Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Activity chart

Last major update issued on August 17, 2015 at 03:05 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 (August 1, 2015)
Solar cycle Solar cycles 23-24 (August 1, 2015) Historical solar and geomagnetic data charts 1954-2006 (April 5, 2007)
  Cycle 24 progress (August 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 (August 1, 2015) 3rd SSN Workshop, Tucson, 2013
  Comparison of cycles 12, 13, 14, 16 and 24 (August 1, 2015) 4th SSN Workshop, Locarno, 2014
  Solar polar fields vs solar cycles (July 18, 2015)  

Recent activity

The geomagnetic field was unsettled to major storm on August 16. Solar wind speed at SOHO ranged between 439 and 578 km/s. Solar wind speed increased abruptly at 07:40 UT at SOHO and peaked a few minutes later. This was the transition between the CME effects that began on August 15 and a high speed coronal hole stream, maybe from CH682.

Solar flux at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 85.6 (decreasing 7.6 over the last solar rotation). The 90 day 10.7 flux at 1 AU was 113.8. The Potsdam WDC planetary A index was 31 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 30.9). Three hour interval K indices: 54643433 (planetary), 55633333 (Boulder).

The background x-ray flux is at the class B1 level.

At the time of counting spots (see image time), spots were observed in 4 active regions using 2K resolution (SN: 72) and 4 active regions using 1K resolution (SN: 58) SDO images on the visible solar disk.

Region 12400 [N17W32] decayed slowly and quietly.
Region 12401 [S11E11] decayed slowly and quietly as the opposite polarity fields drifted apart.

Spotted regions not numbered (or interpreted differently) by SWPC:
S4691 [N13W11] was quiet and stable.
New region S4694 [N07W08] emerged 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)

August 14: A filament eruption in the southwest quadrant beginning just before 08h UT was associated with a CME observed over the southwest limb and the south pole. There is a slight chance there was an Earth directed component with this CME. In that case a weak flank impact could be observed on August 17.
August 15-16
: No obviously Earth directed CMEs were observed.

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]

An extension of a northern hemisphere coronal hole (CH683) will likely rotate across the central meridian on August 15-18. A co-rotating interaction region may be associated with CH683 and could cause a geomagnetic disturbance on August 17-19.

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 August 17. A possible co-rotating interaction region associated with CH683 could cause unsettled to active conditions on August 18-20.

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
12398 2015.08.06
2015.08.07
      N16W64           location: N18W51
12399 2015.08.10
2015.08.11
      S16W70            
12400 2015.08.11 2 4 2 N17W33 0010 AXX BXO  
12401 2015.08.12
2015.08.13
10 21 12 S11E10 0070 DAI DRI

reversed polarities

SWPC classification not supported by imagery

S4687 2015.08.13       S07E15            
S4688 2015.08.13       N20W21            
S4689 2015.08.13       S23W37          
S4690 2015.08.14       N09E42            
S4691 2015.08.14   5 3 N13W11 0013   AXX images/AR_S4691_20150816_2345.png images/AR_S4691_20150815_2345.png  
S4692 2015.08.14       S07W25            
S4694 2015.08.16   2 1 N07W08 0006   BXO    
Total spot count: 12 32 18  
Sunspot number: 32 72 58  (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions)
Weighted SN: 17 35 21  (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): 35 40 49 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
2014.03 149.9 148.5 128.7 114.3 (+3.8) 4.88
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 (86.8 projected, -3.0) 9.92
2015.03 125.9 124.6 54.5 (83.1 projected, -3.7) 16.14
2015.04 128.8 129.7 78.0 (79.8 projected, -3.3) 10.73
2015.05 120.0 122.6 90.0 (77.4 projected, -2.4) 8.29
2015.06 122.3 126.1 68.3 (73.9 projected, -3.5) 13.15
2015.07 107.0 110.8 66.4 (70.2 projected, -3.7) 8.8
2015.08 (104.7)   34.2 (2A) / 66.3 (2B) / 72.6 (2C) (69.0 projected, -1.2) (11.2)

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.