Abstract
We study whether the birthplaces of sunspots (defined as the location of first appearance in the photosphere) are related to the planetary tides on the Sun. The heliocentric longitudes of newly emerging sunspots are statistically compared to the longitudes of tidal peaks caused by the tidal planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Jupiter. The longitude differences between new sunspots and tidal planets (and their conjugate locations) as well as the magnitudes of the vertical and horizontal tidal forces at the birthplace of new sunspots are calculated. The statistical distributions are compared with simulation results calculated using a random sunspot distribution. The results suggest that the birthplaces of sunspots (in the photosphere) are independent of the positions of tidal planets and the strength of tidal forces caused by them. However, since the sunspots actually originate near the tachocline (well below the photosphere) and it takes considerable time for the disturbances to reach photosphere, we hesitate to conclude that the formation of sunspots are not related to planetary positions.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a NASA Grant (NNX10AL50A) to the Catholic University of America. I thank N. Gopalswamy from NASA for his support and my NASA summer intern C. Zheng for her contributions.
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Seker, I. Are Planetary Tides on the Sun and the Birthplace of Sunspots Related?. Sol Phys 286, 303–314 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-013-0288-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-013-0288-6