Latitude Quenching Nonlinearity in the Solar Dynamo

Abstract We compare two candidate nonlinearities for regulating the solar cycle within the Babcock–Leighton paradigm: tilt quenching (whereby the tilt of active regions is reduced in stronger cycles) and latitude quenching (whereby flux emerges at higher latitudes in stronger solar cycles). Digitized historical observations are used to build a database of individual magnetic plage regions from 1923 to 1985. The regions are selected by thresholding in Ca ii K synoptic maps, with polarities constrained using Mount Wilson Observatory sunspot measurements. The resulting data show weak evidence for tilt quenching, but much stronger evidence for latitude quenching. Further, we use proxy observations of the polar field from faculae to construct a best-fit surface flux transport model driven by our database of emerging regions. A better fit is obtained when the sunspot measurements are used, compared to a reference model where all polarities are filled using Hale's Law. The optimization suggests clearly that the “dynamo effectivity range” of the Sun during this period should be less than 10°; this is also consistent with latitude quenching being dominant over tilt quenching.