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Rieger Periodicity Behaviour in Solar Mg ii 280 nm Spectral Emission

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Abstract

The temporal variation of the approximately 155-day Rieger solar periodicity, first detected in solar-flare data, is investigated in the Mg ii spectral emission as observed at 280 nm during the interval between 1980 and 2019. Daily mean values of Mg ii at each annual interval are spectrally analysed using Lomb–Scargle and Morlet wavelet techniques to obtain the temporal behaviour of particularly the ≈ 155-day Rieger as well as the \(\approx 27\)-day solar-rotation periodicities. Results obtained indicate substantial power in the Rieger periodicity that varies on an annual basis. In particular we found that the power of the Rieger periodicity exceeds that of the 27-day period during the maxima of Solar Cycles 21 (1981), 22 (1992), and 23 (2001), with the power of the 27-day periodicity dominating during the minima of these cycles. In contrast to these findings, we observe a substantial increase in power of the Rieger periodicity in comparison to that of the ≈ 27-day solar-rotation period during the minima of Solar Cycles 23 (2006, 2007) and 24 (2018, 2019). We report the first detection of the ≈ 1.3-year period as well as the temporal behaviour of the ≈ 155-day Rieger periodicity in Mg ii at 280 nm.

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Acknowledgements

The SigmaPlot (www.systat.com) plotting package was used to produce all graphs and plots in this manuscript, while the contour plots were generated using the Interactive Data Language (IDL: www.exelisvis.com/ProductsServices/IDL.aspx) wavelet applet.

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Kotzé, P.B. Rieger Periodicity Behaviour in Solar Mg ii 280 nm Spectral Emission. Sol Phys 296, 44 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-021-01786-5

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