Speaker
Description
For consistent measures of solar activity over many cycles, the only possibility is the long historical record of sunspot counts made by human eyes looking through a telescope. For this we have records going back four centuries, but there are substantial problems with consistent calibration across many cycles. An independent data source is the large number of sunspot counts collected by the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) for 1945-- 2026. The problem is that all the raw data for before 2001 has been lost. Fortunately, back in 1996, I copied a large batch of the original raw counts, covering 1945 to the mid-1970s. Further, I have collected from a wide range of sources the original raw counts for many long- term AAVSO observers from 1945--2001. I now have daily raw counts, with coverage over every year 1945 to present, with ~20 long-term observers covering each year. With this database, my goal is to provide a consistent calibration of sunspot counts over the last eight cycles. However, I would like the suggestions and advice of SPACE CLIMATE 10 attendees on the best method to combine these counts into a consistent whole. I propose a method where the long-term observers that cover one cycle are normalized then averaged on a day-by-day basis, creating a consistent count over the cycle. Multiple cycles are linked to a common calibration by the long-term observers that cover two-or-more cycles. However, I need suggestions and improvements, as well as community acceptance of the method.