Last major update issued on May 8, 2007 at 04:55 UTC.
[Solar and
geomagnetic data - last month (updated daily)]
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[Solar cycles 21-23
(last update May 6, 2007)]
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of cycles 21, 22 and 23 (last update May 6, 2007)]
[Graphical
comparison of cycles 2, 10, 13, 17, 20 and 23 (last update May 6, 2007)]
[Historical solar and
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[Archived reports
(last update April 7, 2007)]
The geomagnetic field was quiet to minor storm on May 7. Solar wind speed ranged between 274 and 582 km/s (average speed was 372 km/s, increasing 96 km/s over the previous day). A minor solar wind shock was observed at SOHO at 07:48 UTC with a sudden increase in solar wind speed from 275 to 328 km/s. Later on wind speed increased gradually as a high speed stream from CH268 arrived.
Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 75.7. The planetary A index was 18 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 18.5). Three hour interval K indices: 11323544 (planetary), 22333533 (Boulder).
The background x-ray flux is at the class A3 level.
At midnight there was 1 spotted region on the visible solar disk. The solar flare activity level was very low. No C class events were recorded during the day.
Region 10953 decayed slowly and is rotating out of view at the southwest limb.
May 5-7: No obvious fully or partially Earth directed CMEs were observed in LASCO imagery.
Coronal hole
history (since late October 2002)
Compare today's report to the situation one solar rotation ago:
28
days ago
27
days ago
26
days ago
A recurrent coronal hole (CH268) in the southern hemisphere was in an Earth facing position on May 3-4.
Processed SOHO/EIT 195 image at 01:13 UTC on May 8. The darkest areas on the solar disk are likely coronal holes.
The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled on May 8 due to effects from CH268 and quiet on May 9-13.
| Coronal holes (1) | Coronal mass ejections (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.
Daily monitoring will not resume until a local noise problem (related to construction work on a neighboring property) has been fixed. Occasional monitoring reports will be submitted when propagation is good.
April 8, 2007: Stations from the Canadian Atlantic provinces had strong signals during the night. Some stations from the northeastern USA and from Florida did well too, in particular 1510 WWZN was impressive.
Compare to the previous day's image.
Data for all numbered solar regions according to the Solar Region Summary provided by NOAA/SEC. 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 SEC or where SEC has observed no spots. SEC active region numbers in the table below and in the active region map above are the historic SEC/USAF numbers.
| Active region | Date numbered | SEC spot count |
STAR spot count |
Location at midnight | Area | Classification | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10953 | 2007.04.25 | 2 | 2 | S11W82 | 0190 | HKX | classification was HAX at midnight |
| 10954 | 2007.04.30 | S07W64 | plage | ||||
| Total spot count: | 2 | 2 | |||||
| SSN: | 12 | 12 | |||||
| Month | Average solar flux at Earth |
International sunspot number | Smoothed sunspot number |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000.04 | 184.2 | 125.5 | 120.8 cycle 23 sunspot max. |
| 2000.07 | 202.3 | 170.1 | 119.8 |
| 2001.12 | 235.1 | 132.2 | 114.6 (-0.9) |
| 2006.02 | 76.5 | 4.9 | 18.6 (-2.2) |
| 2006.03 | 75.4 | 10.6 | 17.4 (-1.2) |
| 2006.04 | 89.0 | 30.2 | 17.1 (-0.3) |
| 2006.05 | 80.9 | 22.3 | 17.3 (+0.2) |
| 2006.06 | 76.5 | 13.9 | 16.3 (-1.0) |
| 2006.07 | 75.7 | 12.2 | 15.3 (-1.0) |
| 2006.08 | 79.0 | 12.9 | 15.6 (+0.3) |
| 2006.09 | 77.8 | 14.4 | 15.6 (+0.0) |
| 2006.10 | 74.3 | 10.4 | 14.2 (-1.4) |
| 2006.11 | 86.3 | 21.5 | (12.4 predicted, -1.8) |
| 2006.12 | 84.5 | 13.6 | (11.3 predicted, -1.1) |
| 2007.01 | 83.3 | 16.9 | (10.6 predicted, -0.7) |
| 2007.02 | 77.7 | 10.6 | (10.3 predicted, -0.3) |
| 2007.03 | 72.2 | 4.8 | (10.3 predicted, +0.0) |
| 2007.04 | 72.4 | 3.7 | (10.8 predicted, +0.5) |
| 2007.05 | 82.0 (1) | 5.2 (2) | (10.9 predicted, +0.1) |
1) Running average based on the
daily 20:00 UTC observed solar flux
value at 2800 MHz.
2) Unofficial, accumulated value based on the Boulder (NOAA/SEC)
sunspot number. The official international sunspot number is typically
30-50% lower.
This report has been prepared by Jan Alvestad. It is based partly on my own observations and analysis, and partly on data from some of these solar data sources. All time references are to the UTC day. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
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