caa a22 4500 445347155 CHVBK 20180317142832.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20111001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11207-011-9837-z doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11207-011-9837-z Hathaway D. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, 35812, Huntsville, AL, USA aut A Standard Law for the Equatorward Drift of the Sunspot Zones [Elektronische Daten] [D. Hathaway] The latitudinal location of the sunspot zones in each hemisphere is determined by calculating the centroid position of sunspot areas for each solar rotation from May 1874 to June 2011. When these centroid positions are plotted and analyzed as functions of time from each sunspot cycle maximum, there appear to be systematic differences in the positions and equatorward drift rates as a function of sunspot cycle amplitude. If, instead, these centroid positions are plotted and analyzed as functions of time from each sunspot cycle minimum, then most of the differences in the positions and equatorward drift rates disappear. The differences that remain disappear entirely if curve fitting is used to determine the starting times (which vary by as much as eight months from the times of minima). The sunspot zone latitudes and equatorward drift measured relative to this starting time follow a standard path for all cycles with no dependence upon cycle strength or hemispheric dominance. Although Cycle 23 was peculiar in its length and the strength of the polar fields it produced, it too shows no significant variation from this standard. This standard law, and the lack of variation with sunspot cycle characteristics, is consistent with dynamo wave mechanisms but not consistent with current flux transport dynamo models for the equatorward drift of the sunspot zones. Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2011 Solar cycle, observations nationallicence Sunspots, statistics nationallicence Sunspots, velocity nationallicence Solar Physics Springer Netherlands 273/1(2011-10-01), 221-230 0038-0938 273:1<221 2011 273 11207 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-011-9837-z text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-011-9837-z text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Hathaway D. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, 35812, Huntsville, AL, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Solar Physics Springer Netherlands 273/1(2011-10-01), 221-230 0038-0938 273:1<221 2011 273 11207 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer