, which is discussed in a companion paper (Bumba, Garcia, and Jordan, 1997). The paper concludes by addressing the solar flare myth controversy in the light of this work.     

On the totality of periodic motions in the meridian plane of a magnetic dipole

The structure of the periodic solutions of the Störmer problem, representing the magnetic field of the Earth, is examined by considering the equatorial oscillations of the charged particle and their vertical bifurcations with meridian periodic oscillations. An infinity of new families of simple-periodic oscillations are found to exist in the vicinity of the thalweg and four such new families are actually established by numerical integration.     

Calculations of proximity effects in close binary systems

The proximity effects in the light curves of close binary systems are investigated with the aid of facilities provided by a high-speed, digital computer. The treatment follows, to a large extent, that summarized by Kopal (1959) and makes extensive use of the alpha-functions and related integrals provided by that author. The ellipticity and reflection effects are studied individually and different expressions are checked and compared. Test data are drawn continually from the well known system SZ Cam for which a rectified (in a more realistic sense) light curve is ultimately produced.     

Coronal changes associated with a disappearing filament

This paper describes Skylab/ATM observations of the events associated with a disappearing filament near the center of the solar disk on January 18, 1974. As the filament disappeared, the nearby coronal plasma was heated to a temperature in excess of 6 × 10⁶K. A change in the pattern of coronal emission occurred during the 11/3 hr period that the soft X-ray flux was increasing. This change seemed to consist of the formation and apparent expansion of a loop-like coronal structure which remained visible until its passage around the west limb several days later. The time history of the X-ray and microwave radio flux displayed the well-known gradual-rise-and-fall (GRF) signature, suggesting that this January 18 event may have properties characteristic of a wide class of X-ray and radio events.In pursuit of this idea, we examined other spatially-resolved Skylab/ATM observations of long-duration X-ray events to see what characteristics they may have in common. Nineteen similar long-lived SOLRAD X-ray events having either the GRF or post-burst radio classification occurred during the nine-month Skylab mission. Sixteen of these occurred during HAO/ATM coronagraph observations, and 7 of these 16 events occurred during observations with both the NRL/ATM slitless spectrograph and the MSFC-A/ATM X-ray telescope. The tabulation of these events suggests that all long-lived SOLRAD X-ray bursts involve transients in the outer corona and that at least two-thirds of the bursts involve either the eruption or major activation of a prominence. Also, these observations indicate that long-lived SOLARD events are characterized by the appearance of new loops of emission in the lower corona during the declining phase of the X-ray emission. However, sometimes these loops disappear after the X-ray event (like the post-flare loops associated with a sporadic coronal condensation), and sometimes the loops remain indefinitely (like the emission from a permanent coronal condensation).Visiting Scientist, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, Ariz. 85726, U.S.A. operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.Presently located at NASA/MSFC, Space Sciences Laboratory, Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala. 35812, U. S.A.     

Using CN λ 3883 spectroheliograms to map weak photospheric magnetic fields

By photographically averaging time sequences of high-resolution CN 3883 spectroheliograms, the noise level due to the rapidly fluctuating intensity of the solar background has been reduced significantly. Very faint faculae that are lost in the noise on a single frame are easily visible on such an enhanced picture. A comparison between these enhanced spectroheliograms and a photoelectric magnetogram suggests that the brightness-magnetic field correlation extends to much weaker field strengths and fainter faculae than can be detected on a single, high quality CN 3883 spectroheliogram.Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.     

The spectra of near-vertical structures on the solar disk

Bright emission arches in the spectra of H and the Ca II (H and K lines) are identified as the spectroscopic picture of the chromospheric network as it appears near the solar limb. Analysis of the geometrical properties of these spectroscopic arches indicates that the average network is a diverging sheet with a divergence angle of 50°. This sheet extends to 2600 km and 2000 km as an opaque emission feature in H and the Ca II (H and K) lines, respectively.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Search for spectral line polarization in the solar vacuum ultraviolet

An instrument designed to record polarization in the region 120–150 nm of the solar spectrum was launched on the satellite Intercosmos-16, July 27, 1976. The aim was to search for resonance-line polarization that is caused by coherent scattering. Oblique reflections at gold- and aluminium-coated mirrors in the instrument were used to analyze the polarization. The average polarization of the L solar limb was found to be less than 1%. It is indicated how future improved VUV polarization measurements may be a diagnostic tool for chromospheric and coronal magnetic fields and for the three-dimensional geometry of the emitting structures.On leave from Lund Observatory, S-22224 Lund, Sweden.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Large-scale structure of the interplanetary medium

