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Latitude Variations in Primary and Secondary Polar Crown Polarity Inversion Lines and Polar Coronal Hole Boundaries over Five Solar Cycles

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Abstract

We undertake a five solar-cycle (SC 19 - 23) ≈55-year (December 1954 to August 2009) study of the high latitude polarity inversion lines (PILs) using the recently digitized McIntosh Archive (McA) of solar synoptic (Carrington) maps. We looked at the evolution of the median solar latitudes of primary and secondary PILs, and of the polar coronal hole (CH) boundary for all 732 Carrington Rotations (CRs). We found hemispheric differences in the “Rush to the Poles” (RttP) where the polar CH gaps are often longer in the southern hemisphere (SH), and the secondary PIL reaches its polemost latitude at the end of its RttP later and more poleward than in the northern hemisphere (NH). The latitude oscillations found after this poleward peak are also stronger and often longer in the SH than in the NH, and exhibit a 22-year variation. The location variations in the CH boundaries and PILs appear to be at least partly associated with similar variations in the magnetic field. We also found equatorward expansions of the polar CHs by ≈50% and equatorward shifts in the PILs that were part of a disturbance that propagated ≈15°/CR from the SH to the NH in the descending phase of SC 23.

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Acknowledgements

This project was made possible by the maps created by Patrick McIntosh who passed away in October 2016. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is a major facility supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Cooperative Agreement No. 1852977. The work of the authors was supported by NSF RAPID grant 1540544 and NSF grant 1722727. The repository for the data discussed here is available at https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/space-weather/solar-data/solar-imagery/composites/synoptic-maps/mc-intosh/, and at https://www2.hao.ucar.edu/mcintosh-archive/four-cycles-solar-synoptic-maps.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HAO/NCAR, Boulder, CO, USA

    B. A. Emery & S. E. Gibson

  2. Institute for Scientific Research (ISR), Boston College at HAO/NCAR, Boulder, CO, USA

    B. A. Emery, I. M. Hewins & R. H. McFadden

  3. Institute for Scientific Research (ISR), Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    D. F. Webb & T. A. Kuchar

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  1. B. A. Emery
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Emery, B.A., Webb, D.F., Gibson, S.E. et al. Latitude Variations in Primary and Secondary Polar Crown Polarity Inversion Lines and Polar Coronal Hole Boundaries over Five Solar Cycles. Sol Phys 296, 119 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-021-01857-7

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