Long-Term Variations in Solar Differential Rotation and Sunspot Activity, II: Differential Rotation Around the Maxima and Minima of Solar Cycles 12-24

TL;DR

This study investigates long-term variations in solar differential rotation coefficients around solar cycle maxima and minima, revealing secular trends and periodicities, and highlighting differences in behavior between maxima and minima over multiple cycles.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the long-term modulation and periodicities of solar differential rotation coefficients around cycle extrema, using extensive historical sunspot data.

Findings

Significant secular decreasing trend in A around cycle maxima.

No secular trend in A and B around cycle minima.

Detected ~54-year and ~82-year periodicities in A and B, respectively.

Abstract

We analyzed the sunspot-group daily data that were reported by Greenwich Photoheliogrphic Results (GPR) during the period 1874-1976 and Debrecen Photoheliographic Data (DPD) during the period 1977-2017. We determined the equatorial rotation rate [A] and the latitude gradient [B] components of the solar differential rotation by fitting the data in each of the 3-year moving time intervals (3-year MTIs) successively shifted by one year during the period 1874-2017 to the standard law of differential rotation. The values of A and B around the years of maxima and minima of Solar Cycles 12-24 are obtained from the 3-year MTIs series of A and B and studied the long-term cycle-to-cycle modulations in these coefficients. Here we have used the epochs of the maxima and minima of Solar Cycles 12-24 that were recently determined from the revised Version-2 international sunspot-number series. We find that there exits a considerably significant secular decreasing-trend in A around the maxima of solar cycles. There exist no secular trends in both A and B around the minima of solar cycles. The secular trend in B around the maxima of solar cycles is also found to be statistically insignificant. We fitted a cosine function to the values of A, and also to those of B, after removing the corresponding linear trends. The cosine-fits suggest that there exist ~54-year (~94-year) and ~82-year (~79-year) periodicities in A (B) around the maxima and minima of solar cycles, respectively. The amplitude of the cosine-profile of A (B) around the minima of solar cycles is about 41% (65%) larger than that of A (B) around the maxima. In addition, the cosine profiles of A and B suggest a large (up to 180 degree) phase difference between the long-term variations of A, and also between those of B, around maxima and minima of solar cycles.