Last major update issued on January 4, 2012 at 05:50 UTC.
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daily)]
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January 2, 2012)]
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update Jauary 2, 2012)]
[Graphical comparison of cycles 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 and
24 (last update January 2, 2012)]
[Historical solar and geomagnetic data charts 1954-2006
(last update April 5, 2007)]
[Archived reports since January 2003 (last update
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[POES auroral activity level since October
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Annotated geomagnetic activity charts - Carrington rotation
2116 [October-November 2011] -
2117 [November-December 2011]
[Solar polar fields vs solar cycles - updated
June 27, 2011]
The geomagnetic field was quiet to active on January 3. Solar wind speed ranged between 349 and 559 km/s.
Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 134.6 (decreasing 14.3 over the last solar rotation). The planetary A index was 8 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 8.0). Three hour interval K indices: 00002122 (planetary), 10113222 (Boulder).
The background x-ray flux is at the class B4 level.
At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 8 spotted regions (in 2K resolution SDO images).
Region 11388 [S23W23] added several spots and was quiet.
Region 11389 [S16W09] added a few spots and has reversed polarities. Note that SWPC includes
region S1401 in this region.
Region 11390 [N11W45] developed further and could produce C flares.
Region 11391 [N13E69] is the largest region on the visible disk and
currently has a fairly simple magnetic layout. M flares are
posssible.
New region 11392 [N22E09] emerged in the northeast quadrant on January 2
and got an SWPC number the next day.
Spotted regions not reported (or interpreted differently) by NOAA/SWPC:
[S1392] rotated into view at the southeast limb on December 23, slow
decay has been observed since Dec.30. Location at midnight: S18W69
[S1401] rotated into view at the southeast limb on December 28 and
developed significantly in the central and trailing spot sections on Dec.29-31.
The leading spot section decayed on January 1. Quick decay was observed on
January 2-3. Location at midnight: S23W03.
[S1405] reemerged on January 3 with a single tiny spot. Location at midnight:
N20W21
January 1-3: No obviously Earth directed CMEs were observed in LASCO and STEREO imagery.
Coronal hole history (since October
2002)
Compare today's report to the situation one solar rotation ago:
28 days ago
27 days ago
26 days ago
A recurrent trans equatorial coronal hole (CH491) will rotate into an Earth facing position on January 4-5.
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 to fair. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is poor to fair.
The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet on January 4-6. A high speed stream from CH491 could cause some unsettled and active intervals on January 7-8.
| 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 magnetic polarity overlay |
Comment | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWPC | STAR SDO | SWPC | STAR | Current | Previous | |||||
| 11386 | 2011.12.22 2011.12.23 |
1 | S18W69 | 0070 | HSX |
spotless location: S16W73 SWPC includes region S1392 |
||||
| S1392 | 2011.12.23 | 4 | S18W69 | 0050 | CSO |
 |
 |
|||
| 11388 | 2011.12.26 2011.12.27 |
1 | 13 | S23W24 | 0060 | HSX | CSI |
 |
 |
area: 0130 location: S23W23 |
| 11389 | 2011.12.27 2011.12.28 |
20 | 8 | S22W04 | 0240 | ESO | DHO |
 |
 |
reversed polarities area: 0400 location: S16W09 SWPC includes region S1401 |
| S1401 | 2011.12.28 | 25 | S23W03 | 0050 | DRI |
 |
 |
|||
| 11390 | 2011.12.28 | 9 | 23 | N10W42 | 0030 | DRO | DAI |
 |
 |
location: N11W45 area: 0090 |
| S1403 | 2011.12.30 | N24W38 | plage | |||||||
| S1405 | 2011.12.31 | 1 | N20W21 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
||||
| 11391 | 2012.01.02 | 1 | 9 | N12E65 | 0240 | HSX | DHO |
 |
 |
location: N13E69 area: 0550 |
| S1406 | 2012.01.02 | N10E30 |
 |
plage | ||||||
| 11392 | 2012.01.02 2012.01.03 |
3 | 12 | N20E09 | 0010 | BXO | CRO |
 |
 |
location: N22E09 |
| Total spot count: | 35 | 95 | ||||||||
| Sunspot number: | 95 | 175 | (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions) | |||||||
| Weighted penumbral SN: | 58 | 136 | (Sum of total spot count + classification weighting for each AR. Classification weighting: X=0, R=3, A/S=5, H/K=10) | |||||||
| Relative sunspot number (Wolf number): | 57 | 79 | 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 |
| 2010.10 | 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 | 47.6 (+5.8) | 9.18 / 8.94 |
| 2011.06 | 95.8 | 37.0 | 53.2 (+5.6) | 8.96 / 8.06 |
| 2011.07 | 94.2 | 43.9 | (57.8 projected, +4.6) | 9.14 / 8.16 |
| 2011.08 | 101.7 | 50.6 | (62.0 projected, +4.2) | 8.16 / 7.26 |
| 2011.09 | 133.8 | 78.0 | (65.3 projected, +3.3) | 12.80 / 12.27 |
| 2011.10 | 137.3 | 88.0 | (68.8 projected, +3.5) | 7.52 |
| 2011.11 | 153.5 | 96.7 | (73.2 projected, +4.3) | 4.58 |
| 2011.12 | 141.3 | 73.0 | (78.6 projected, +5.5) | 3.32 |
| 2012.01 | 133.1 (1) | 7.4 (2A) / 76.0 (2B) | (84.4 projected, +5.8) | (5.29) |
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.
