Large Sunspot Groups and Great Magnetic Storms: Magnetic Suppression of CMEs

A solar spot group with a large area is not a requirement for a great magnetic storm. Nearly half (14/30) of all storms with a minimum Dst value <=-300 nT from 1932-2014 originated in spot groups with corrected areas <= 1000 millionths of a solar hemisphere (mu sh) on the day of the associated eruption. Over the same interval, spot groups with area 3000-4000 mu sh were similar to 250 times more likely to give rise to a great storm than those with areas from 100-1000 mu sh, with the high percentage of great storms originating in small spot groups attributed primarily to the much higher occurrence frequency of such groups. Above similar to 3500 mu sh, the ability of a spot group to produce a great storm appears to drop abruptly. For the 1932-2014 interval, we find that for the 71 days when a spot group had a measured daily area of 3000-3500 mu sh, five great storms were observed versus none for the 67 times when a group spot with an area from 3500 to similar to 6000 mu sh was observed on the Sun. This is consistent with recent studies indicating that large spot groups on the Sun and stars can suppress coronal mass ejections.