Abstract
DISTRIBUTION OF THE SUNSPOTS OF 1886 AND 1887.—Prof. Spoerer points out in a short note in the Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 2828, that the predominance of the southern hemisphere over the northern as to the numbers and areas of sunspots which they have displayed lias continued throughout the two years just past. It would seem, indeed, as if the maximum for the southern hemisphere had fallen later than for the northern, for after the last return of the great group of November 12–25, 1882, the latter hemisphere became comparatively quiescent for a considerable time, and from that date the predominance of the southern hemisphere has been almost uninterrupted, the displays it exhibited during the latter part of 1883 and the earlier months of 1884 being so considerable and so numerous as to make the date of maximum the same for the sun as a whole as for the southern zone. So in the decline since the maximum, not only has the mean spotted area of the northern hemisphere been scarcely more than half that of the southern, but the running down in latitude has been more marked in the former than the latter. Thus in 1884, tne northern zones above lat. 25° were already free from spots, whilst in the south the zone 25° to 30° was still occupied. In 1886 spots had ceased to be seen in the zones north of N. lat. 20°, but were still seen in the corresponding southern belt; whilst in 1887 they had almost vanished from the zone N. lat. 15° to 20°, though still fairly numerous at a like distance from the equator on the other side. The actual distribution of the spots is shown by Prof. Spoerer in the following table:—
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 37, 495 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/037495a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/037495a0