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Sunspot Records by Antonio Colla Just After the Dalton Minimum

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Abstract

Antonio Colla was a meteorologist and astronomer who made sunspot observations at the Meteorological Observatory of the Parma University (Italy). He carried out his sunspot observations from 1830 to 1843, just after the Dalton Minimum. We have recovered 71 observation days for this observer. Unfortunately, many of these records are qualitative and we could only obtain the number of sunspot groups and/or single sunspots from 25 observations. However, we highlight the importance of these records because Colla is not included in the sunspot group database as an observer and, therefore, neither are his sunspot observations. With regards to the number of groups, the sunspot observations made by Colla are similar to those of several observers of his time. For common observation days, only Stark recorded significantly more groups than Colla. Moreover, we have calculated the sunspot areas and positions from Colla’s sunspot drawings concluding that both areas and positions recorded by this observer seem unreal. Therefore, Colla’s drawings can be interpreted such as sketches showing reliable information on the number of groups but the information on sunspot areas and positions should not be used for scientific purposes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly funded by FEDER-Junta de Extremadura (Research Group Grant GR18097 and project IB16127) and from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of the Spanish Government (CGL2017-87917-P). The authors have benefited from the participation in the ISSI workshops led by M.J. Owens and F. Clette on the calibration of the sunspot number. The authors are grateful to Mr. P Fantini of the Meteorological Service and Dr. Maria Grazia Perazzo of the Historical Archive of the Parma University for making available the original sources for inspection and to Dr. Ilaria Alfieri, Department of Chemistry, Life and Environmental Sustainability Sciences, University of Parma for having retrieved high resolution images of the sunspots drawings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Física, Universidad de Extremadura, 06071, Badajoz, Spain

    V. M. S. Carrasco & M. C. Gallego

  2. Instituto Universitario de Investigación del Agua, Cambio Climático y Sostenibilidad (IACYS), Universidad de Extremadura, 06006, Badajoz, Spain

    V. M. S. Carrasco, M. C. Gallego & J. M. Vaquero

  3. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, 7491, Norway

    C. Bertolin & L. de Ferri

  4. Fundación ARAID, 50018, Zaragoza, Spain

    F. Domínguez-Castro

  5. Departamento de Geografía y Ordenación del Territorio, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain

    F. Domínguez-Castro

  6. Departamento de Física, Universidad de Extremadura, 06800, Mérida, Spain

    J. M. Vaquero

Authors
  1. V. M. S. Carrasco
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  2. C. Bertolin
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  3. F. Domínguez-Castro
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  4. L. de Ferri
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  5. M. C. Gallego
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  6. J. M. Vaquero
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to V. M. S. Carrasco.

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Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest and Ethical Statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. All authors contributed to the study conception and design. The first draft of the manuscript was compiled by V.M.S. Carrasco and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Appendix: Historical Sources

Appendix: Historical Sources

Archivio di Stato di Parma. 1828a. Presidenza dell’Interno, busta 48. Nota statistico personale del Signor Colla Antonio, del 22 Maggio 1828.

Archivio di Stato di Parma. 1828b. Presidenza dell’Interno, busta 48. Documento del 16 Maggio 1828.

Archivio di Stato di Parma. 1828c. Presidenza dell’Interno, busta 48. Protocollo del 20 Giugno 1828.

Archivio Storico dell’Università di Parma. 1834. Divisione unica, busta 31, fascicolo 4, carta 54. Manuscript.

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Carrasco, V.M.S., Bertolin, C., Domínguez-Castro, F. et al. Sunspot Records by Antonio Colla Just After the Dalton Minimum. Sol Phys 295, 112 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-020-01678-0

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