Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Activity chart

Last major update issued on September 22, 2016 at 04:55 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 (September 7, 2016)
Solar cycle Solar cycles 23-24 (September 3, 2016) Historical solar and geomagnetic data charts 1954-2006 (April 5, 2007)
  Cycle 24 progress (September 3, 2016) Noon SDO sunspot count 1K / 4K (*)
  Solar cycles 1-24 (July 17, 2015) POES auroral activity level October 2009 - December 2012
  Comparison of cycles 21, 22, 23 and 24 (September 3, 2016) 3rd SSN Workshop, Tucson, 2013
  Comparison of cycles 12, 13, 14, 16 and 24 (September 3, 2016) 4th SSN Workshop, Locarno, 2014
  Solar polar fields vs. solar cycles (August 27, 2016)  

Recent activity

The geomagnetic field was quiet to active on September 21 under the decreasing influence of a high speed stream from CH761. Solar wind speed at SOHO ranged between 451 and 564 km/s.

Solar flux at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 85.5 (increasing 6.8 over the last solar rotation). The 90 day 10.7 flux at 1 AU was 87.7. The Potsdam WDC planetary A index was 8 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 8.0). Three hour interval K indices: 42231011 (planetary), 42232212 (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 5 active regions using 2K resolution (SN: 80) and 5 active regions using 1K resolution (SN: 68) SDO images on the visible solar disk.

Region 12592 [N13W13] was quiet and stable.
Region 12593 [N08W31] developed slowly producing a low level C flare.
Region 12595 [N11W85] was mostly unchanged as it began rotating over the northwest limb. The region produced a low level C flare.

Spotted regions not numbered (or interpreted differently) by SWPC:
New region S5448 [S18E26] was observed with tiny spots.
New region S5449 [N05W45] emerged with tiny spots.

C2+ flares:

Magnitude Peak time (UT) Location AR Recorded by Comment
           

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

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs)

September 19-21: 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 southern hemisphere coronal hole (CH761) rotated across the central meridian on September 15-18. A new coronal hole (CH762) formed in the northern hemisphere and was in an Earth facing position on Sept. 19 before merging with CH761 on Sept.20. A recurrent coronal hole (CH763) will likely rotate into an Earth facing position on September 22, CH763 has decayed significantly over the last solar rotation. Another recurrent northern hemisphere coronal hole (CH764) will probably become Earth facing on September 25.

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 poor to fair.

Forecast

The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled on September 22-23 due to effects from CH762.

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
12592 2016.09.14
2016.09.15
  4 1 N12W14 0010   BXO  
S5441 2016.09.15       N02W15            
S5443 2016.09.16       N09E09            
12594 2016.09.17
2016.09.18
      N12W31            
12593 2016.09.18 11 18 12 N06W32 0060 DAI DAI area: 0120

location: N08W31

S5446 2016.09.18       N06W16          
12595 2016.09.18 4 4 3 N08W90 0110 DSO DSO area: 0220

location: N12W85

S5448 2016.09.21   2 1 S18E26 0004   AXX    
S5449 2016.09.21   2 1 N05W45 0006   AXX    
Total spot count: 15 30 18  
Sunspot number: 35 80 68  (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions)
Weighted SN: 25 40 28  (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): 39 44 54 k * (sunspot number)
As of May 7, 2016: k = 1.1 for SWPC, k = 0.55 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
2015.06 122.3 126.1 66.5 72.1 (-4.0) 13.15
2015.07 107.0 110.8 65.8 68.3 (-3.8) 8.83
2015.08 105.4 108.0 64.4 66.4 (-1.9) 14.58
2015.09 101.7 102.7 78.6 65.9 (-0.5) 15.78
2015.10 104.1 103.3 63.6 64.3 (-1.6) 14.02
2015.11 109.3 106.9 62.2 61.3 (-3.0) 12.09
2015.12 113.1 109.5 58.0 57.8 (-3.5) 14.29
2016.01 103.4 100.1 57.0 54.5 (-3.3) 9.4
2016.02 103.6 101.0 56.4 52.6 (-1.9) 9.9
2016.03 91.5 90.6 54.1 (50.7 projected, -1.9) 10.58
2016.04 93.3 94.0 38.0 (48.2 projected, -2.5) 9.03
2016.05 93.0 95.3 52.1 (45.5 projected, -2.7) 11.65
2016.06 81.9 84.5 20.9 (42.9 projected, -2.6) 8.44
2016.07 86.0 88.9 32.5 (40.2 projected, -2.7) 9.43
2016.08 85.0 87.1 50.7 (37.4 projected, -2.8) 9.61
2016.09 (89.1)   29.6 (2A) / 42.3 (2B) / 51.1 (2C) (34.7 projected, -2.7) (11.0)

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.