Why isn't the solar constant a constant?

Abstract

In order to probe the mechanism of variations of the Solar Constant on the inter-solar-cycle scale, total solar irradiance (TSI, the so-called Solar Constant) in the time interval of 7 November 1978 to 20 September 2010 is decomposed into three components through the empirical mode decomposition and time-frequency analyses. The first component is the rotation signal, counting up to 42.31% of the total variation of TSI, which is understood to be mainly caused by large magnetic structures, including sunspot groups. The second is an annual-variation signal, counting up to 15.17% of the total variation, the origin of which is not known at this point in time. Finally, the third is the inter-solar-cycle signal, counting up to 42.52%, which are inferred to be caused by the network magnetic elements in quiet regions, whose magnetic flux ranges from $(4.27-38.01)\times 10^{19}$ Mx.

to appear in ApJ

References in corpus (2)

• The Sun's small-scale magnetic elements in Solar Cycle 23
• Search for Short-Term Periodicities in the Sun's Surface Rotation: A Revisit

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