Chinese sunspot drawings and their digitization – (III) quasi-biennial oscillation of the hand-drawn sunspot records

Abstract Quasi-biennial Oscillations (QBOs) of the Sun have a significant meaning as a benchmark of solar cycle, not only for understanding the dynamo action but also in terms of space weather prediction. In this paper, the hand-drawn sunspot images recorded from the Purple Mountain Observatory are used to investigate the solar QBOs and the Gnevyshev gap of the sunspot relative numbers (Rs) and group sunspot numbers (Rg) during the period 1954–2011. The main results are as follows: (1) both the Rs and Rg exhibit similar periods including the 22-year magnetic cycle, the 11-year Schwabe cycle, and the QBOs modes; (2) the reconstructed QBOs of both data sets exhibit coherent behavior and tend to have a high amplitude during the maximum phase of each solar cycle; (3) the Gnevyshev gap is produced by the superposition of the QBOs and the 11-year Schwabe cycle, and the Rs is better to study the variation of the Gnevyshev gap rather than the Rg.