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    How well do we know the sunspot number?

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    Calibrating the Sunspot Number using ‘the Magnetic Needle’, (Climate And

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    today) of the horizontal component of the Earths magnetic field varies systematically during the day, moving away from its average direction during the morning, then deviating in the other direction during the afternoon. The movement is slight (a few minutes of arc), but easily measured. The origin of these deflections is the combined magnetic effects of ionospheric current systems flowing in the E-region and of corresponding induced telluric currents, created by dynamo action. These systems consist of two vortices, one in each hemisphere, with foci at ~30º latitude and ~1 hour before local noon, both comprising two currents, one flowing above the Earths surface and the other one (in the opposite direction) underneath the surface. The external current system is shown schematically in Figure 1. These currents, fixed in space in relation to the Sun, flow at all times, the Earth rotating under them, and give rise to the mostly regular daily variation discovered by Graham, the so-called SR variation

    1 A Recount of Sunspot Groups on Staudach’s Drawings

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    We have examined the more than 1100 drawings of the solar disk made by the German astronomy amateur Johann Caspar Staudach during 1749-1799 and counted the spots on each image. Using the modern perception of how to group spots into active regions we regrouped the spots as a modern observer would. The resulting number of groups was found to be on average 25 % higher than the first count of groups performed by Wolf in 1857, and used by Hoyt and Schatten in their construction of the Group Sunspot Number. Compared to other observers at the time, Staudach’s drawings have a very low average number, ~2, of spots per group, possibly indicating an inferior telescope likely suffering from spherical and chromatic aberration as would typical of amateur telescopes of the day. We have initiated an ongoing project aiming at observing sunspots with antique telescopes having similar defects in order to determine the factor necessary to bring the Staudach observations onto a modern scale

    Evidence for Sun-Weather Relations

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    Does Building a Relative Sunspot Number Make Sense? A Qualified ‘Yes’

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    Recent research has demonstrated that the number of sunspots per group (‘active region’) has been decreasing over the last two or three solar cycles and that the classical Relative Sunspot Number (SSN) no longer is a good representation of solar magnetic activity such as revealed by e.g. the F10.7 cm microwave flux. The SSN is derived under the assumption that the number of spots per group is constant (in fact, nominally equal to 10). When this is no longer the case (the ratio is approaching 5, only half of its nominal value) the question arises how to construct a sunspot number series that takes that into account. We propose to harmonize the SSN with the sunspot Group Count that has been shown to follow F10.7 very well, but also to include the day-to-day variations of the spot count in order to preserve both long-term and short-term variability

    Solar Activity and the Weather

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    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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