Heliographic distribution of major h-α solar flare during solar cycle 23

In this paper we investigated the heliographic longitudinal as well as latitudinal distribution of major H-α solar flares (flares of high optical importance imp ≥ 1) for the solar cycle 23 periods 1996-2010. This period of investigation includes the ascending as well as descending period of solar cycle 23. The study reveals that for heliographic latitude majority of solar flares confined between latitude 10°-30° for both northern and southern hemisphere. Whereas for heliographic longitude we observed approximately symmetric occurrence of solar flares. The H-α solar flare occurrence dominates during increasing phase of the solar cycle achieve a peak value in middle part of solar cycle (year-2000) and show an abnormal decrease during descending phase of solar cycle. The occurrence of solar flare also compared with yearly mean sunspot number and noticed that solar flares follows the solar cycle with maximum number observed in the year 2000-2001 during the maxima of solar cycle 23.