1.

Cleaneu up image of the Sunspots (noon 214)

Soho uata foi noon 214











The sun is 194S.4 aic seconus in angulai uiametei at noon on Febiuaiy 4 2u14. In the S0B0
image, the angulai uiametei is 481 pixels. This means that each pixel in the S0B0 image is 4.u4 aic
seconus wiue.

Neasuiing the uistance between sunspot gioup B anu C, we see that they aie S4.S2 pixels apait.
Looking at oui image, we see that the same sunspot gioups aie 228.27 pixels apait. This means
that theie aie moie pixels in oui image. Theiefoie, theie aie 228.27S4.S2 times moie pixels
between the sunspots in oui image compaieu to the S0B0 image. Now we can calculate the
angulai size of each pixel in oui image. Foi oui image, this coiiesponus to u.96 aic seconus pei
pixel.

The angulai size of the laigest sunspot, the uominant one in sunspot gioup B is 46 pixels, oi using
oui conveision, 44.2 aic seconus. To calculate the size in kilometeis, we must also finu the
uistance of the sun when we took oui photo. This uistance u is 1.477S7SE8 km. The uiametei of
oui sunspot w is then given by this equation: w = u*tan (44.2''). The uiametei tuins out to be
about S1,66u km. This is about two anu half times the uiametei of the eaith!





























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We can now tiack the position of the sunspots by pixel. Since we ueteimineu that each
pixel of the Soho image was 4.u4 aic seconus wiue, we can also conveit pixels to kilometeis
since we know the uistance fiom the eaith to the sun using the paiallax. 0sing this methou,
we finu that each pixel is 2894 km wiue.

Now, we can select a sunspot anu iecoiu its cooiuinate foi each of the S uays. I will tiack
sunspot A heie. Now, I can plot the x cooiuinate of pixel A as a function of time:





I can fit these points to a line using a least squaies fit. This gives a line with a slope of 2.229
pixelshoui. This is the aveiage tangential speeu of the sunspot acioss the sun. Conveiting
to units of kilometeis pei seconu, we finu that the speeu of the sunspot is 1.79 kms. Now,
assuming that the sunspot is fixeu to the iefeience fiame of the sun, we can finu the
iotation iate of the sun if we know its iauius, which is about 69S,Suu km. Since w=vi, we
finu that the angulai fiequency of the iotation of the sun is 2.S74E-6 iauiansseconu. The
peiiou is then 2.44E6 seconus, oi about 28 uays. This means that the sun takes 28 eaith
uays to make a complete iotation.

0sing this methou, the peiiou founu is piobably slightly longei than the tiue peiiou since I
have not taken into account the iauius of cuivatuie of the sun. I iecoiueu the pixel position
as if the sunspot just moveu in the plane of the image. Bowevei, in ieality, the sunspot has
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1. Fiist, we finu k, the unit conveision between the spectiometei units anu wattsm^2. We finu
this by plotting k as a function of wavelength anu taking the meuian value of k foi wavelengths
between 8uu anu 9uu nm, since those wavelengths aie affecteu least by scatteiing.



By taking the meuian values aiounu 8uu-9uu nm, we finu k to be aiounu 2.4S9E-SS
counts*m^2watt.

2. Now, with oui value of k, we can conveit the units of the spectium we took fiom counts to
wattsm^2, anu plot this against the iefeience spectium. This is the giaph obtaineu:



Qualitatively, we can see that light at shoitei wavelengths is scatteieu moie, as the intensity
uiffeience between the two spectia is gieatei, wheieas the intensity at longei wavelengths is
about the same. We can also uiviue the two spectia to finu the "iesponse function" of the
atmospheie, oi how much the atmospheie scatteis as a function of wavelength. This is the giaph
obtaineu:















Although Rayleigh scatteiing is piopoitional to the inveise 4
th
powei of the wavelength, the
atmospheiic scatteiing uisplayeu in this giaph behaves only like an inveise squaie law. This
occuis because we flatteneu the longei-wavelength pait of the giaph by noimalizing with k, the
conveision factoi we pieviously ueteimineu. To iemove this eiioi, we only fit the giaph at shoitei
wavelengths:














Beie, we can see the inveise-fouith powei-law moie cleaily.
















S. Now, we compaie the lines in oui spectium to a table of Fiaunhofei lines foi longei
wavelengths





7S9 nm 02 absoiption line



687 nm absoiption line also can be seen




Possibly 898 nm 02 absoiption



















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This is the uiffeience (in iauians) between the angle tiaveleu by the eaith in an iueal ciiculai oibit
anu the angle tiaveleu by the eaith in the tiue elliptical oibit:




It takes the eaith 229.18 minutes to iotate one iauian. With this, we can now conveit the above
giaph to a giaph of time uiffeience veisus uay. We simply multiply the angulai uiffeience by
229.18 miniauian, the conveision factoi. This yielus the following giaph:












The physical inteipietation of this giaph is that the sun will be "behinu scheuule" up to about the
17u
th
uay of the yeai anu "aheau of scheuule" aftei that.














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