Hale's polarity law
= Hale's polarity law
{c}
Bipolar solar active regions preferentially have one leading magnetic polarity in a given hemisphere and cycle, the opposite leading polarity in the other hemisphere, and reversed assignments in the next cycle. These statistical polarity rules reveal the ordered toroidal component of the <solar magnetic field>. Individual active regions can violate the preferred pattern, so the law is a statistical regularity rather than an exact rule for every spot pair.