Last major update issued on November 30, 2011 at 05:35 UTC.
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Annotated geomagnetic activity charts - Carrington rotation
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June 27, 2011]
The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled on November 29. Solar wind speed ranged between 412 and 482 km/s under the influence of CME effects. The interplanetary magnetic field was mostly northwards making this a fairly weak disturbance.
Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 140.6 (decreasing 13.0 over the last solar rotation). The planetary A index was 9 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 8.6). Three hour interval K indices: 33221131 (planetary), 33322232 (Boulder).
The background x-ray flux is at the class B5 level.
At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 10 spotted regions (in 2K resolution SDO images).
Region 11355 [N15W74] was quiet and stable.
Region 11356 [N17W50] was mostly quiet and stable.
Flare: C1.1 at 01:15 UTC
Region 11358 [N22W13] decayed further retaining only rudimentary penumbra
on the trailing spots.
Region 11361 [N20E08] developed further and has minor polarity
intermixing. Further C class flaring is likely.
Flare: C2.1 at 03:32 UTC
Region 11362 [N08E52] developed slowly and has polarity intermixing.
Further development near the northern edge of the leading penumbra could create
a magnetic delta structure.
Flare: C2.5 at 09:00 UTC
New region 11363 rotated into view at the southeast limb on November 28
and was numbered the next day by SWPC.
New region 11364 rotated fully into view at the northeast limb.
Spotted regions not reported by NOAA/SWPC:
[S1338] emerged in the northeast quadrant on November 26. Location at
midnight: N17E17
[S1342] was split off from region 11363, the region is located to the
southeast of 11363. Location at midnight: S23E74.
Flare: C1.1 at 22:26 UTC
[S1343] emerged in the southeast quadrant on November 29. Location at
midnight: S10E53
November 27: A filament eruption near the center of the visible disk was
observed beginning at 11:12 UTC. A small and slow moving CME was observed
beginning at 11:24 UTC in
STEREO-A images, this CME preceeded a larger backsided CME.
November 28-29: 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 coronal hole (CH486) in the southern hemisphere was in an Earth facing position on November 26-27.
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 poor to fair.
The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled on Nov.30 and December 1 due to coronal hole effects and quiet on December 2.
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 | |||||
11355 | 2011.11.17 2011.11.18 |
1 | 1 | N14W73 | 0040 | HSX | HSX |
|
||
11356 | 2011.11.19 | 4 | 10 | N16W50 | 0080 | ESO | CSO |
|
||
11358 | 2011.11.22 | 12 | 19 | N20W12 | 0130 | DSI | DSO |
location: N22W12 |
||
11361 | 2011.11.24 2011.11.25 |
9 | 20 | N18E07 | 0080 | DSO | DAI | beta-gamma | ||
11360 | 2011.11.24 2011.11.25 |
N17W45 | plage | |||||||
S1337 | 2011.11.25 | S17E27 | plage | |||||||
S1338 | 2011.11.26 | 1 | N17E17 | 0000 | AXX | |||||
11362 | 2011.11.27 | 8 | 12 | N08E49 | 0110 | DSO | DAO |
beta-gamma area: 0260 |
||
11363 | 2011.11.28 2011.11.29 |
1 | 1 | S18E67 | 0040 | HSX | HSX |
area: 0090 location: S17E69 |
||
11364 | 2011.11.28 2011.11.29 |
1 | 2 | N17E73 | 0030 | HSX | CSO |
area: 0100 location: N19E76 |
||
S1342 | 2011.11.29 | 6 | S23E74 | 0120 | DAO | split off from S1339 | ||||
S1343 | 2011.11.29 | 1 | S10E53 | 0000 | AXX | |||||
Total spot count: | 36 | 73 | ||||||||
Sunspot number: | 106 | 173 | (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions) | |||||||
Weighted penumbral SN: | 71 | 113 | (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): | 64 | 78 | 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 |
2010.09 | 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 | 153.8 (1) | 128.9 (2A) / 133.4 (2B) | (74.9 predicted, +4.4) | (4.38) |
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.