Mid-Term Solar Activity Oscillations and Geomagnetic Field Variations

Abstract

In solar activity, in addition to the 11-year Schwabe cycle, there are also shorter-period oscillations in the range from 27 days to 11 years, which are called mid-term oscillations. In our study, we identify quasi-6-year oscillations in solar activity expressed by the sunspot number SN using wavelet analysis and investigate the characteristics of these variations during 1750–2020. The analysis shows that the ~6-year cycle in SN is a real independent oscillation. A similar quasi-6-year periodicity has been found in the monthly mean records of geomagnetic field components at the Sitka and Honolulu observatories during 1910–2020. It was found that the variations of the geomagnetic field in the range of 5–6-year periods can be caused by the effect of variations in solar activity in the same frequency range. In addition, in the SN series and geomagnetic field variations, a quasi-biennial cycle is well observed, the amplitude of which in some time intervals exceeds the amplitude of the cycle with a period of 5–6 years.