Double magnetic cycle of solar activity

The source of the poloidal magnetic field was fixed using a uniform series of surface low-resolution magnetic field observations begun at Wilcox Solar Observatory at Stanford. The results obtained confirm the idea that low-frequency dynamo waves with a period approximately equal to 22 years and a high-frequency wave of a quasi-two-year period can coexist. It seems that an interaction between these components in the convection zone takes place on the Sun. Surface large-scale solar magnetic fields are analyzed using a two-dimensional Fourier method technique to study the poloidal field distribution. The first harmonic approximately equals the period of the magnetic cycle, appears at all latitudes, and reaches its the maximum value in the polar regions. Moreover, spectral analyses of axisymmetric magnetic field derivative in time found that the second important harmonic of a period approximately equal to two years appears at all latitudes. This second high-frequency harmonic dominates the polar latitude regions at the same time as the low-frequency one.