Composite Mg II solar activity index for solar cycles 21 and 22

Abstract

The Mg II core‐to‐wing index was first developed for the Nimbus 7 solar backscatter ultraviolet spectrometer (SBUV) instrument as an indicator of solar middle ultraviolet activity that is independent of most instrument artifacts. This index is defined as the ratio of the irradiance in the core of the unresolved Mg II doublet at 280 nm to the nearby continuum irradiance and measures solar variability on both rotational and solar cycle time scales. Mg II index data sets have also been derived for the NOAA 9 and NOAA 11 SBUV/2 instruments. The combined Mg II index data record from the Nimbus 7, NOAA 9, and NOAA 11 instruments presented in this paper extends from November 1978 to January 1992. Differences in the absolute value of the Mg II index and long‐term response to solar variations due to differences in wavelength scale and band pass among the three instruments require the use of linear regression fits to create a single composite Mg II index data set which includes more than 13 years of data. This paper documents version 1.0 of the composite Mg II index data set, which has been widely distributed on CD‐ROM. Using this composite data set, the change in 27‐day running average of the Mg II index from solar maximum to solar minimum is approximately 8% for solar cycle 21 and approximately 9% for solar cycle 22 through January 1992. This difference is not statistically significant when the errors in the linear regression fits used to construct the composite Mg II index are considered. Scaling factors based on the short‐term variations in the Mg II index and solar irradiance data sets are developed for each instrument to estimate solar variability at mid‐ultraviolet and near‐ultraviolet wavelengths. A set of composite scale factors are derived for use with the composite Mg II index presented here. Near 205 nm, where solar irradiance variations are important for stratospheric photochemistry, the estimated change in irradiance during solar cycle 22 is approximately 10(±1)% using the composite Mg II index (version 1.0) and scale factors. However, the actual magnitude of ΔF205 is probably closer to 9% due to unconnected SBUV/2 wavelength scale drift in the current composite Mg II index data set.