Statistical Overview of Long-lived Active Regions Observed across Multiple Carrington Rotations

The study of solar active regions (ARs) is of central importance to a range of fundamental science, as well as the practical applications of space weather. AR emergence and life cycles are two areas of particular interest, yet the lack of consistent full-Sun observations has made long-term studies of ARs difficult. Here, we present results from a study to identify and characterize long-lived active regions (LLARs), defined as those which were observed during at least two consecutive Carrington rotations and that did not undergo significant successive flux emergence once the decay phase began. Such ARs accounted for 13% of all NOAA-identified ARs between 2011 and 2019, and their distribution closely follows the annual sunspot number. This implies that LLARs are produced by the same basic driving processes as regular ARs. LLAR areas tend to be significantly larger and contain more magnetic flux compared to other ARs, but the two categories have similar magnetic complexity distributions. The most striking result, however, is that LLARs are 3–6 times more likely than other ARs to be the source of a solar flare of GOES class C or greater. This highlights the importance of studying what makes a LLAR and how to identify them at emergence with a view toward improved space weather forecasting. The further implications of these findings for AR heating spatial and temporal patterns will be explored in an upcoming study.