Page:Climatic Cycles and Tree-Growth - 1919.djvu/102

82 From the description above it is easily seen that the sunspots are not likely to be in themselves the fundamental solar activity, but rather an index of something else, and possibly a very sensitive index, for the percentage change in spot numbers is hundreds of times as great as the percentage changes in measured radiation between sunspot maxima and minima.

Suggested causes of sunspots. — The cause of sunspots is still a matter of conjecture, and there is no generally accepted hypothesis to explain them. There is analogy to our clouds in that both indicate decreased temperature. In their limitation to certain latitudes they resemble the belts of Jupiter. The belts of Jupiter are roughly the lines of division between the powerful easterly equatorial current and the slower moving zones on either hand; and indeed this has been suggested as an explanation of the particular location in latitude of the sunspots, for there is an increase in speed of rotation of the sun's surface as the equator is approached. Their periodic character is very difficult to explain. Fundamental periodic changes in the body of the sun have been suggested and, in the absence of better explanations, some such statement hazily indicating the direction in which explanation is to be sought, is perhaps the best that we can do. Planetary influence, however, has often been proposed as the cause. The near agreement between the revolution period of Jupiter and the sunspot period has naturally attracted attention. Stratton (1911-1912) has made a very interesting study of the appearance, continuance, and disappearance of spots on portions of the sun facing toward or away from Jupiter and Venus. A few per cent more spots do originate and disappear on the "afternoon" of the side facing Venus than on other longitudes, but he considers the case of physical relationship not proven.

Planetary influence is sought in a theory proposed by W. J. Spillman (1915). In this theory gravitation is assumed to be due to pressure variations in the ether arising from electronic rotation in the attracting body. The varying speed of a planet in its orbit between perihelion and aphelion, involving varying quantities of energy, requires, he says, an interchange between the kinetic energy of the plant and the atomic energy of the central attracting body. This atomic energy is in the vibrations of the electrons, but he thinks it is likely to affect both the temperature and the electric activity of the central body. The effect in this way of Jupiter and Saturn would exceed the sum of all the other planets combined and is therefore the only one considered. The effect of Jupiter with its substantial variations in distance between perihelion and aphelion predominates, and we have a marked resemblance between the sunspot curves since 1770 and the differential planetary effect. One notices that this interchange of energy would presumably affect all parts of the sun alike and that therefore we could not expect an excess of sunspots on the side facing Jupiter.