Solar North–South Asymmetry and Hilbert Transform Analysis

Here, we investigated the observed sunspot areas with respect to latitudes using the Hilbert transform technique. Conventional study of the cyclic patterns of sunspots is based on the Lomb-Scargle periodogram, which only obtains the amplitude information. In comparison, our approach characterizes the amplitude as well as the phase of solar activity. We demonstrated the solar North–South asymmetry in the instantaneous amplitude by analyzing daily sunspot data set spanning from the solar cycles 11 to 24. Our findings confirm that the northern hemisphere is dominant in the solar cycles 14, 15, 16, 18, and 20. Unlike the amplitude, the North-South asymmetry in the period of solar activity could not be established. We have also found that the standard deviation as a measure of fluctuation in the phase derivative is minimum in the latitude band, and the fluctuations obtained for latitudes above 30◦ are considerable.