The Waldmeier Effect in Sunspot Cycles

TL;DR

This paper investigates the Waldmeier Effect in sunspot cycles, demonstrating its consistent presence across multiple data sets and exploring its theoretical basis through stochastic modeling of the solar dynamo.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the Waldmeier Effect's two aspects and introduces a stochastic dynamo model to explain these observed phenomena.

Findings

Both WE1 and WE2 are confirmed across four data sets.

Theoretical modeling supports the existence of the Waldmeier Effect.

The study links the effect to stochastic fluctuations in the solar dynamo.

Abstract

We discuss two aspects of the Waldmeier Effect, namely (1) the rise times of sunspot cycles are anti-correlated to their strengths (WE1) and (2) the rates of rise of the cycles are correlated to their strengths (WE2). From analysis of four different data sets we conclude that both WE1 and WE2 exist in all the data sets. We study these effects theoretically by introducing suitable stochastic fluctuations in our regular solar dynamo model.