Simulation of Sunspot Activity During Active Sun and Great Minima Using Regular, Random and Relic Fields

摘要

Developing the idea of Ruzmaikin (1997, 1998), we have constructed a model of sunspot production using three components of solar magnetic field: the 22-year dynamo field, a weak constant relic field, and a random field. This model can reproduce the main features of sunspot activity throughout the 400-year period of direct solar observations, including two different sunspot activity modes, the present, normal sunspot activity and the Maunder minimum. The two sunspot activity modes could be modeled by only changing the level of the dynamo field while keeping the other two components constant. We discuss the role of the three components and how their relative importance changes between normal activity and great minimum times. We found that the relic field must be about 3–10% of the dynamo field in normal activity times. Also, we find that the dynamo field during the Maunder minimum was small but non-zero, being suppressed typically by an order of magnitude with respect to its value during normal activity times.