Tilt Angles of Solar Filaments over the Period 1919-2014

TL;DR

This study analyzes the tilt angles of solar filaments over nearly a century, revealing their variation with the solar cycle and proposing their use as a new measure of solar activity.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of filament tilt angles over a long period and introduces their potential as indicators of solar cycle variations.

Findings

Tilt angles are around 10° on average, with eastern tips closer to poles.

Polar region filaments tend to have negative tilt angles.

Tilt angles peak during solar activity maxima and vary with the Gleissberg cycle.

Abstract

The spatial and temporal distributions of solar filaments were analyzed using data from the Meudon Observatory for the period 1919-2003 and the Kislovodsk Mountain Astronomical Station for the period 1979-2014. We scanned $H_\alpha$ solar synoptic charts on which the filaments were isolated and digitized. The data on each filament comprise its location, length, area, and other geometrical characteristics. The temporal distributions of the number and total length of the filaments have been obtained. We also found latitudinal migration of filament locations with the solar cycle, and analyzed the longitudinal distribution and asymmetry of filaments in the northern and southern hemispheres, and other properties of their distribution. The tilt angles of filaments with respect the solar equator ($\tau$) were analyzed. On average, the eastern tips of filaments are closer to the poles than the western ones ($\tau \sim 10^\circ$). On the other hand, the filaments in the polar regions ($\theta>50^\circ$, where $\theta$ is the latitude) usually have negative tilts ($\tau <0^\circ$). The tilt angles vary with the phases of the 11 year sunspot cycle and are at their highest values in the epoch of the activity maximum. In the century-long modulation of the solar activity (Gleissberg cycle), the mean tilt angles of filaments in the mid-latitude zone ($\theta \sim \pm 40^\circ$) were maximum in the middle of the 20th century in solar sunspot cycles 18-19. We hereby propose using the statistical properties of solar filaments as an additional coherent measure of manifestation of the solar cycle which covers all latitudes and for which almost a century long systematically calibrated data series is available.