The Effect of Missing Groups in the Calculation of the Solar Irradiance Deficit: Analysis of the Sunspot Areas from the SOON Network

Abstract

Sunspot areas are one of the most important indices of solar activity. To obtain an extended time series covering multiple solar cycles, one must combine data from different observatories after a proper comparison and calibration of the individual datasets. We compare the daily and group values of sunspot areas provided by the different stations from the Solar Optical Observing Network, SOON, which are determined using similar instruments and techniques. We investigate if there are systematic differences among the stations and whether the differences in the daily values can be attributed to missing groups in the records or errors in the measurements. We find significant differences among the stations of the SOON network in terms of sizes (average daily and group values), quality of observations and coverage (considering the number of missing groups and data gaps). Our results indicate that calibration factors for daily values can be used with confidence to combine datasets from different stations. However, for some applications which require the location of the sunspot groups, the same correction factors should not be used. We estimate the irradiance deficit due to sunspot through the Photometric Sunspot Index and compare the output from similar datasets to quantify the effect of missing groups. We find differences as high as 150 ppm during the maximum of solar cycle. The effect increases for sunspot groups near the center of the disk accounting for about 80% of the observed differences.