The Solar Cycle is reviewed. The 11-year cycle of solar activity is characterized by the rise and fall in the numbers and surface area of sunspots. We examine a number of other solar activity indicators including the 10.7 cm radio flux, the total solar irradiance, the magnetic field, flares and coronal mass ejections, geomagnetic activity, galactic cosmic ray fluxes, and radioisotopes in tree rings and ice cores that vary in association with the sunspots. We examine the characteristics of individual solar cycles including their maxima and minima, cycle periods and amplitudes, cycle shape, and the nature of active latitudes, hemispheres, and longitudes. We examine long-term variability including the Maunder Minimum, the Gleissberg Cycle, and the Gnevyshev-Ohl Rule. Short-term variability includes the 154-day periodicity, quasi-biennial variations, and double peaked maxima. We conclude with an examination of prediction techniques for the solar cycle.

The Solar Cycle

The Sun and other stars are magnetic: magnetism pervades their interiors and affects their evolution in a variety of ways In the Sun, both the fields themselves and their influence on other phenomena can be uncovered in exquisite detail, but these observations sample only a moment in a single star's life By turning to observations of other stars, and to theory and simulation, we may infer other aspects of the magnetism-eg, its dependence on stellar age, mass, or rotation rate-that would be invisible from close study of the Sun alone Here, we review observations and theory of magnetism in the Sun and other stars, with a partial focus on the "Solar-stellar connection": ie, ways in which studies of other stars have influenced our understanding of the Sun and vice versa We briefly review techniques by which magnetic fields can be measured (or their presence otherwise inferred) in stars, and then highlight some key observational findings uncovered by such measurements, focusing (in many cases) on those that offer particularly direct constraints on theories of how the fields are built and maintained We turn then to a discussion of how the fields arise in different objects: first, we summarize some essential elements of convection and dynamo theory, including a very brief discussion of mean-field theory and related concepts Next we turn to simulations of convection and magnetism in stellar interiors, highlighting both some peculiarities of field generation in different types of stars and some unifying physical processes that likely influence dynamo action in general We conclude with a brief summary of what we have learned, and a sampling of issues that remain uncertain or unsolved

Magnetism, dynamo action and the solar-stellar connection

A review of solar cycle prediction methods and their performance is given, including forecasts for cycle 24. The review focuses on those aspects of the solar cycle prediction problem that have a bearing on dynamo theory. The scope of the review is further restricted to the issue of predicting the amplitude (and optionally the epoch) of an upcoming solar maximum no later than right after the start of the given cycle. Prediction methods form three main groups. Precursor methods rely on the value of some measure of solar activity or magnetism at a specified time to predict the amplitude of the following solar maximum. Their implicit assumption is that each numbered solar cycle is a consistent unit in itself, while solar activity seems to consist of a series of much less tightly intercorrelated individual cycles. Extrapolation methods, in contrast, are based on the premise that the physical process giving rise to the sunspot number record is statistically homogeneous, i.e., the mathematical regularities underlying its variations are the same at any point of time and, therefore, it lends itself to analysis and forecasting by time series methods. Finally, instead of an analysis of observational data alone, model based predictions use physically (more or less) consistent dynamo models in their attempts to predict solar activity. In their overall performance during the course of the last few solar cycles, precursor methods have clearly been superior to extrapolation methods. Nevertheless, most precursor methods overpredicted cycle 23, while some extrapolation methods may still be worth further study. Model based forecasts have not yet had a chance to prove their skills. One method that has yielded predictions consistently in the right range during the past few solar cycles is that of K. Schatten et al., whose approach is mainly based on the polar field precursor. The incipient cycle 24 will probably mark the end of the Modern Maximum, with the Sun switching to a state of less strong activity. It will therefore be an important testbed for cycle prediction methods and, by inference, for our understanding of the solar dynamo.

