Abstract
An analysis of solar polar coronal hole (PCH) areas since the launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows how the polar regions have evolved during Solar Cycle 24. We present PCH areas from mid-2010 through 2013 using data from the Atmospheric Imager Assembly (AIA) and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instruments onboard SDO. Our analysis shows that both the northern and southern PCH areas have decreased significantly in size since 2010. Linear fits to the areas derived from the magnetic-field properties indicate that, although the northern hemisphere went through polar-field reversal and reached solar-maximum conditions in mid-2012, the southern hemisphere had not reached solar-maximum conditions in the polar regions by the end of 2013. Our results show that solar-maximum conditions in each hemisphere, as measured by the area of the polar coronal holes and polar magnetic field, will be offset in time.
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Acknowledgements
N. Karna thanks the Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future for supporting this research. S.A. Hess Webber thanks the Catholic University of America and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory for supporting this research. The AIA and HMI data are courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA and HMI Science Investigation Teams. The HMI radial synoptic maps are available at the Stanford website . The GMU AIA Synoptic Maps Dataset can be accessed at the George Mason University (GMU) Space WeatherLab . The EIT images are courtesy of the SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a mission of international cooperation between ESA and NASA. The MDI images are provided by the Solar Oscillations Investigation (SOI) team at the Stanford-Lockheed Institute for Space Research. Daily sunspot areas dataset were obtained from NASA/Marshall Solar Physics . Daily values of International Sunspot Number, [R Z], were obtained from the National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder, CO, USA.
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The Many Scales of Solar Activity in Solar Cycle 24 as seen by SDO
Guest Editors: Aaron Birch, Mark Cheung, Andrew Jones, and W. Dean Pesnell
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Karna, N., Hess Webber, S.A. & Pesnell, W.D. Using Polar Coronal Hole Area Measurements to Determine the Solar Polar Magnetic Field Reversal in Solar Cycle 24. Sol Phys 289, 3381–3390 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-014-0541-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-014-0541-7