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Solar Rotation Applet

You may use the keys"m", "d", "h" to increase the month, date, or hour, or shift keyand "m", "d", "h" to decrease the month, date, or hour. Click the applet first !

The Sun rotates on its axis once in about 27 days. This rotation was first detected by observing the motion of sunspots (animation). The Sun's rotation axis is tilted by about 7.25° from the axis of the Earth's orbit.

N, S = poles of the ecliptic SNP = Solar North Pole Solar coordinates (from:Glossary of Solar-Terrestrial Terms) P = The position angle between the geocentric north pole and the solar rotational north pole measured eastward from geocentric north. The range in P is +/- 26.3°. B0= Heliographic latitude of the central point of the solar disk. The range of B0 is +/- 7.23°, correcting for the tilt of the ecliptic with respect to the solar equatorial plane. L0= Heliographic longitude of the central point of the solar disk. The longitude value is determined with reference to a system of fixed longitudes rotating on the sun at a rate of 13.2 °/day (the mean rate of rotation observed from central meridian transits of sunspots). The standard meridian on the sun is defined to be the meridian that passed through the ascending node of the sun's equator on 1 January 1854 at 1200 UTC and is calculated for the present day by assuming a uniform sidereal period of rotation of 25.38 days.

The applet is using the algorithm from Meeus, Jean: Astronomical Algorithms

B₀, the heliographic latitude of the central point of the solar disk, in 2006

P, the position angle, in 2006

B₀ and P in 2006

	B0	P
Minimum	-7.250° Mar 06	-26.283° Apr 06
Maximum	7.250° Sep 08	26.283° Oct 10
Zero	Jun 06 Dec 08	Jan 05 Jul 07

Extreme values of B₀ and P in 2006

Heliographic latitude B₀ vs. longitude L₀ in 2007

2007 Solar ephemerids and parameters (Carrington rotation, B0, L0, P)

Perihelion and Aphelion Sun Comparison
 

Web Links

The inclination of the Sun's rotation axis Solar Physics Information Definitions of solar coordinates Glossary of Solar-Terrestrial Terms Ephemerids, Grids, Date conversion Solar Coordinates of Observed Sun Spots Base de données Solaire Sol 2000, archive of french ground-based solar data (Solar ephemerids and parameters (Carrington rotation, B0, L0, P) Solar rotation (Wikipedia) Calculation of solar parameters: P, B0, L0, Carrington Rotation number,...

Updated: 2009, Jul 29