Solar rotation

[2] The Carrington rotation[clarification needed] at the time this article was loaded, 12 February 2025 07:26:29 (UTC), was CR2294.

The values of A, B, and C differ depending on the techniques used to make the measurement, as well as the time period studied.

[3] A current set of accepted average values[4] is: At the equator, the solar rotation period is 24.47 days.

To a person standing on Earth's North Pole at the time of equinox, sunspots would appear to move from left to right across the Sun's face.

The serial number serves as a kind of calendar to mark the recurrence periods of solar and geophysical parameters.

The heliographic longitude of a solar feature conventionally refers to its angular distance relative to the central meridian crossed by the Sun-Earth radial line.

Sidereal rotation is measured relative to the stars, but because the Earth is orbiting the Sun, we see this period as 27.2753 days.

The longitude is measured by the time of crossing the central meridian and based on the Carrington rotations.

The Bartels "musical diagram" or the Condegram spiral plot are other techniques for expressing the approximate 27-day periodicity of various phenomena originating at the solar surface.

The differential profile of the surface was thought to extend into the solar interior as rotating cylinders of constant angular momentum.

This profile extends on roughly radial lines through the solar convection zone to the interior.

The solar rotation can be seen in the background of this false color video.
Solar rotation period as a function of latitude. Plotted according to .
Five year video of Sun, one frame per Carrington period.
Internal rotation in the Sun, showing differential rotation in the outer convective region and almost uniform rotation in the central radiative region. The transition between these regions is called the tachocline.