A composite Mg II index spanning from 1978 to 2003

The Mg II core‐to‐wing ratio is a measure of solar chromospheric variability. The Mg II Index, formed by combining various Mg II core‐to‐wing data sets, has been used in EUV, UV, and total solar irradiance models. It is one of the longest records of solar variability reaching back nearly 25 years. We present a single, continuous time series of the Mg II core‐to‐wing ratio extending from November 1978 to the present. The Mg II core‐to‐wing ratio is a measurement that is well suited to the creating of a single time series despite the fact that the seven different instruments measuring the solar flux near 280 nm have different spectral resolutions and sample rates. The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM), UARS Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE), ERS‐2/Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) and five NOAA solar backscatter ultraviolet data sets were used. Initially, the best data sets were selected to create a time series spanning from 1978 to the present. Then the gaps in the record were filled with data from various other Mg II data sets. Where no alternate data were available, a cubic spline function was used to bridge the missing data. In some cases the data gaps were too long for reasonable spline fits (more than 5 days), and for these gaps the F10.7 cm flux data were scaled to fill the gaps. Thus a continuous, uninterrupted time series of the Mg II core‐to‐wing ratio was created. The final Mg II time series is compared with other solar activity indices, such as the F10.7, He I 1083, and Sunspot number, to look for trends in the Mg II data.