Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am doing a project on science buddies called 'Correlation of Coronal Mass Ejections with the Solar Sunspot Cycle,' but i am a bit confused. i have found a LOT of data about sunspots, monthly data dating back to the 1700's, but i have only found data for coronal mass ejections back to 1996 on the soho website that they recommend (http://cdaw.gsfc.nasa.gov/CME_list/). I need at least back to 1964! PLEASE!!!! I NEED HELP IMMEDIATELY!!! Can you link me a reliable website that has the data i need and if not tell me what to do?

Hi - I believe you have spotted a problem in the directions for this Project Idea, and I am sorry for the confusion it may have caused. I talked with our lead scientist, and the directions will be edited to clarify and to deal with the fact that, as you noted, there is a lot of historical data for sunspots but coronal mass ejection data in the source is 1996+.

Here are the steps we propose you take:

Make two tables. One of those tables will show historic sunspot data. That will give you a view of what the cycles look like.

Then graph the mass ejections on a NEW graph. On that graph, you will add just the corresponding months/years for sunspot data so you can see the two together.

That will give you an idea of what the two look like together. You can then look at your historic data table to see what part of the cycle we're in and use both graphs to see if mass ejections are correlating well.

I hope that helps!

Amy
Science Buddies

Thank you for the clarification. I really appreciate it!