On the Use of Naked-eye Sunspot Observations during the Maunder Minimum

Naked-eye sunspot observations (NESOs) have been recorded for the past two millennia, approximately. These kinds of records were made around the world, mainly in Asian civilizations, and they are compiled in several catalogs. In this work, we analyze solar activity on days of the 19th century when NESOs were recorded. We found that only more than five sunspot groups were recorded in 39% of days corresponding to these NESO events. Furthermore, regarding the largest groups observed on days when NESOs were reported, we show that the uncorrected areas of these groups were below 200 millionths of solar disk (msd) in 3.2% of total cases, while it is 12.9% for areas between 200 and 499 msd. Thus, NESO records do not necessarily imply high solar activity and big sunspot groups. Therefore, these results contradict the interpretations of recent works that, using the same NESO set, suggest the solar activity level during the Maunder Minimum is still an open question. NESO records support the Maunder Minimum as a very low solar activity period.