Solar Active Longitudes from Kodaikanal White-Light Digitized Data

Abstract

The study of solar active longitudes has generated great interest in recent years. In this work we have used a unique, continuous sunspot data series obtained from the Kodaikanal observatory and revisited the problem. An analysis of the data shows a persistent presence of active longitudes during the whole 90 years of data. We compared two well-studied analysis methods and presented their results. The separation between the two most active longitudes is found be roughly 180° for the majority of time. Additionally, we also find a comparatively weaker presence of separations at 90° and 270°. The migration pattern of these active longitudes as revealed by our data is found to be consistent with the solar differential rotation curve. We also study the periodicities in the active longitudes and found two dominant periods of ≈1.3 and ≈2.2 years. These periods, also found in other solar proxies, indicate their relation with the global solar dynamo mechanism.