Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Activity chart

Last major update issued on February 2, 2016 at 04:35 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 (February 1, 2016)
Solar cycle Solar cycles 23-24 (February 1, 2016) Historical solar and geomagnetic data charts 1954-2006 (April 5, 2007)
  Cycle 24 progress (February 1, 2016) 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 (February 1, 2016) 3rd SSN Workshop, Tucson, 2013
  Comparison of cycles 12, 13, 14, 16 and 24 (February 1, 2016) 4th SSN Workshop, Locarno, 2014
  Solar polar fields vs. solar cycles (January 29, 2016)  

Recent activity

The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled on February 1. Solar wind speed at SOHO ranged between 283 and 335 km/s.

Solar flux at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 100.2 (increasing 5.0 over the last solar rotation). The 90 day 10.7 flux at 1 AU was 104.8. The Potsdam WDC planetary A index was 7 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 6.6). Three hour interval K indices: 33220001 (planetary), 33321201 (Boulder).

The background x-ray flux is at the class B2 level.

At the time of counting spots (see image time), spots were observed in 7 active regions using 2K resolution (SN: 126) and 7 active regions using 1K resolution (SN: 91) SDO images on the visible solar disk.

Region 12489 [N10W43] was quiet and stable.
Region 12490 [S21W28] was mostly unchanged and quiet.
Region 12491 [N02E58] developed slowly and quietly.

Spotted regions not numbered (or interpreted differently) by SWPC:
S5061 [N12E22] reemerged with tiny spots.
S5064 [N01E11] was quiet and stable.
S5069 [S19E13] was observed with a tiny spot.
New region S5070 [N14E79] rotated into view. The region was the source of the only C flare of the day, a C1.6 event at 01:14 UT.

C2+ flares:

Magnitude Peak time (UT) Location AR Recorded by Comment
           

Flare activity (SDO/EVE/ESP XRS-B proxy)

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs)

January 30 - February 1: No obviously Earth directed CMEs were observed in available LASCO imagery.

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 trans equatorial coronal hole (CH712) rotated across the central meridian on January 30-31. A recurrent northern hemisphere coronal hole (CH713) will likely rotate into a potentially geoeffective position on February 5.

Propagation

Long distance low and medium frequency (below 2 MHz) propagation along paths north of due west over 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 most of February 2. Late in the day and on February 3 effects from CH712 could cause unsettled to active conditions. Quiet conditions are likely on February 4.

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). 4K 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
12490 2016.01.24
2016.01.25
5 20 7 S21W29 0010 BXO CRI

area: 0035

12489 2016.01.24
2016.01.25
3 12 5 N10W43 0250 CHO CHO

area: 0310

S5056 2016.01.26       N25W28            
S5058 2016.01.28       S12W48            
S5061 2016.01.29   2 1 N12E22 0005   AXX    
S5062 2016.01.29       N10W31            
S5063 2016.01.29       S09W52            
S5064 2016.01.29   7 1 N01E11 0015   BXO  
12491 2016.01.30
2016.01.31
4 11 5 N01E57 0060 DAO DAO  
S5066 2016.01.30       N09W09            
S5067 2016.01.30       N01W56            
S5068 2016.01.30       S21W08            
S5069 2016.01.31   2 1 S19E13 0006   AXX  
S5070 2016.02.01   2 1 N14E79 0020   CRO    
Total spot count: 12 56 21  
Sunspot number: 42 126 91  (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions)
Weighted SN: 27 77 42  (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): 46 69 77 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
2014.04 143.9 144.8 112.5 116.4 (+2.1) (solar max) 7.88
2014.12 158.7 153.8 112.9 92.2 (-2.5) 11.24
2015.01 141.9 137.3 93.0 89.3 (-2.9) 9.46
2015.02 129.1 126.0 66.7 86.1 (-3.2) 9.92
2015.03 125.9 124.6 54.5 82.2 (-3.9) 16.14
2015.04 128.8 129.7 75.3 78.8 (-3.4) 10.73
2015.05 120.0 122.6 88.8 76.0 (-2.8) 8.29
2015.06 122.3 126.1 66.5 72.0 (-4.0) 13.15
2015.07 107.0 110.8 66.4 68.2 (-3.8) 8.83
2015.08 105.4 108.0 64.6 (66.1 projected, -2.1) 14.58
2015.09 101.7 102.7 78.1 (66.1 projected, +0.0) 15.78
2015.10 104.1 103.3 61.7 (65.7 projected, -0.4) 14.02
2015.11 109.3 106.9 63.2 (63.6 projected, -2.1) 12.09
2015.12 113.1 109.5 57.7 (61.9 projected, -1.7) 14.29
2016.01 103.4 100.2 56.6 (60.2 projected, -1.7) 10.0
2016.02 100.2   1.4 (2A) / 42 (2B) / 72.4 (2C) (57.8 projected, -2.4) (6.6)

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.