Latitude distribution of sunspots: Analysis using sunspot data and a dynamo model

With the progress of the solar cycle, the distributions in two hemispheres from mid-latitudes propagate toward the equator and then (before the usual solar minimum) these two distributions touch each other. By visualizing the evolution of the distributions in two hemispheres, we separate the solar cycles by excluding this hemispheric overlap.

From these isolated solar cycles in two hemispheres, we generate latitude distributions for each cycle, starting from cycle 8 to cycle 23. We find that the parameters of these distributions, namely the central latitude (C), width (d), and height (H), evolve with the cycle number, and they show some hemispheric asymmetries. Although the asymmetries in these parameters persist for a few successive cycles, they get corrected within a few cycles, and the new asymmetries appear again.