Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Activity chart

Last major update issued on September 14, 2015 at 04:45 UT.

Charts (* = updated daily) Data and archive
  Solar wind (*) Solar and geomagnetic data - last month (*)
  Electron fluence (*) Archived daily reports and monthly data from 2003.01 (September 1, 2015)
Solar cycle Solar cycles 23-24 (September 1, 2015) Historical solar and geomagnetic data charts 1954-2006 (April 5, 2007)
  Cycle 24 progress (September 1, 2015) Noon SDO sunspot count 1K Reference: 4K (large file) (*)
  Solar cycles 1-24 (July 17, 2015) POES auroral activity level October 2009 - December 2012
  Comparison of cycles 21, 22, 23 and 24 (September 1, 2015) 3rd SSN Workshop, Tucson, 2013
  Comparison of cycles 12, 13, 14, 16 and 24 (September 1, 2015) 4th SSN Workshop, Locarno, 2014
  Solar polar fields vs solar cycles (August 18, 2015)  

Recent activity

The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled on September 13 under the influence of effects from CH689. Solar wind speed at SOHO ranged between 428 and 476 km/s.

Solar flux at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 98.8 (increasing 11.8 over the last solar rotation). The 90 day 10.7 flux at 1 AU was 108.5. The Potsdam WDC planetary A index was 10 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 10.1). Three hour interval K indices: 11232333 (planetary), 11243332 (Boulder).

The background x-ray flux is at the class B2 level.

At the time of counting spots (see image time), spots were observed in 9 active regions using 2K resolution (SN: 152) and 7 active regions using 1K resolution (SN: 104) SDO images on the visible solar disk.

Region 12411 [N14W53] decayed slowly and quietly.
Region 12412 [S07W33] decayed slowly and quietly.
Region 12414 [S10W46] decayed slowly and quietly and has a simple magnetic layout.
Region 12415 [S20E39] gained spots and could produce occasional C flares.
New region 12418 [S15E72] rotated into view on September 12 and was numbered by SWPC the next day.

Spotted regions not numbered (or interpreted differently) by SWPC:
S4743 [N10W35] reemerged with a penumbra spot.
S4752 [S01E23] reemerged with penumbra spots.
New region S4755 [N12E76] is an emerging region near the northeast limb.
New region S4756 [S08W09] was observed with penumbra spots.

C2+ flares:

Magnitude Peak time (UTC) Location AR Recorded by Comment
           

Flare activity (SDO/EVE/ESP XRS-B proxy)

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs)

September 11-13: No obviously Earth directed CMEs were observed in available LASCO imagery.

Coronal holes

[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 large northern hemisphere coronal hole (CH689) will be in an Earth facing position on September 9-15. A recurrent trans equatorial coronal hole (CH690) will rotate into an Earth facing position on September 16-17. CH690 appears to be merging with CH689.

Propagation

Long distance low and medium frequency (below 2 MHz) propagation along paths north of due west over upper middle latitudes is poor. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is fair.

Forecast

The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled on September 14-18 due to effects from CH689, active intervals are possible on September 14 when the southernmost extension becomes geoeffective. Quiet to active conditions are possibly on September 19-20 as CH690 becomes geoeffective.

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: 0-30% probability, Yellow: 30-70% probability, Red: 70-100% probability.

Active solar regions


(Click on image for 2K resolution) Compare to the previous day's image.

0.5K image

When available the active region map has a coronal hole polarity overlay where red (pink) is negative and blue 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 overlays
Comment
SWPC Magnetic
(SDO)
SWPC STAR Current Previous
2K 1K
12411 2015.09.03
2015.09.04
1 2 1 N15W54 0010 AXX AXX area: 0005
12412 2015.09.05
2015.09.06
3 8 4 S07W35 0010 AXX BXO  
S4743 2015.09.07   1 1 N10W35 0004   AXX    
S4744 2015.09.07       N07W11          
12417 2015.09.07
2015.09.12
      N25W62          
12414 2015.09.08
2015.09.09
9 7 4 S10W49 0190 DAI EHO

area: 0370

12415 2015.09.10
2015.09.11
11 38 22 S22E41 0170 DAI DAI beta-gamma

area: 0280

location: S20E39

12416 2015.09.10
2015.09.11
      S14W64          
S4752 2015.09.11   2 1 S01E23 0004   AXX    
12418 2015.09.12
2015.09.13
1 1 1 S15E69 0120 HSX HHX area: 0340
S4755 2015.09.13   1   N12E76 0001   AXX    
S4756 2015.09.13   2   S08W09 0004   BXO    
Total spot count: 25 62 34  
Sunspot number: 75 152 104  (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions)
Weighted SN: 40 87 59  (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): 83 84 88 k * (sunspot number)
As of July 1, 2015: k = 1.1 for SWPC, k = 0.55 for MSN 2K, k = 0.85 for MSN 1K (MSN=Magnetic Sunspot Number)

Monthly solar cycle data

Month Average solar flux International sunspot number
(WDC-SILSO) (4)
Smoothed sunspot number (4) Average ap
(3)
Measured 1 AU
2014.02 170.3
(cycle peak)
166.3 146.1 (cycle peak) 110.5 (+1.2) 10.70
2014.04 143.9 144.8 112.5 116.4 (+2.1) (solar max) 7.88
2014.05 129.7 132.9 112.5 115.0 (-1.4) 5.75
2014.06 122.0 125.8 102.9 114.1 (-0.9) 6.72
2014.07 137.4 141.8 100.2 112.6 (-1.5) 4.50
2014.08 124.7 127.9 106.9 108.3 (-4.3) 7.71
2014.09 146.6 148.1 130.0 101.9 (-6.4) 9.78
2014.10 153.4 152.9 90.0 97.4 (-4.5) 8.96
2014.11 154.8 151.4 103.6 95.0 (-2.4) 9.33
2014.12 158.7 153.8 112.9 92.6 (-2.4) 11.24
2015.01 141.9 137.3 93.0 89.8 (-2.8) 9.46
2015.02 129.1 126.0 66.7 86.6 (-3.2) 9.92
2015.03 125.9 124.6 54.5 (82.1 projected, -4.5) 16.14
2015.04 128.8 129.7 78.0 (78.0 projected, -4.1) 10.73
2015.05 120.0 122.6 90.0 (75.3 projected, -2.7) 8.29
2015.06 122.3 126.1 68.3 (71.6 projected, -3.7) 13.15
2015.07 107.0 110.8 66.4 (67.9 projected, -3.7) 8.83
2015.08 105.4 108.0 64.6 (66.7 projected, -1.2) 14.58
2015.09 (88.3)   21.0 (2A) / 48.5 (2B) / 65.6 (2C) (67.0 projected, +0.3) (20.6)

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).
2B) Boulder SN current month average to date.
2C) STAR SDO 1K Wolf number 30 day average.
3) Running average based on the quicklook and definitive Potsdam WDC ap indices. Values in red are based on the definitive international GFZ Potsdam WDC ap indices.
4) Updated to new data set from WDC-SILSO on July 1, 2015

This report has been prepared by Jan Alvestad. It is based on the analysis of data from whatever sources are available at the time the report is prepared. All time references are to Universal Time. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

SDO images are courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.