Do sun spots wander N/S (solar)?
Question:
I've got the positional histories of all the sun spots going back fifteen years or so, but searching them the old fashioned way I haven't found anytime it's happened.
I'm not a computer whiz, and it's difficult to sort for something anomalous, such as a particular sun spot meandering N/S or S/N.
I was puzzling over how to ferret out the answer in the data when it dawned on me that possibly someone on Yahoo QA might already know the answer.
Don't go to any trouble to find out. I'm just messing around with it. There's an explanation on my blog to demonstrate it's just an off-the-wall set of ponderings.
http://nonprobability.blogstream.com/...
However, if you happend to know the answer, I'd be obliged if you'll share it.
Answer:
hi Individual spots do not as a rule migrate north - south. During the sunspot cycle the latitude of sunspot formation does move in a pattern known as Maunder's Butterfly. as the cycle progresses the spots form closer to the equator. There is no comprehensive theory as to why this happens.
cheers
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