X-ray bright points and the solar cycle dependence of emerging magnetic flux

Soft X-ray imaging of the solar corona during the period 1970 to 1978 resulted in significant modifications to the view of the solar cycle with respect to both the properties of the large scale (coronal holes) and small scale (X-ray Bright Points) solar magnetic field. In the latter case, the particular contribution is to the emerging magnetic flux. Sounding rocket observations combined with the Skylab data indicate that the XBP are anticorrelated with sunspot number and are the dominant contributors to the solar cycle. A continuous data set covering a complete cycle would enable the validity of this result which has serious implications for the nature of the solar dynamo, to be confirmed.