Butterfly Diagram for Sunspot Emergence

Image credits: Calcium image courtesy of J. Harvey, National Solar Observatory. Sunspot area coverage data and plot courtesy of D. Hathaway, NASA/MSFC. Helmet streamer and coronal mass ejection data compiled by J. Burkepile, High Altitude Observatory, NCAR. This is a butterfly diagram for the period 1900-1993. Note the absence of sunspots at high latitudes throughout the solar cycle. There is an equatorward drift of sunspots during the cycle. At times there is a distinct north-south assymmetry in the distribution of sunspots. Near solar minimum, spots from the new cycle appear at high latitudes while those from the old cycle still exist at the equator. Sunspot maxima occur about midway along the butterfly.

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