Magnetic Sources of the Solar Irradiance Cycle

Abstract

Using recently processed Ca K filtergrams, recorded with a 1 Å filter at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO), we quantitatively assess the component of solar irradiance variability attributable to bright magnetic features on the Sun's disk. The Ca K filtergrams, "flattened" by removing instrumental effects and center-to-limb variations, provide information about bright sources of irradiance variability associated with magnetic activity in both active regions and dispersed active region remnants broadly distributed in the supergranule network (termed collectively "faculae"). Procedures are developed to construct both total and UV spectral solar irradiance variations explicitly from the processed Ca K filtergrams, independently of direct irradiance observations. The disk-integrated bolometric and UV facular brightness signals determined from the filtergrams between late 1991 and mid-1995 are compared with concurrent solar irradiance measurements made by high-precision solar radiometers on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). The comparisons suggest that active-region and active-network changes can account for the measured variations. This good agreement during a period covering most of the decline in solar activity from the cycle 22 maximum to the impending solar minimum directly implicates magnetic features as the sources of the 11 yr irradiance cycle, apparently obviating the need for an additional component other than spots or faculae.