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The Sunspot Number Series

Abstract

SUNSPOT numbers form a quasi-periodic series (see Fig. 1, upper curve) going back for eighteen cycles to 1750. Very numerous attempts have been made to analyse the series, with little success. It does not appear to contain a truly periodic term, as do tides and weather records. The fundamental Fourier component, as determined over a particular section of the series, yields only a poor estimate of the next cycle, both in duration and in phase. Very little regularity of any kind has been found.

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  1. Yule, G. U., Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., A, 226, 267 (1926–27).

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BRACEWELL, R. The Sunspot Number Series. Nature 171, 649–650 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/171649a0

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