Spörer's law

Butterfly diagram showing paired Spörer's law behavior.

Spörer's law predicts the variation of sunspot latitudes during a solar cycle.^[1] It was discovered by the English astronomer Richard Christopher Carrington around 1861.^{[citation needed]} Carrington's work was refined by the German astronomer Gustav Spörer.

At the start of a sunspot cycle, sunspots tend to appear around 30° to 45° latitude on the Sun's surface. As the cycle progresses, sunspots appear at lower and lower latitudes, until they average 15° at solar maximum. The average latitude of sunspots then continues to drift lower, down to about 7° and then while the old sunspot cycle fades, sunspots of the new cycle start appearing at high latitudes.^{[citation needed]}

See also [edit]

• Solar variation
• Wolf number
• Joy's Law (astronomy)

References [edit]

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