Last major update issued on April 1, 2012 at 06:35 UTC.
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Annotated geomagnetic activity charts - Carrington rotation
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2119 [January-February
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[Solar polar fields vs solar cycles - updated
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The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled on March 31. Solar wind speed at SOHO ranged between 326 and 368 km/s.
Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 110.1 (decreasing 10.0 over the last solar rotation). The Potsdam WDC planetary A index was 6 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 5.6). Three hour interval K indices: 11112321 (planetary), 01003320 (Boulder).
The background x-ray flux is at the class B2 level.
At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 11 spotted active regions (in 2K resolution SDO images).
Region 11443 [N13W58] was quiet and stable.
Region 11445 [S22W32] was quiet and stable.
Region 11448 [S17E17] decayed slowly and quietly.
Region 11449 [S18W45] developed slowly and could produce C flares.
New region 11450 [N16E37] emerged in the northeast quadrant on March 30
and was numbered by SWPC one day later.
New region 11451 [N18E57] rotated into view at the northeast limb early
on March 30 and got an SWPC number the next day. This is old AR 11429 and has
reversed polarities.
Spotted regions not reported by NOAA/SWPC:
[S1548] emerged in the northeast quadrant on March 23 and developed
quickly on March 26. Slow decay was observed on March 27 while new spots emerged
in the leading spot section on March 28 resulting in minor polarity intermixing.
The region decayed on March 29-31 and could soon become spotless. SWPC has this as AR
11442, a region which was originally further west. Location at midnight: N13W69.
[S1553] rotated into view at the southeast limb on March 27. Location at midnight:
S18E27
[S1558] emerged in the southeast quadrant on March 28. Location at
midnight: S30W18
[S1562] emerged near the northeast limb on March 31. Location at midnight:
N16E74
[S1563] emerged in the northeast quadrant on March 31. Location at
midnight: N26E16
March 29-31: 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 small coronal hole (CH510) in the northern hemisphere was in an Earth facing position on March 30. A new trans equatorial coronal hole (CH511) emerged near the central meridian on March 31.
The above coronal hole map is based on a method where coronal holes are detected automatically. While the method may need some fine tuning, 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 this method, the extent and intensity of both CHs 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 fair. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is poor.
The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet on April 1. Weak effects from CH510 are possible on April 2 and from CH511 on April 3.
Coronal holes (1) | Coronal mass ejection (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 | ||||||
2K | 1K | ||||||||||
11438 | 2012.03.19 2012.03.20 |
S13W79 | plage | ||||||||
11442 | 2012.03.21 2012.03.22 |
4 | N12W66 | 0050 | DSO |
spotless location: N12W72 SWPC data is for AR S1548 |
|||||
11443 | 2012.03.21 2012.03.22 |
3 | 6 | 1 | N13W60 | 0030 | CRO | CRO | location: N13W58 | ||
11444 | 2012.03.22 2012.03.23 |
N21W72 |
plage location: N19W63 |
||||||||
11445 | 2012.03.23 | 3 | 4 | 1 | S23W26 | 0130 | CSO | CHO |
area: 0260 location: S22W32 |
||
S1547 | 2012.03.23 | N29W49 | plage | ||||||||
S1548 | 2012.03.23 | 3 | N13W69 | 0000 | AXX | ||||||
11448 | 2012.03.26 2012.03.28 |
3 | 5 | 2 | S17E15 | 0010 | BXO | BXO | location: S17E17 | ||
S1552 | 2012.03.26 | N12W50 | plage | ||||||||
S1553 | 2012.03.27 | 3 | S18E27 | 0000 | AXX | ||||||
S1554 | 2012.03.27 | N16W42 | plage | ||||||||
11449 | 2012.03.28 2012.03.29 |
4 | 12 | 7 | S18W47 | 0030 | CRO | DRO | |||
S1558 | 2012.03.28 | 3 | 1 | S30W18 | 0000 | AXX | |||||
S1559 | 2012.03.29 | N22W45 | plage | ||||||||
11450 | 2012.03.30 2012.03.31 |
5 | 12 | 3 | N15E38 | 0020 | CRO | CRO | |||
11451 | 2012.03.30 2012.03.31 |
4 | 4 | N17E53 | 0020 | CRO | BXO |
location: N18E57 area: 0000 |
|||
S1562 | 2012.03.31 | 2 | 1 | N16E74 | 0000 | BXO | |||||
S1563 | 2012.03.31 | 1 | N26E18 | 0000 | AXX | ||||||
Total spot count: | 26 | 55 | 16 | ||||||||
Sunspot number: | 96 | 165 | 86 | (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions) | |||||||
Weighted penumbral SN: | 48 | 74 | 35 | (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): | 58 | 58 | 47 | k * (sunspot number). k = 0.6 for SWPC, k = 0.35 (changed from 0.45 on March 1, 2011) for STAR SDO 2K, k = 0.55 for STAR SDO 1K |
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 |
|
2010.12 | 84.2 | 14.4 | 28.8 (+2.3) | 4.35 |
2011.01 | 83.6 | 19.1 | 31.0 (+2.2) | 5.51 |
2011.02 | 94.6 | 29.4 | 33.4 (+2.4) | 6.44 |
2011.03 | 115.0 | 56.2 | 36.9 (+3.5) | 8.18 |
2011.04 | 112.6 | 54.4 | 41.8 (+4.9) | 8.83 |
2011.05 | 95.8 | 41.6 | 47.6 (+5.8) | 8.94 |
2011.06 | 95.8 | 37.0 | 53.2 (+5.6) | 8.06 |
2011.07 | 94.2 | 43.9 | 57.2 (+4.0) | 8.16 |
2011.08 | 101.7 | 50.6 | 59.0 (+1.8) | 7.26 |
2011.09 | 133.8 | 78.0 | (59.2 projected, +0.2) | 12.27 |
2011.10 | 137.3 | 88.0 | (59.4 projected, +0.2) | 8.28 |
2011.11 | 153.5 | 96.7 | (60.8 projected, +1.4) | 5.55 |
2011.12 | 141.3 | 73.0 | (63.6 projected, +2.8) | 3.78 |
2012.01 | 132.5 | 58.3 | (67.1 projected, +3.5) | 7.15 |
2012.02 | 106.5 | 33.1 | (71.0 projected, +3.9) | 8.81 |
2012.03 | 114.7 (1) | 76.7 (2A/2B) | (73.2 projected, +2.2) | (20.13) |
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 quicklook Potsdam WDC ap indices.
Values in red are based on the definitive
international Potsdam
WDC
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.