Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Last major update issued on December 9, 2010 at 04:30 UTC.

[Solar and geomagnetic data - last month (updated daily)]
[Solar wind and electron fluence charts (updated daily)
[Solar cycles 21-24 (last update December 3, 2010)]
[Solar cycles 1-20]
[Graphical comparison of cycles 21, 22, 23 and 24 (last update December 3, 2010)]
[Graphical comparison of cycles 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 24 (last update December 3, 2010)]
[Historical solar and geomagnetic data charts 1954-2006 (last update April 5, 2007)]
[Archived reports from January 2003 (last update December 3, 2010)]

[POES auroral activity level charts since October 2009]

Recent activity

The geomagnetic field was quiet on December 8. Solar wind speed ranged between 337 and 445 km/s.

Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 87.2 (up 2.7 over the last solar rotation). The planetary A index  was 3 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 2.8). Three hour interval K indices: 11001021 (planetary), 12111222 (Boulder).

The background x-ray flux is at the class A8 level.

At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 4 spotted regions.

Region 11131 was quiet and stable.
Region 11132 reemerged with a single tiny spot.
Region 11133 was quiet and stable.

Spotted regions not numbered by NOAA/SWPC:
[S846] This region emerged early on December 8 at a high latitude in the northeast quadrant. The region decayed late in the day and could soon become spotless. Location at midnight: N41E18

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs)

December 6-8: No obviously Earth directed CMEs were observed in LASCO or STEREO images.

Coronal holes

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 recurrent trans equatorial coronal hole (CH429) will be in an Earth facing position on December 7-9.

Image courtesy of SDO (NASA) and the AIA consortium. Annotations are my own. The darkest areas on the solar disk are likely coronal holes.

Propagation

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

Forecast

The geomagnetic field is expected to be mostly quiet on December 9. A high speed stream from CH429 will likely cause quiet to active conditions from late on December 9 until December 12.

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.

Active solar regions (Recent map)

Compare to the previous day's image

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 Spot count Location at midnight Area Classification SDO (NASA) / AIA 4500
image
Comment
SWPC STAR SWPC STAR Current Previous
11131 2010.12.02 1 3 N31W10 0330 HAX
(typo?)
CHO  
11132 2010.12.04   1 N10W56 0000   AXX    
11133 2010.12.04 1 2 N14E18 0120 HRX
(typo?)
HSX  
S846 2010.12.08   2 N41E18 0000   BXO    
Total spot count: 2 8  
Sunspot number: 22 48  

Monthly solar cycle data

Month Average measured solar flux International sunspot number (SIDC) Smoothed sunspot number Average ap
(3)
2000.04 184.2 125.5 120.8
cycle 23 sunspot max.
 
2000.07 202.3 170.1 119.8  
2001.12 235.1 132.2 114.6 (-0.9)  
2008.07 65.7 (SF minimum) 0.5 2.8 (-0.4)  
2008.12 69.2 0.8 1.7 (-)
sunspot minimum
3.25
2009.09 70.5 4.3 6.2 (+1.4) 3.88 / 3.61
2009.10 72.6 4.8 7.1 (+0.9) 3.66 / 3.56
2009.11 73.6 4.1 7.6 (+0.5) 2.45 / 2.63
2009.12 76.7 10.8 8.3 (+0.7) 1.41 / 1.92
2010.01 81.1 13.2 9.3 (+1.0) 2.93 / 3.07
2010.02 84.7 18.8 10.6 (+1.3) 4.15 / 4.61
2010.03 83.4 15.4 12.3 (+1.7) 4.58 / 4.65
2010.04 75.9 8.0 14.0 (+1.7) 10.22 / 10.24
2010.05 73.8 8.7 15.5 (+1.5) 9.18 / 8.15
2010.06 72.5 13.6 (16.9 predicted, +1.4) 8.17 / 6.85
2010.07 79.8 16.1 (18.4 predicted, +1.5) 6.31 / 5.15
2010.08 79.2 19.6 (19.6 predicted, +1.2) 8.49 / 7.77
2010.09 81.1 25.2 (20.8 predicted, +1.2) 5.33 / 5.45
2010.10 81.6 23.5 (23.2 predicted, +2.4) 6.07 / 6.27
2010.11 82.5 21.6 (26.1 predicted, +2.9) 4.80
2010.12 87.2 (1) 8.7 (2A) / 33.8 (2B) (28.6 predicted, +2.5) (1.98)

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 international sunspot number is typically 30-50% lower. 2B) Month average to date.
3) Running average based on the 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.