Spörer's law

With the help of Spörers Act, statements about the distribution and areal extent of sunspots within a sunspot cycle can be made.

The first laws has the English astronomer Richard Christopher Carrington, a contemporary of Gustav Sporer, discovered and described in 1861. Spörer contributed to the refinement of the law and is called from time to time as its discoverer.

Within the 10 - 12-year cycle, first form in widths of 30 ° -45 ° north and south of the solar equator spots. Subsequently, the spots come closer and closer to the equator. At the time of maximum solar activity, the spots have the greatest spatial extent and are on average around 15 ° latitude. After the stains on average occur even closer to the equator, until it can be found at the end of the cycle to the 5 ° latitude. To finish off form already in the high heliographic latitudes spots of the next cycle.

Plotting the location and areal extent of the spots over time into a diagram, we obtain the butterfly diagram.

• Sun as a star