Abstract
The longitudinal distributions of the polar faculae, bright K Ca+ points, and sunspot areas have been investigated in three-year intervals at the minima and maxima of the last five solar cycles in the rotation system which corresponds to the background magnetic field:T = 27.23 days (Mikhailutsa, 1994b). It has been shown that there were three specific features of the polar faculae and bright K Ca+ point longitudinal distributions: (1) The longitudes of maxima and minima of the distributions were approximately the same in the last five solar cycles. (2) There were predominantly two opposite longitudinal maxima and two opposite longitudinal minima in the distributions of each hemisphere. (3) The distributions of the northern and southern hemispheres were in opposite phase. The extremes of the sunspot area longitudinal distributions were preferentially between the longitudes of the polar facular extremes. The period of the sector structure rotation was defined more precisely:T = 27.227 ± 0.003 days. The results found can serve as an indication that there is a global foursector structure seated in the solar interior which plays a visible role in the polar facular and sunspot distributions.
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Mikhailutsa, V.P., Makarova, V.V. The sector structure of the active longitudes in solar cycles. Sol Phys 155, 391–400 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00680602
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00680602