We propose that the coronal source longitude and latitude of solar wind plasma can be estimated within 10°. Previous writers have argued that the solar wind in the ecliptic should originate near the equator and that a quasi-radial hypervelocity (QRH) approximation (constant radial flow) is valid beyond the magnetohydrodynamic critical points. We demonstrate that an extension of the QRH approximation (as if the solar wind flowed radially with constant velocity from the center of the Sun) yields a proper estimate of the high coronal source location at the release zone where the solar wind makes its transition to radial interplanetary flow. This extrapolated QRH (or EQRH) approximation succeeds because the two main corrections to this source estimate, coronal corotation and interplanetary acceleration, tend to cancel (the former correcting the source location eastward, the latter westward). Although this ideal spiral approximation was first suggested by Snyder and Neugebauer (1966), only recently has it been demonstrated that it relates a wide range of interplanetary plasma, magnetic field and energetic particle data to observed coronal magnetic structure. We estimate quantitatively the error in the EQRH approximation by comparison with steady-state streamlines predicted by azimuthally independent and dependent theoretical solutions to the steady-state plasma equations. We find the error in both cases 10° in longitude and therefore suggest that the EQRH approximation offers the means to relate observed solar initial conditions in the release zone directly to interplanetary measurements. If, in addition, the EQRH approximation also leads to agreement with low coronal structure, then there should be a straightforward correspondence to otherwise unobservable high coronal structure.     

A study of the modulating effect of solar flares on the cosmic ray intensity using time series analysis

The cosmic ray 11-year variation for solar cycle 20 is attributed to the modulating effect of solar flare-induced shocks propagating through the interplanetary medium to the boundary of the heliosphere. The relative influence of these disturbances upon the cosmic ray intensity as a function of their travel time from the Sun is determined by a deconvolution of a linear system with the number of solar flares (importance 1) and the observed cosmic ray intensity as the input and output respectively of this system. The impulse response function so determined indicates that the solar flare - induced disturbances significantly modulate cosmic rays out to a distance of 70–90 AU where the modulating effect of the disturbances abruptly ends. This is interpreted as the boundary of the heliosphere.     

X-ray emission associated with solar prominences,sprays and surges

Using H observations made at the Astronomical Observatory of Wroclaw University, and 3.5–5.5 keV X-ray data from the Hard X-ray Imaging Spectrometer on board the Solar Maximum Mission, sites of solar X-ray emission are identified which are associated with active H features, such as prominences, sprays and surges. The X-ray emission is found to be highly localized within the active (H) structures. For example, in the prominences examined, 3.5–5.5 keV X-rays were found only in compact sites near the feet of the prominences. Models predicting that, during the active phase of these structures, the energy release should be evenly distributed along the structure are clearly brought into question. It is argued that these X-ray sites are indicative of the cause of the expulsion and transport of chromospheric material. Models which satisfy these observations are discussed.This work was started during a visit to the High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307, U.S.A. (NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation).     

Detection of the Long-Term Microwave `Darkening' Before the 14 July 2000 Flare

The latitudinal distribution of sunspot groups over a solar cycle is investigated. Although individual sunspot groups of a solar cycle emerge randomly at any middle and low latitude, the whole latitudinal distribution of sunspot groups of the cycle is not stochastic and, in fact, can be represented by a probability density function of the distribution having maximum probability at about 15.5°. The maximum amplitude of a solar cycle is found to be positively correlated against the number of sunspot groups at high latitude (35°) over the cycle, as well as the mean latitude. Also, the relation between the asymmetry of sunspot groups and its latitude is investigated, and a pattern of the N-S asymmetry in solar activity is suggested.     

The solar neutral iron spectrum

Mean profiles of eighteen neutral iron lines of varying strengths were measured at selected positions from the center of the solar disk to the limb. These profiles were obtained by rapid photoelectric scanning of the spectrum with a double-pass spectrometer. The Fe i lines selected are representative of most of the stronger low-lying transitions in the neutral iron atom. In addition to the iron lines, this observational program includes center-to-limb measurements of three Ti ii lines and of the Ca i resonance line 4226.7. The line profiles are presented here in graphical form after correction for instrumental effects and normalization to the local disk center continuum.Both Kitt Peak National Observatory and the National Center for Atmospheric Research are sponsored by the National Science Foundation.