Sun Spot Analysis
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This page first made public: May 11, 2005
This material was originally created for
Starting Point:Introductory Geology and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.
Summary
Learning Goals
- Learn about the past sunspot record.
- Graph monthly mean Greenwich sunspot numbers from 1749 to 2004.
- Read the graph and answer questions related to the graphical data.
- Learn how to download and install the Spectra software program
- Perform a Fourier analysis on the monthly mean sunspot record using the Spectra Program.
- Learn about Fourier frequency analysis
- Use the relation between frequency and period of a component of the signal.
Context for Use
Description and Teaching Materials
- Sunspot Assignment in PDF format (Acrobat (PDF) 211kB Aug27 04)
- Sunspot Assignment in MS Word format (Microsoft Word 124kB Aug27 04)for possible editing.
Teaching Notes and Tips
- The activity takes approximately 3 hours to complete. Omitting the last part on spectral analysis would likely make it a 2-hour activity.
- Little background mathematics is required for this activity.
- Students should be familiar with using Excel to make an X-Y graph and with the concept of period and frequency of a sinusoidal signal.
- For students needing a refresher on using Excel Graphing with Excel (more info) can help refresh them.
- More information on related to using Excel and related links can be found at How to use Excel
The two graphs above show essentially the same thing. The graph on the right was made with Excel by importing the Text frequency data from the Text output Window of Spectra. The Spectra program does not allow you to alter the horizontal axis. We did not ask students to do this step in the assignment since they can read the numerical values from the graph or from the table, but you may want to use these two figures in a follow-up discussion.
Assessment
References and Resources
- Sunspot numbers from 1749 to 2004 from NASA MSFC archive.
- January 1749 through July 2004 Greenwich Sunspot numbers ( 41kB Aug27 04) vs time of the above file for input into Excel for easy graphing.
- January 1749 through July 2004 Greenwich Sunspot numbers ( 17kB Aug27 04) single column file of above file for input into "Spectra" program.
- The Sunspot Cycle (more info) from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center gives a good overview of sunspots with links to sunspot data and other related resources like this link to the Greenwich Royal Observatory.
- Spaceweather archive gives some background information related to sunspots, has a JAVA plotter for plotting different 11 year periods, and has a link to the above data and more Greenwich sunspot data and information.
- Spectra is a free spectral analysis package. It's easy to download and easy to use.
- Fourier Spectral Analysis provides links to information related to the spectral analysis part of this activity.
- A Simple Analysis of Historical Sunspot Data describes a similar analysis with Mathematica.
