Book Description

A flare event list that is consistent with flare patrol times is prerequisite to a reliable, unbiased estimate of flare occurrence per unit patrol time. A comparison of the flare occurrence times and flare patrol times reported by 52 solar observatories during the period of 1955 to 1964 discloses that 12.3 percent of the flare reports (Importance = or > 1) have no reported patrol coverage. Elimination of these 'unpatrolled' flare reports reduces the number of individual flare events in the data sample by 9.7 percent. This means that flare occurrence per unit patrol time computed from the raw flare and flare patrol data is overestimated by this same percentage. In addition to eliminating 'unpatrolled' flare reports, appropriate adjustments are made in the 'patrolled' flare data so as to make each observatory's reported flare times completely consistent with its reported patrol times.