Sunspots and solar variability

The analyses of Willson et al. (1981) and Hudson et al. (1981) are extended in correlating the total solar irradiance monitor (ACRIM) data with the routine synoptic sunspot data. At the simplest level, this correlation reveals clearly that the so-called 'missing flux' is truly missing in the sense that large young active regions do produce at net diminution of the irradiance when their spots cross the central meridian. It is pointed out that the irradiance deficit must of course be made up, either promptly or on intermediate time scales; this is because the surface effects cannot perturb the energy generation processes in the interior. In the approach taken here, simple models of the reemission are constructed, the total reemission is scaled to the estimated sunspot deficit, and an attempt is made to measure the parameters of the models by a statistical comparison with ACRIM data.