Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Activity chart

Last major update issued on April 21, 2012 at 05:55 UTC.

[Solar and geomagnetic data - last month (updated daily)]
[Solar wind and electron fluence charts (updated daily)
[Solar cycles 21-24 (last update April 1, 2012)]
[Solar cycles 1-20]
[Graphical comparison of cycles 21, 22, 23 and 24 (last update April 1, 2012)]
[Graphical comparison of cycles 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 24 (last update April 1, 2012)]
[Historical solar and geomagnetic data charts 1954-2006 (last update April 5, 2007)]
[Archived reports since January 2003 (last update April 1, 2012)]

[POES auroral activity level since October 2009 - updated April 18, 2012]
Annotated geomagnetic activity charts - Carrington rotation 2118 [December 2011 - January 2012] - 2119 [January-February 2012]
[Solar polar fields vs solar cycles - updated June 27, 2011]

Recent activity

The geomagnetic field was quiet to active on April 20. Solar wind speed at SOHO ranged between 299 and 364 km/s. A weak disturbance arrived at ACE near 03h UTC and may have been associated with a CME observed on April 16.

Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 141.7 (increasing 39.0 over the last solar rotation). The Potsdam WDC planetary A index was 10 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 9.8). Three hour interval K indices: 14422111 (planetary), 13322311 (Boulder).

The background x-ray flux is at the class B6 level.

At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 11 spotted active regions (in 2K resolution SDO images).

Region 11459 [S16E02] has many small spots and is becoming magnetically more complex. The region has minor polarity intermixing and could produce C and minor M class flares.
Region 11460 [N15W13] added penumbral area and has minor polarity intermixing. M flares are possible.
Region 11461 [N12E26] lost penumbral area and was quiet.
Region 11462 [S25W46] has two large penumbrae with little significant magnetic complexity.
Region 11463 [S27W67] decayed further and was quiet.
Region 11464 [N23E02] decayed slowly and quietly.
New region 11465 [S17E41] emerged in the southeast quadrant on April 19 and developed very quickly on April 20 when it was numbered by SWPC. M flares are possible. The region was the source of most of the day's low level C flares.

Spotted active regions not numbered by NOAA/SWPC:
S1598
[N11E27] added a few spots and was quiet.
S1599 [S26W06] reemerged with several spots.
New region S1604 [N10E66] emerged near the northeast limb.
New region S1605 [S11E06] emerged to the north of AR 11459.

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs)

April 19-20: No obviously Earth directed CMEs were observed in LASCO and STEREO imagery.
April 18: A small CME associated with a C8 event in region 11463 could have had an Earth directed component.

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 coronal hole (CH514) in the northern hemisphere will likely rotate into an Earth facing position on April 21.

Coronal hole map

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.

Propagation

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.

Forecast

The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to active on April 21-22 due to CME effects and quiet to unsettled on April 23.

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.

Active solar regions

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
11454 2012.04.09
2012.04.10
      S12W70           plage
11457 2012.04.12
2012.04.13
      N20W53           plage
S1583 2012.04.13       S31W56           plage
11458 2012.04.14       N06W19          

plage

location: N08W08

11459 2012.04.14 40 79 36 S16E01 0400 DAI DAC

beta-gamma

11462 2012.04.14
2012.04.17
14 17 8 S25W46 0410 DHO DHO

area: 0600

11460 2012.04.15
2012.04.16
19 35 14 N15W15 0450 DKC EKC

beta-gamma

area: 0750

location: N15W13

S1591 2012.04.16       S26W14           plage
11461 2012.04.16
2012.04.17
2 7 2 N12E24 0010 BXO CRO location: N12E26
S1593 2012.04.16       N16W36           plage
S1594 2012.04.16       S14W35           plage
S1595 2012.04.17       S27W40           plage
11463 2012.04.17
2012.04.18
9 10 5 S26W65 0100 CSO CAO location: S27W67
S1598 2012.04.18   6 1 N12E15 0010   BXO  
S1599 2012.04.18   4 1 S26W06 0010   BXO    
11464 2012.04.18
2012.04.19
2 2 1 N23W13 0010 BXO BXO  
S1601 2012.04.18       N08W18           plage
S1602 2012.04.18       S27E21           plage
11465 2012.04.19
2012.04.20
6 17 9 S17E39 0210 DAO DSC beta-gamma

location: S17E41

area: 0380

S1604 2012.04.20   1   N10E66 0000   AXX    
S1605 2012.04.20   2 1 S11E06 0010   AXX    
Total spot count: 92 180 78  
Sunspot number: 162 290 178  (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions)
Weighted penumbral SN: 127 218 116  (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): 97 102 98 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

Monthly solar cycle data

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
 
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 59.5 (+0.5) 12.27
2011.10 137.3 88.0 (60.1 projected, +0.6) 8.28
2011.11 153.5 96.7 (61.6 projected, +1.5) 5.55
2011.12 141.3 73.0 (64.3 projected, +2.7) 3.78
2012.01 132.5 58.3 (67.8 projected, +3.5) 7.15
2012.02 106.5 33.1 (71.8 projected, +4.0) 8.81
2012.03 114.7 64.2 (73.9 projected, +2.1) 16.08
2012.04 105.1 (1) 41.4 (2A) / 62.1 (2B) (74.9 projected, +1.0) (11.56)

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.