Meridional motions of stable recurrent sunspot groups

Stable recurrent sunspot groups from the Greenwich data set which were iden tified in at least two subsequent solar rotations were traced and meridiona l motions were determined from the two central meridian passages. In total, 327 meridional velocities were calculated and the results for the northern and the southern solar hemisphere were compared. A dependence of the solar meridional velocity vectors on the development status, latitude and positi on respectively to the activity belt of sunspots is investigated. The resul ts indicate that sunspot groups are moving on the average away from the cen ter of activity. This was found for sunspot groups growing and decreasing i n area.