Sunspots Hemispheric Assymetry

[3gMike]

I observe that recent sunspots in the Northern hemisphere have been located around 12degrees latitude, whereas the latest spot in the Southern hemisphere is located at 30 degrees. Does that indicate that magnetic conditions are still evolving, and should we expect the Northern hemisphere to produce spots at higher latitudes in future?

[Vancanneyt Sander]

If you look at the butterfly diagrams of past solar cycles the latitude can defer up to 20°, but it's a bit odd to see regions on a lower latitude already but it can happen. Past solar cycle we also had such oddity (see https://www.stce.be/news/414/welcome.html).

So yes we'll see sunspot regions at higher latitudes 😉 

[3gMike]

Thanks for the link. If you look at cycle 24 in that butterfly diagram it seems to have had a lower density of spots at higher latitudes compared to the earlier cycles. Perhaps my observation gives an early indication that cycle 25 will be a relatively weak cycle. We will have to wait a bit longer for confirmation - insufficient data at present.

[3gMike]

I've reviewed data in the Archive and came up with this plot, which gives a better view of development of Cycle 25 to date.

 

[Vancanneyt Sander]

@3gMike I tried to make a plot of it as well 😉 but with a few years extra 

[Capricopia]

I have had a new look at the butterfly diagram on this site, and to my untrained eye, it looks like the migration to lower latitudes is happening quicker than in SC24.  I have annotated the large plot.  Does this seem correct?

I plotted the line from the first sunspot closest to the 40 degree mark.  (green lines) Then at how soon after solar minimum a sunspot emerged below 10 degrees ~2.3 years in this SC25 and ~3.5 years in SC24  (red lines)

I know the hemispheres flip but it made the piccie too cluttered.