Sunspotter Talk

size of hole

  • marca by marca

    While classifying I regulary wonder if the size of the holes doesn't say anything about the complexity? Has someone the answer to this Question?

    Posted

  • pahiggins by pahiggins

    Hi @marca, by holes do you mean sunspot groups? If so, the size of a sunspot group should not determine its complexity- size and complexity should are independent measures. For instance, you could have a huge sunspot group, that only contains positive polarity spots, and a small one that contains a mix of negative and positive spots. The mixed group would be more complex. However, it turns out that larger sunspot groups tend to be more complex. This can probably be explained by larger groups with more constituent spots having more ways that they can be arranged. However, while there is some relationship between size and complexity, it doesn't necessarily mean that one can reliably determine the complexity from given a measure of size.

    Posted