Does Correction Factor Vary with Solar Cycle?

Abstract

Monitoring sunspots consistently is the most basic step required to study various aspects of solar activity. To achieve this goal, the observers must regularly calculate their own correction factor <TEX>$k$</TEX> and keep it stable. Relatively recently, two observing teams in South Korea have presented interesting papers which claim that revisions that take the yearly-basis <TEX>$k$</TEX> into account lead to a better agreement with the international relative sunspot number <TEX>$R_i$</TEX>, and that yearly <TEX>$k$</TEX> apparently varies with the solar cycle. In this paper, using artificial data sets we have modeled the sunspot numbers as a superposition of random noise and a slowly varying background function, and attempted to investigate whether the variation in the correction factor is coupled with the solar cycle. Regardless of the statistical distributions of the random noise, we have found the correction factor increases as sunspot numbers increase, as claimed in the reports mentioned above. The degree of dependence of correction factor <TEX>$k$</TEX> on the sunspot number is subject to the signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, we conclude that apparent dependence of the value of the correction factor <TEX>$k$</TEX> on the phase of the solar cycle is not due to a physical property, but a statistical property of the data.