The mean magnetic field of the Sun: Observations at Stanford

A solar telescope has been built at Stanford University to study the organization and evolution of large-scale solar magnetic fields and velocities. The observations are made using a Babcock-type magnetograph which is connected to a 22.9 m vertical Littrow spectrograph. Sun-as-a-star integrated light measurements of the mean solar magnetic field have been made daily since May 1975. The typical mean field magnitude has been about 0.15 G with typical measurement error less than 0.05 G. The mean field polarity pattern is essentially identical to the interplanetary magnetic field sector structure (see near the Earth with a 4 day lag). The differences in the observed structures can be understood in terms of a warped current sheet model.