Sunspot data - use this if the other file did not work

Contents

You first need to download the data file

Download the file sunspot_data2.csv and put it in the same directory as your other m-files

Read monthly sunspot data since 1749 until right now

Explanation of sunspot data

Note that this will write the file sunspot_data.csv into your current working directory (specified at the top of your Matlab window). Change the current directory to the directory where your own m-files are (if you don't have write permission for the current directory you will get an error message).

filename = 'sunspot_data2.csv';

T = readtable(filename);   % read file, gives "table" datatype
data = table2array(T);     % convert to array

t_midmonth = data(:,3);    % column 3 is date of middle of month (in fraction of year)
f = data(:,4);             % sunspot numbers are in column 4

N = length(f);
t = (0:N-1)/12;            % we pretend data are taken at intervals of h=1/12 years


plot(t,f,'.-'); axis tight % plot data
xlabel('years since 1749')
title('Monthly mean total sunspot number')