Monthly Archives: April 2026

224. Moderate Nesting and Cross-Equatorial Asymmetry of Active Regions in Solar Cycle 24

Contributed by Aimee Norton. Posted on April 3, 2026

HMI data from Solar Cycle 24 data are used to determine how often the Sun emerges sunspots in activity nests. We find that the Sun shows moderate nesting behavior with 41% (48%) of AR magnetic flux found in northern (southern) hemispheric located in nests that are short-lived (average lifetimes 3.3 – 4.0 months) with the definition of nesting being that three or more active regions must emerge within +/- 5◦ latitude and +/- 7.5◦ longitude within four Carrington rotations. The maximum number of nests are found with slightly prograde rotational velocities, with significant nest flux also found at synodic 451–452 nHz prograde and 409–411 nHz retrograde frequencies. The nesting behavior is asymmetric in the hemispheres.