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The effects of meridional motion on the determination of rotation by tracer tracking

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Abstract

We explore a systematic error that arises in feature-tracking measurements of time-average rotation. It stems from the flows of features across latitudes, and as these flows vary with the solar activity cycle, the error has a pattern of variation which mocks the torsional oscillation. We develop a series expansion for this error and evaluate the leading terms for the example case of cycle 21. It grows with the time lag; for a 30 day lag it is ≲1%, depending on how the correlations are done and interpreted. We conclude that the mock pattern cannot, however, account for the magnetic-rotation torsional oscillations pattern found in recent analyses of magnetograms from Kitt Peak and Mount Wilson. For the 1-day time lag in the Kitt Peak study, the error is negligible, and for the ∼30-day time lag in the Mount Wilson study, it represents at most about 30% of the signal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics Department, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, OR, 97219, U.S.A.

    Herschel B. Snodgrass & Adam A. Smith

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  1. Herschel B. Snodgrass
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  2. Adam A. Smith
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Snodgrass, H.B., Smith, A.A. The effects of meridional motion on the determination of rotation by tracer tracking. Solar Physics 191, 21–35 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005268323890

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