Vol 56, No 7 (2016)

Results of analysis of multi-scale and turbulent properties of observed photospheric granulation patterns in undisturbed solar photosphere are presented. Data were obtained with the New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar observatory. Different types of magnetic environment were explored: a coronal hole (CH) area, a quiet sun (QS) intranetwork area, a QS/network area, and an area with small pores. The property of multifractality was revealed for granulation patterns in all environments on scales below 600 km. The degree of multifractality tends to be stronger as the magnetic environment becomes weaker. Analysis of turbulent diffusion on scales less than 1000–2000 km revealed the regime of super-diffusivity for all data sets. Super-diffusion becomes stronger from the QS/network to the QS/intranetwork to the CH. Both multifractality and super-diffusivity on very small scales are associated with the fast turbulent dynamo action. The results show that the most favorable conditions for the fast turbulent dynamo are met outside the network, inside vast areas of weakest magnetic fields, which supports the idea of nonlocal, deep turbulent dynamo.

Detection of the deterministic component from noised time series is a common procedure in the solar–terrestrial coupling problem when climate is modeled, solar activity is analyzed, or a signal associated with helium is extracted. Such series are mostly generated by the superposition of different processes for which the concept of a noise component cannot be determined formally. A method based on the combination of time-series topological embedding in Euclidean space and the identification of a persistent cycle by homology theory methods is proposed. The method application is demonstrated based on actual data.

Using sunspot data for cycles 12 to 23, we have investigated relations of some latitude characteristics of sunspot groups to the 11-year cycle amplitude at different phases. We have revealed a high correlation (with correlation coefficients >0.9) between the middle latitude of sunspot groups at phases of rise, maximum, and decay, on the one hand, and the amplitude of the corresponding cycle, on the other hand. We have shown that the maxima of the velocity of the motion of the sunspot formation zone to the equator have a special physical meaning: the rise phase of the 11-year cycle is characterized by significant correlations between the cycle amplitude and the maximum for the lowest boundary, and the cycle decay phase is characterized by the same maximum for the highest boundary. We have built equations allowing one to determine the amplitude of the 11-year cycle on the basis of data on the given latitudinal characteristics of sunspots groups.

The variation of intensity in spectral line wings, which was obtained from observations of the patrol telescope at the Kislovodsk Mountain Astronomical Station of the Pulkovo Observatory, Russian Academy of Science (KMAS) and the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) space observatory, are considered. A series of observations lasting a few hours near the solar active regions, in which both short- and longperiod oscillations were observed simultaneously during 2014–2015, are analyzed. It is found out that oscillations with a period of 3–5 min can exist at one time and in one place with oscillations with a period of about 100 min. The amplitude of long-period oscillations can be comparable with that for short-period oscillations. The conditions for excitation of the wave processes are considered. Oscillations with a period of 100 min have a weak dependence on the area of the active region.

A search for powerful flare predictors remains a problem of current interest in solar—terrestrial physics. The magnetograms (LOS SDO/HMI instrument) for active regions (ARs) 1158, 1166, 1283, and 1520, which produced an X-ray flare located near the central meridian, are analyzed. АR 1654, which was rather complex but generated only M flares near western limb, remaining quiet during the passage over the disk, has been analyzed in a similar manner for comparison. The combinatorial Bochner Laplacian was used as a complexity descriptor. We calculate it for each magnetogram, which was converted into the magnetic energy density of the longitudinal field component, and analyze its maximal spatial variation. It has been shown that the maximal spatial Laplacian values trace the neutral line during AR evolution, demonstrating sharp peaks before and after the flare in this case. Although this signature has no established statistical reliability, it can be interesting as an effective parameter when flares are predicted.

For the first time, the ultra-low oscillation mode of the sunspot magnetic field strength has been detected with a high degree of confidence by ground-based observations of sunspots with the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) network of telescopes. Synchronous series of magnetograms derived from the GONG and Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/Michelson Doppler Imager (SOHO/MDI) have been processed. They were obtained on September 27–30, 2010, for the active region NOAA 11109 with a total duration of 80 h. The periods of magnetic field oscillations found by space data coincide with the periods defined with GONG. This confirms the physical reality of the oscillatory process. The power spectrum contains harmonics with periods of 26 h, 8–10 h, and 3–4 h.

This paper analyzes climate changes since the end of the last glaciations 19–20 thousand years ago, including the modern warm interglacial Holocene age, which started about 11.5 thousand years ago. The connection between the impact of the orbital effect and solar activity on the Earth’s climate is studied. This is important for estimation of the duration of the modern interglacial period. It is shown that there is significant inconsistency between temperature variations in Holocene, which is deduced from the large amount of recently obtained indirect data and the temperatures reproduced in the climate models. The trends of climate cooling in the Holocene on the whole and during the last 2000 years are investigated.

The results of a three-dimensional numerical simulation of changes in the temperature and wind within a height range of up to 100 km caused by changes in fluxes in the solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the 23rd solar activity cycle (which was characterized by unusually low values of UV-radiation fluxes) and also of global changes in the ozone content are presented. The simulation results showed that the response of the temperature to variations in the UV radiation are substantially of a nonzonal character, which is caused by the presence in the model of sources of quasi-stationary waves corresponding to the observational data.

In the context of studying the problem of simulation of magnetic fields on the Sun, the structure of the field in the vicinity of two circular current loops with different mutual arrangement in space is considered. When the symmetry in the arrangement is sufficient, a system of magnetic surfaces created by the closed field lines arises. With a reduction in symmetry, isolated closed lines may exist. For the case of two identical current loops coupled perpendicularly, it is shown that the subsystems of these lines may be ordered in space in a complex manner. At large distances, a system of loops is equivalent to a dipole with a high degree of accuracy, while an approximate winding of the lines on the deformed toroids, encircling each of the loops, occurs at small distances. At intermediate distances, there are regions of both ordered and chaotic behavior of field lines. Results were obtained with the use of the numerical simulation method.