Last major update issued on November 8, 2011 at 05:35 UTC.
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Annotated geomagnetic activity charts - Carrington rotation
2114 [August-September 2011] -
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[Solar polar fields vs solar cycles - updated
June 27, 2011]
The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled on November 7. Solar wind speed ranged between 315 and 388 km/s. Solar wind speed increased slowly as a low speed stream from CH484 gradually became the dominant solar wind factor.
Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 182.1 (increasing 52.0 over the last solar rotation, and a new high (not counting flare enhanced measurements) for cycle 24). The planetary A index was 4 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 4.4). Three hour interval K indices: 03001121 (planetary), 03212321 (Boulder).
The background x-ray flux is at the class B7 level.
At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 10 spotted regions (in 2K resolution SDO images).
Region 11334 [N13W87] was quiet and stable
Region 11336 [N17W33] was quiet and stable.
Region 11338 [S14W12] became less complex and was quiet.
Region 11339 [N19E05] decayed losing quite a bit of penumbral area. There
is still a chance of a major flare. Flares:
C3.5 at 03:10, C1.4 at 09:34, C3.2 at 23:28 UTC.
Region 11340 [S09E37] was quiet and stable.
Region 11341 [N10E56] was quiet and stable.
Region 11342 [N17E47] developed many new spots. C class flaring is
possible.
Region 11343 [N27E77] was quiet and stable.
New region 11344 [S23E06] emerged in the southeast quadrant with spots on
November 3, became spotless and reemerged with several spots on November 6. SWPC
numbered the region on Nov.7 when slow decay was observed.
Spotted regions not reported by NOAA/SWPC:
[S1314] emerged in the northeast quadrant on November 7. Location at midnight:
N20E23
A large filament eruption in the northwest quadrant was observed beginning at 22:32 UTC in SDO images. A CME was observed both in STEREO and LASCO images, but does not appear to be Earth directed.
November 5-7: No obviously Earth directed CMEs observed.
Coronal hole history (since late October
2002)
Compare today's report to the situation one solar rotation ago:
28 days ago
27 days ago
26 days ago
A small coronal hole (CH484) in the northern hemisphere was in an Earth facing position on November 3.
The above coronal hole map is based on a new method where coronal holes are detected automatically. The method may need some fine tuning, however, it has significant advantages over detecting coronal holes manually. The main improvement is the ability to detect coronal holes at and just beyond the solar limbs. Early results using this method for SDO images over a span of several weeks indicate a good match between coronal holes observed over the visible disk and their extent and position at the east and west limbs. Note that the polar coronal holes are easily detected using the new method, the extent and intensity of both holes are consistent with other data sources.
Long distance low and medium frequency (below 2 MHz) propagation along paths north of due west over high and upper middle latitudes is poor. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is fair.
The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled on November 8 due to weak effects from CH484 and quiet on November 9-10.
| Coronal holes (1) | Coronal mass ejections (2) | M and X class flares (3) |
1) Effects from a coronal hole could reach Earth within the
next 5 days. When the high speed stream has arrived the color changes to
green.
2) Effects from a CME are likely to be observed at Earth within 96 hours.
3) There is a possibility of either M or X class flares within the next 48
hours.
Green: 0-20% probability, Yellow: 20-60% probability, Red: 60-100% probability.
(Click on image for higher resolution image)
Compare to the
previous day's image
When available the active region map has a coronal hole polarity overlay where red (pink) is negative and blue (blue-green) is positive.
Data for all numbered solar regions according to the Solar Region Summary provided by NOAA/SWPC. Comments are my own, as is the STAR spot count (spots observed at or inside a few hours before midnight) and data for regions not numbered by SWPC or where SWPC has observed no spots. SWPC active region numbers in the table below and in the active region map above are the historic SWPC/USAF numbers.
