Influence of atmospheric dust on non-telescopic sunspot observations

✍ Scribed by Sultan Hameed; Gaofa Gong

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 296 KB
• Volume: 132
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00152296

✦ Synopsis

Catalogues of non-telescopic sunspot observations from the Orient have been presented by several authors. Since atmospheric dust facilitates naked-eye observation of the Sun we investigate its possible influence by comparing the historical records of sunspot sightings and atmospheric dust storms. A distinction is made between the record up to the end of the Ming dynasty that is based on court documents and the post-Ming reports that are all provincial sightings. The earlier record is found to be significantly anti-correlated with C-14 fluctuations while the latter one is weakly anti-correlated. The provincial sightings contain a much larger signature of atmospheric turbidity, as is also indicated by their poor comparison with telescopic data.