Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Activity chart

Last major update issued on February 29, 2016 at 04:00 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 very quiet on February 28. Solar wind speed at SOHO ranged between 340 and 381 km/s.

Solar flux at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 93.2 (decreasing 7.0 over the last solar rotation). The 90 day 10.7 flux at 1 AU was 103.6. The Potsdam WDC planetary A index was 3 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 2.6). Three hour interval K indices: 10111001 (planetary), 11222211 (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 8 active regions using 2K resolution (SN: 141) and 4 active regions using 1K resolution (SN: 64) SDO images on the visible solar disk.

Region 12506 [S07W06] matured and has minor polarity intermixing.
New region 12508 [N06E09] emerged on February 26 and was numbered by SWPC 2 days later as the region developed slowly.

Spotted regions not numbered (or interpreted differently) by SWPC:
S5124 [S23W16] decayed slowly and quietly.
S5129 [N08E32] developed as new flux emerged.
S5135 [N19W53] was quiet and stable.
New region S5138 [N20E17] was observed with a tiny spot.
New region S5139 [S01W39] was observed with a tiny spot.
New region S5140 [S16E53] was observed with a tiny spot.

C2+ flares:

Magnitude Peak time (UT) Location AR Recorded by Comment
           

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

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs)

February 26-28: 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 recurrent trans equatorial coronal hole (CH717) was in an Earth facing position on February 26-27. A northern hemisphere coronal hole (CH719) will likely rotate into an Earth facing position on March 1. A trans equatorial coronal hole (CH718) will likely rotate across the central meridian on March 2.

Propagation

Long distance low and medium frequency (below 2 MHz) propagation along paths north of due west over upper middle latitudes is fair to good. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is poor.

Forecast

The geomagnetic field is expected to be initially quiet on February 29. Late in the day and on March 1 quiet to active conditions are likely due to effects from CH717.

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
S5121 2016.02.19       N12W38            
S5124 2016.02.21   2   S23W16 0005   AXX  
12506 2016.02.22
2016.02.24
15 39 17 S05W07 0110 DAI DAI area: 0230

location: S07W06

S5129 2016.02.25   9 3 N08E32 0050   DRO  
12507 2016.02.25
2016.02.26
      N19W87          
S5131 2016.02.25       N20W07          
12508 2016.02.26
2016.02.28
3 7 3 N07E09 0010 BXO CRO area: 0030
S5134 2016.02.26       S07E32          
S5135 2016.02.27   1 1 N19W53 0004   AXX  
S5136 2016.02.27       S02W05          
S5137 2016.02.27       S21E03          
S5138 2016.02.28   1   N20E17 0002   AXX    
S5139 2016.02.28   1   S01W39 0001   AXX    
S5140 2016.02.28   1   S16E53 0002   AXX    
Total spot count: 18 61 24  
Sunspot number: 38 141 64  (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions)
Weighted SN: 23 72 35  (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): 42 63 51 k * (sunspot number)
As of February 19, 2015: k = 1.1 for SWPC, k = 0.45 for MSN 2K, k = 0.80 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
2016.01 103.4 100.1 56.6 (60.2 projected, -1.7) 9.4
2016.02 (104.0)   54.6 (2A) / 56.6 (2B) / 78.0 (2C) (57.8 projected, -2.4) (9.4)

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.