| Active region | Date numbered detected |
Spot count | Location at midnight | Area | Classification | SDO / HMI 4K continuum image with polarity overlay |
Comment | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWPC | STAR SDO | SWPC | STAR | Current | Previous | |||||
| 11336 | 2011.10.29 2011.10.31 |
6 | N11W43 | 0000 | BXO |
 |
 |
location: N17W33 | ||
| 11334 | 2011.10.29 2011.10.30 |
2 | 1 | N12W87 | 0040 | CSO | HSX |
 |
 |
|
| 11337 | 2011.10.30 2011.10.31 |
N18W28 |
 |
location: N25W23 plage |
||||||
| 11338 | 2011.10.31 2011.11.01 |
16 | 24 | S12W11 | 0240 | ESI | DSI |
 |
 |
area: 0400 location: S14W12 |
| 11339 | 2011.11.01 | 45 | 76 | N19E05 | 1240 | FKC | FKC |
 |
 |
beta-gamma-delta |
| 11344 | 2011.11.03 2011.11.07 |
1 | 5 | S22E06 | 0000 | AXX | BXO |
 |
 |
|
| S1309 | 2011.11.03 | S22W40 | plage | |||||||
| 11340 | 2011.11.04 2011.11.05 |
1 | 1 | S09E36 | 0090 | HSX | HSX |
 |
 |
area: 0150 |
| S1311 | 2011.11.04 | N16W14 | plage | |||||||
| 11341 | 2011.11.05 | 3 | 9 | N10E55 | 0180 | CAO | CAO |
 |
 |
area: 0240 |
| 11342 | 2011.11.05 | 5 | 28 | N17E47 | 0170 | EAO | EHI |
 |
 |
area: 0300 |
| 11343 | 2011.11.05 2011.11.06 |
1 | 1 | N27E62 | 0140 | HSX | HSX |
 |
 |
location: N27E64 |
| S1313 | 2011.11.05 | N25W54 | plage | |||||||
| S1314 | 2011.11.07 | 1 | N20E23 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
|
|||
| Total spot count: | 74 | 152 | ||||||||
| Sunspot number: | 154 | 252 | (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions) | |||||||
| Classification adjusted SN: | 114 | 197 | (Sum of total spot count + classification adjustment for each AR. Classification adjustment: X=0, R=3, A/S=5, H/K=10) | |||||||
| Relative sunspot number (Wolf number): | 92 | 113 | k * (sunspot number). k = 0.6 for SWPC. k = 0.45 (changed from 0.33 on Nov.1) for STAR SDO | |||||||
| Month | Average measured solar flux | International sunspot number (SIDC) | Smoothed sunspot number | Average ap (3) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008.07 | 65.7 (SF minimum) | 0.5 | 2.8 (-0.4) | |
| 2008.12 | 69.2 | 0.8 | 1.7 (-) sunspot minimum |
3.25 |
| 2010.07 | 79.8 | 16.1 | 16.7 (+0.3) | 6.31 / 5.15 |
| 2010.08 | 79.2 | 19.6 | 17.4 (+0.7) | 8.49 / 7.77 |
| 2010.09 | 81.1 | 25.2 | 19.6 (+2.2) | 5.33 / 5.45 |
| 2010.10 | 81.6 | 23.5 | 23.2 (+3.6) | 6.07 / 6.27 |
| 2010.11 | 82.5 | 21.5 | 26.5 (+3.3) | 4.80 / 5.50 |
| 2010.12 | 84.2 | 14.4 | 28.8 (+2.3) | 3.41 / 4.35 |
| 2011.01 | 83.6 | 19.1 | 31.0 (+2.2) | 4.32 / 5.51 |
| 2011.02 | 94.6 | 29.4 | 33.4 (+2.4) | 5.41 / 6.44 |
| 2011.03 | 115.0 | 56.2 | 36.9 (+3.5) | 7.79 / 8.18 |
| 2011.04 | 112.6 | 54.4 | 41.8 (+4.9) | 9.71 / 8.83 |
| 2011.05 | 95.8 | 41.6 | (47.4 predicted, +5.6) | 9.18 / 8.94 |
| 2011.06 | 95.8 | 37.0 | (52.5 predicted, +5.1) | 8.96 / 8.06 |
| 2011.07 | 94.2 | 43.9 | (58.2 predicted, +5.7) | 9.14 / 8.16 |
| 2011.08 | 101.7 | 50.6 | (63.7 predicted, +5.5) | 8.16 / 7.26 |
| 2011.09 | 133.8 | 78.0 | (67.0 predicted, +3.3) | 12.80 / 12.27 |
| 2011.10 | 137.3 | 88.0 | (70.5 predicted, +3.5) | 7.52 |
| 2011.11 | 165.3 (1) | 30.0 (2A) / 128.4 (2B) | (74.9 predicted, +4.4) | (7.23) |
1) Running average based on the daily 20:00 UTC observed solar flux value at
2800 MHz.
2A) Current impact on the monthly sunspot number based on the Boulder
(NOAA/SWPC) sunspot number (accumulated daily sunspots / month days). The
official SIDC international sunspot number is typically 30-50% lower. 2B) Month
average to date.
3) Running average based on the preliminary daily SWPC ap indices.
Values in red are based on the official NGDC
ap indices.
This report has been prepared by Jan Alvestad. It is based on analysis of data from whatever sources are available at the time the report is prepared. All time references are to the UTC day. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
SDO images are courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
