Last major update issued on April 27, 2012 at 05:10 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
June 27, 2011]
The geomagnetic field was quiet to minor storm on April 26. Solar wind speed at SOHO ranged between 548 and 751 km/s under the decreasing influence of a high speed coronal hole stream..
Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 119.2 (increasing 8.6 over the last solar rotation). The Potsdam WDC planetary A index was 21 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 20.6). Three hour interval K indices: 55323233 (planetary), 65322222 (Boulder).
The background x-ray flux is at the class B5 level.
At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 10 spotted active regions (in 2K resolution SDO images).
Region 11459 [S15W79] decayed quickly losing spots and nearly all
penumbra.
Region 11465 [S18W40] decayed slowly and was mostly quiet.
Region 11466 [N12W25] was mostly quiet and stable.
Region 11467 [N12E47] decayed early on, then new positive polarity flux
emerged in the southern part and the region became slightly more complex.
Region 11468 [N09W15] was quiet and stable.
Region 11469 [S19E39] decayed slowly and was quiet. Apparantly SWPC has
chosen to add S1611 to this region, that decision is difficult to understand.
Spotted active regions not numbered by NOAA/SWPC:
S1609 [S27W14] reemerged with a few tiny spots.
S1611 [S26E41] was quiet and stable.
New region S1612 [N27E04] emerged inside a coronal hole and has reversed
polarities.
New region S1613 [S23W62] emerged with two spots.
April 24-26: 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 coronal hole in the northern hemisphere will rotate across the central meridian on April 26-27 but is probably too far to the north to cause a geomagnetic disturbance.
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 poor. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is fair.
The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled on April 27-29.
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 | ||||||||||
11459 | 2012.04.14 | 10 | 8 | 3 | S16W78 | 0070 | DSI | CRO |
area: 0030 |
||
11460 | 2012.04.15 2012.04.16 |
1 | N15W93 | 0060 | CSO | rotated out of view | |||||
11461 | 2012.04.16 2012.04.17 |
N10W61 |
plage location: N11W49 |
||||||||
S1598 | 2012.04.18 | N14W59 | plage | ||||||||
S1602 | 2012.04.18 | S32W53 | plage | ||||||||
11465 | 2012.04.19 2012.04.20 |
11 | 15 | 7 | S18W39 | 0200 | DSI | DKO | |||
11468 | 2012.04.20 2012.04.24 |
12 | 13 | 8 | N08W17 | 0090 | DSO | DSO | location: N09W15 | ||
11466 | 2012.04.21 2012.04.22 |
9 | 17 | 11 | N12W26 | 0090 | CSI | DSI | |||
S1607 | 2012.04.22 | S13W57 | plage | ||||||||
11469 | 2012.04.23 2012.04.24 |
3 | 6 | 2 | S24E41 | 0020 | CSO | BXO | location: S19E39 | ||
S1609 | 2012.04.23 | 3 | S27W14 | ||||||||
11467 | 2012.04.24 | 1 | 6 | 5 | N14E45 | 0010 | CSO | DRO |
location: N12E47 SWPC again thinks 1 spot is enough for a CSO classification area: 0040 |
||
S1611 | 2012.04.25 | 2 | 2 | S26E41 | 0010 | BXO | |||||
S1612 | 2012.04.26 | 1 | 1 | N27E04 | 0000 | AXX | |||||
S1613 | 2012.04.26 | 2 | 2 | S23W62 | 0010 | BXO | |||||
Total spot count: | 47 | 73 | 41 | ||||||||
Sunspot number: | 117 | 173 | 131 | (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions) | |||||||
Weighted penumbral SN: | 82 | 99 | 67 | (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): | 70 | 61 | 72 | 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 |
|
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 | 112.4 (1) | 69.6 (2A) / 80.4 (2B) | (74.9 projected, +1.0) | (12.30) |
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 and definitive 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.