With the rapid development of telescopes, both temporal cadence and the spatial resolution of observations are increasing. This in turn generates vast amount of data, which can be efficiently searched only with automated detections in order to derive the features of interest in the observations. A number of automated detection methods and algorithms have been developed for solar activities, based on the image processing and machine learning techniques. In this paper, after briefly reviewing some automated detection methods, we describe our efficient and versatile automated detection method for solar filaments. It is able not only to recognize filaments, determine the features such as the position, area, spine, and other relevant parameters, but also to trace the daily evolution of the filaments. It is applied to process the full disk Hα data observed in nearly three solar cycles, and some statistic results are presented.

Concentrated magnetic structures such as sunspots and starspots play a fundamental role in driving solar and stellar activity. However, as opposed to the sun, observations as well as numerical simulations have shown that stellar spots are usually formed as high-latitude patches extended over wide areas. Using a fully spectral magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code, we simulate polar starspots produced by self-consistent dynamo action in rapidly rotating convective shells. We carry out high resolution simulations and investigate various properties related to stellar dynamics which lead to starspot formation.

Solar wind kinetic energy gets transferred into the Earth’s magnetosphere as a result of dynamo action between magnetosphere and solar wind. Energy is then dissipated among various dissipation channels in the MI system. In the present study, energetics of 59 intense geomagnetic storms are analyzed for the period between 1986 and 2015, which covers the three consecutive solar cycles SC 22, 23 and 24. The average solar wind energy impinging the MI system is estimated using Epsilon parameter, the coupling function. Moreover, the relative importance of different energy sinks in the MI system are quantified and is found that more than 60% of solar wind energy is dissipated in the form of ionospheric Joule heating.

We re-examined solar polar magnetic fields, using ground based synoptic photospheric magnetograms, during solar cycle 24. IThe signed polar magnetic fields showed an unusual hemispheric asymmetry in the polar field reversal process with a single unambigous reversal in the Southern hemisphere around late 2013 while the polar reversal in the Northern hemisphere started earlier around June 2012, but was completed only by the end of 2014. The examination of the unsigned polar magnetic fields in cycle 24 showed a continuing decline of fields in the Northern hemisphere whereas in the Southern hemisphere, it had partially recovered. However, the overall declining trend in solar polar fields, which began in the mid-1990’s, is still in progress. The continued decline seen in solar photospheric fields raises thequestion of whether we are heading towards a Grand or Maunder like solar minimum.

A typical sunspot, as seen in white-light intensity images, has a two part structure: a dark umbra and a lighter penumbra. Such distinction primarily arises due to the different orientations of magnetic fields in these two regions. In this study, we use the Kodaikanal white-light digitized data archive to analyze the long-term evolution of umbral and penumbal area. We used an ‘automated algorithm’ to uniquely identify the sunspot umbra (including the calculation of penumbra to umbra ratio) from these digitized intensity images. Our analysis reveals that the ratio increases slightly with the increase of sunspot area upto 100 μHem but eventually settles down to a constant value after that. This study, not only allows us to better understand the evolution of an individual spot and its corresponding magnetic field but this is also beneficial for solar dynamo studies which aim to reproduce such structures using a MHD theory.

Kyiv program of monitoring of long-term variation of solar spectral lines at the horizontal solar telescope of the Main Astronomical Observatory of Ukraine is described. The aim of the program is to clarify the issue how the physical parameters of the quiet solar atmosphere change over the 11-year cycle of solar activity. The diagnostics of the atmospheric variation includes analysis of more than 40 spectral lines of neutral and ionized chemical elements observed at the solar disk and at the limb near north and south poles with high spectral resolution. The results of monitoring show that during 2012–2017 a line core depths and a line full widths at half maximum respond to the cycle modulation of the global unsigned magnetic field of the Sun. Such a correlation can be explained by assuming that temperature gradient of the solar photosphere is growing with solar activity.

We analyze the flux emergence rate of solar active regions (ARs). Numerical simulations by other authors suggest that the flux emergence rate depends on the AR’s twist. To prove this statement observationally, we make a comparison of the flux emergence rate and twist of 215 emerging ARs. Our results confirm that the correlation exists: the higher the twist the higher the flux emergence rate of an AR. We suppose that the difference in the twist can be caused by chaotic influence of the convective plasma motions on the lifting magnetic flux tube.

The solar oscillation frequencies have shown variation over the solar activity cycle, which is believed to be the indicator of the structural and magnetic changes taking place in the Sun. The ground-based network of six identical solar telescopes in the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) program has been nearly-continuously observing the Sun since the last quarter of the year 1995 for Doppler imaging of the solar-disk aimed to study the oscillations and velocity flows on the surface of the Sun. In this work, we study the variations in the solar disk-integrated mean velocity flows on the solar surface as observed with the GONG over the complete Solar Cycle 23 and ongoing Cycle 24. The correlation analysis of these solar photospheric mean velocity flows relative to the various solar activity indicators is also discussed.

