Bipolar Active Regions Detection (BARD) Tilt Catalog

<h2>Citation and Acknowledgements</h2>

<p><br>Please cite both this database the paper describing it, as well as adding the following acknowledgement:

<p><br><b>"The BARD catalog of BMRs was downloaded from the solar dynamo dataverse (https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/solardynamo), maintained by Andrés Muñoz-Jaramillo." </b></p>

<p><br> Database citation format is shown at the top of this page, underneath the database title. It can be downloaded in a variety of formats directly from this page</p>

<p><br>The papers describing this database are</p>

<p><br><b>A. Munoz-Jaramillo, Z. A. Werginz, J. P. Vargas-Acosta, M. D. DeLuca, J. C. Windmueller, J. Zhang, D. W. Longcope, D. A. Lamb, C. E. DeForest, S. Vargas-Dominguez, J. W. Harvey, & P. C. H. Martens</b> , IEEE International Conference on Big Data, 3194 (2016). <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7840975">https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7840975</a> <br>
</p>

<p><br><b>A. Munoz-Jaramillo, B. Navarrete, & L. A. Campusano</b> , The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 920, Issue 1, id.31, 11 pp. <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021ApJ...920...31M">https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021ApJ...920...31M</a><br>
</p>

<h2>Main Limitations</h2>

<p><br>The main limitations of these data are:</p>

<ol>
<li>BMR magnetic fluxes don't include cross-magnetograph calibration factors. Care must be taken when combining data from different surveys. A preliminary analysis suggests that all instruments can be combined 'as is', with the exception of SOHO/MDI. Applying a factor of 0.8 to MDI fluxes is necessary to homogenize them with the rest of instruments. </li>

<li>Returning BMRs are counted as a new object. We have not yet paired long-lived objects across multiple solar rotations.</li>

<li>Only one entry per BMR is included in this database at the time of maximum total unsigned flux. This means that BMRs that emerge on the 'dark' side of the Sun and rotate into view may have had some time to decay.</li>

</ol>

<h2>File Structure</h2>
There is a single file for each instrument and a merged catalog without overlaps and with MDI Flux calibrated using a factor of 0.8.

<h2>Description</h2>

<p><br>Catalog of bipolar magnetic regions detected using the semi-automatic Bipolar Active Region Detection (BARD) code. Each active region is detected and tracked at a cadence of one magnetogram per day.</p>

<p><br>The detection of positive and negative regions is done separately and then they are paired into BMRs based on flux-balance, size difference, and physical proximity. Then they are tracked as they crossed the disk. Pairing and tracking is vetted by a human observer:</p>
<br>
<pre>

ReferenceDay: Arbitrary mission day
Year
Month
Day
Hour
Minute
Second
BMRLabel: Arbitrary BMR label, unique to each mission
PFlux: Positive region magnetic flux (Mx)
PArea: Positive region area (m)
PLatitude: Positive region latitude of flux-weighted centroid
PLongitude: Positive region longitude of flux-weighted centroid
PpixelAvgRadius: Positive region flux-weighted average radius in pixels
NFlux: Negative region magnetic flux (Mx)
NArea: Negative region area (m)
NLatitude: Negative region latitude of flux-weighted centroid
NLongitude: Negative region longitude of flux-weighted centroid
NpixelAvgRadius: Negative region flux-weighted average radius in pixels
R: Radius from disk center
LeadingPolarity: Polarity of leading region
DayAfterChrist: Absolute number of days after christ
FRACYEAR: Fractional year of observation
PlotSize: Size that can be used in plotting
BMRLatitude: Flux weighted centroid of BMR Latitude
BMRLongitude: Flux weighted centroid of BMR Longitude
BMRArea: Total BMR area (m)
BMRFlux: Total BMR unsigned flux (Mx)
Flux_cut: Boolean mask marking with 'TRUE' BMRS whose numbers don't suffer from instrumental problems
Tilt_rel: Relative tilt using the leading polarity as reference
Tilt_abs: Absolute tilt using the negative polarity as reference
HH_2Xn: Boolean mask marking with 'TRUE' Hale BMRs in the Northern hemisphere for solar cycle 2X
AH_2Xn: Boolean mask marking with 'TRUE' Anti-Hale BMRs in the Northern hemisphere for solar cycle 2X
HH_2Xs: Boolean mask marking with 'TRUE' Hale BMRs in the Southern hemisphere for solar cycle 2X
AH_2Xs: Boolean mask marking with 'TRUE' Anti-Hale BMRs in the Southern hemisphere for solar cycle 2X
Cycle_2Xn: Boolean mask marking with 'TRUE' for BMRs in the Northern hemisphere for solar cycle 2X
Cycle_2Xs: Boolean mask marking with 'TRUE' for BMRs in the Southern hemisphere for solar cycle 2X
Hale: Boolean mask marking Hale regions
AntiHale: Boolean mask marking anti-Hale regions

</pre>