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Solar cycle prediction

This paper focuses on the interactions between the fast solar wind from coronal holes and the intervening slower solar wind, leading to the creation of stream interaction regions that corotate with the Sun and may persist for many solar rotations. Stream interaction regions have been observed near 1 AU, in the inner heliosphere (at $$\sim 0.3$$
 –1 AU) by the Helios spacecraft, in the outer and distant heliosphere by the Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, and out of the ecliptic by Ulysses, and these observations are reviewed. Stream interaction regions accelerate energetic particles, modulate the intensity of Galactic cosmic rays and generate enhanced geomagnetic activity. The remote detection of interaction regions using interplanetary scintillation and white-light imaging, and MHD modeling of interaction regions will also be discussed.

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Solar wind stream interaction regions throughout the heliosphere

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) oscillatory processes in different plasma systems, such as the corona of the Sun and the Earth’s magnetosphere, show interesting similarities and differences, which so far received little attention and remain under-exploited. The successful commissioning within the past ten years of THEMIS, Hinode, STEREO and SDO spacecraft, in combination with matured analysis of data from earlier spacecraft (Wind, SOHO, ACE, Cluster, TRACE and RHESSI) makes it very timely to survey the breadth of observations giving evidence for MHD oscillatory processes in solar and space plasmas, and state-of-the-art theoretical modelling. The paper reviews several important topics, such as Alfvenic resonances and mode conversion; MHD waveguides, such as the magnetotail, coronal loops, coronal streamers; mechanisms for periodicities produced in energy releases during substorms and solar flares, possibility of Alfvenic resonators along open field lines; possible drivers of MHD waves; diagnostics of plasmas with MHD waves; interaction of MHD waves with partly-ionised boundaries (ionosphere and chromosphere). The review is mainly oriented to specialists in magnetospheric physics and solar physics, but not familiar with specifics of the adjacent research fields.

/pdf/magnetohydrodynamic-oscillations-in-the-solar-corona-and-2a9mp7y41c.pdf

Magnetohydrodynamic Oscillations in the Solar Corona and Earth’s Magnetosphere: Towards Consolidated Understanding

Deenition The term solar cycle refers to a quasi-periodic variation with a period of about 11 years, visible in many of the Sun's observables. The solar cycle is most easily observed in indices directly related to the Sun's magnetic eld, such as sunspots. During the last decades, solar-cycle variations have also been found in many other aspects of the Sun (irradiance, surface ows, coronal shape, oscillation frequencies, etc). The modulation amplitudes may vary widely between diierent indices. It is minute in visible light, and this explains why the solar cycle is not visible to a casual naked-eye observer. Elsewhere (in the far ultraviolet, X-rays, radio frequencies) the modulation amplitude is large (Table 1). The prime cause of the solar cycle is a quasi-periodic oscillation of the solar magnetic field. Magnetic-eld indices The oldest and best known index of the solar cycle is provided by sunspots, whose discovery for Europe around 1610 is associated with the names of Fabricius, Galileo and Scheiner. The commonest sunspot index is the Z urich sunspot number R = K(10g + f), where g is the number of sunspot groups, f is the number of individual spots and K is a coeecient that corrects for diierences in the quality of the observations. Usually one derives an annual average R, shown in Fig. 1. The most striking feature of the sunspot record is the Schwabe cycle of about 11 years, discovered by Hein-rich Samuel Schwabe in 1843. By convention, the cycle that began in 1755 is assigned number 1; hence cycle 23 began in 1997. Cycle shape. A typical sunspot cycle in Fig. 1 is characterized by a sharp rise from minimum to maximum, lasting 3-6 years (on average 4.8). The duration of the rise phase is anticorrelated with the height of the maximum (Waldmeier's rule). The maximum is followed by a gradual decline lasting 5-8 years (on average 6.2). Whereas the maxima of the Z urich number are typically well-deened, this is not the case for some other solar activity indices. For example, it has been suggested that the number of large sunspots has a double-peaked maximum. Most indices vary roughly in phase with the sunspot number, and therefore the sunspot extrema are also referred to as the solar minimum and the solar maximum. On the other hand, some coronal indices are clearly out of phase with the sunspot cycle, and they peak at the sunspot …

Luca Bertello

Papers

The Solar Cycle