Extreme solar storms are well known in the historical databases. Since the modern era, it has been possible to associate clearly geomagnetic disturbances with solar events (flares, SEP, CMEs). In the recent solar cycles the geoeffective events (number and strength) are decreasing. As an example, in the 2002 maximum activity year, we present how many flares, and CMEs were geoeffective. Based on observations and simulations, we discuss on the size of sunspots and the field strength to get more energetic flares (> 1032 ergs) in the near future.

Temporal oscillations of F2 layer critical frequency are direct outcome of solar EUV variability. The hourly data of F2 layer critical frequency (foF2) during solar cycle 23 over eight ionosonde stations which falls within same longitudinal span are evaluated using Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) to estimate the ionospheric variations. The quasi triennial, annual, semiannual, 27 day and diurnal variations of foF2 are clearly evident in the wavelet power spectra of all the stations. Quasi triennial oscillations which show a clear latitudinal dependence is more evident in southern stations. A strong quasi biennial oscillation (QBO) is also noticed in higher latitudes which was not observable in equatorial latitude. The present study reveals that the semiannual variations are more obvious over the annual variation in the equatorial and low latitude stations while the annual variations are prominent in higher latitudes.

The merits of solar coronal at metric-wavelength (MW) radio have long been recognised (e.g. Pick and Vilmer, 2008). High-fidelity solar radio imaging at these frequencies has however remained challenging. On the one hand, dealing with the small spectral and temporal scales of variation in solar radio emission requires a data product capable of tracking the emission simultaneously across time, frequency and morphology. The Fourier imaging nature of interferometry, on the other hand, severely limits the instrumental ability to gather sufficient information to do this with the required fidelity and resolution. Benefiting from the enormous advances in technology the new generation of instruments, like the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA; Tingay et al. (2013), Bowman et al. (2013)), represent a quantum leap in our ability to gather data suitable for radio solar physics.

Reconstructions of long-term solar variability underpin our understanding of the solar dynamo, potential tropospheric climate implications and future space weather scenarios. Prior to direct spacecraft measurements of the heliospheric magnetic field (HMF) and solar wind, accurate annual reconstructions are possible using geomagnetic and sunspot records. On longer timescales, information about the HMF can be extracted from cosmogenic radionuclide records, particularly 14C in ancient trees and 10Be in ice sheets. These proxies, and what they reveal about the HMF and solar wind, are briefly reviewed here.

Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) are high-energy particles ejected by the Sun which consist of protons, electrons and heavy ions having energies in the range of a few tens of keVs to several GeVs. The statistical features of the solar energetic particles (SEPs) during different periods of solar cycles are highly variable. In the present study we try to quantify the long-range dependence (or long-memory) of the solar energetic particles during different periods of solar cycle (SC) 23 and 24. For stochastic processes, long-range dependence or self-similarity is usually quantified by the Hurst exponent. We compare the Hurst exponent of SEP proton fluxes having energies (>1MeV to >100 MeV) for different periods, which include both solar maximum and minimum years, in order to find whether SC-dependent self-similarity exist for SEP flux.

Long-term periodicities of magnetic fields in cool stars are usually studied from activity indicators, which are only indirectly related to the presence of the field. Direct detections are complicated issues since even a complex magnetic structure, as the solar one, has a very low disk integrated magnetic signal, which is usually hidden in the noise level. We introduce a method for the direct measurement of small integrated longitudinal stellar magnetic fields (effective magnetic fields), called multi-line slope method, based on the regression of the Stokes V signal with respect to the first derivative of Stokes I. We present the results of the application of this technique to a dataset of 9 yr of observations of the active star epsilon Eridani, obtained with the spectropolarimeters Narval, HARPSpol and CAOS, showing that the long-term variation of the effective magnetic field corresponds to the period of the cycle retrieved by the activity indicators.

Solar rotation is still one of the unresolved concern of solar physics. We performed time series analysis on the bins formed on equally separated latitude regions on the soft X-ray images. These images are observed with the X-ray telescope (XRT) on board the Hinode satellite. The flux modulation method traces the passage of X-ray feature over the solar disc and statistical analysis of the time series data of the SXR images (one per day) for the period extends from year 2015 to 2017 gives the coronal rotation period as a function of latitude. The investigation provided quite systematic information of the solar rotation and its variability.

We could find a new 5 year periodicity in the occurrences of peaks in sunspot activity and inferred deviations of annual Indian monsoon rainfall variations from the normal during the Maunder minimum (MM) period. This result is explained in terms of solar dynamo functioning in a different mode from normal during the MM where quadrupole field (first harmonic, 5-5.5 years) dominate over dipole field (fundamental, 11 years) causing extreme north south asymmetry in sunspot activity.

At low radio frequencies the solar corona is very dynamic in both spectral and temporal domains. To capture the fine details of this complex dynamics, imaging studies at high temporal and spectral resolution are necessary. The advent of the new instruments like the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA; Tingay et al. 2013, Bowman et al. 2013), is now making this possible.

We address the importance of historical full-disc Ca II K spectroheliograms for solar activity and irradiance reconstruction studies. We review our work on processing such data to enable them to be used in irradiance reconstructions. We also present our preliminary estimates of the plage areas from five of the longest available historical Ca II K archives.

In this proceeding, we present a summary of the recent scientific results that have been derived using the newly digitized whit-light (WL) data obtained from the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory.