Last major update issued on April 5, 2011 at 04:15 UTC.
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Annotated geomagnetic activity charts - Carrington rotation
2106 [Jan.-Feb.2011]
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The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled on April 4. Solar wind speed ranged between 465 and 584 km/s under the decreasing influence of a high speed coronal hole stream.
Solar flux estimated at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 112.7 (decreasing 37.2 over the last solar rotation). The planetary A index was 8 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 8.3). Three hour interval K indices: 32212211 (planetary), 33222101 (Boulder).
The background x-ray flux is at the class B3 level.
At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 9 spotted regions.
Region 11180 decayed losing the trailing spot and penumbra on the
leader spot.
Region 11183 decayed quickly and was quiet.
Region 11184 decayed quickly losing penumbra on the trailing spots.
New region 11185 rotated into view at the northeast limb on April 3 and
was numbered the next day by NOAA/SWPC. The region developed on April 4 adding
several trailing spots.
Spotted regions not numbered by NOAA/SWPC:
[S928] emerged with spots in an old plage field in the northeast quadrant on
April 1. Location at midnight: N12E02
[S929] emerged in the southern hemisphere near the central meridian on
April 1. Location at midnight: S26W42
[S932] emerged near the northeast limb on April 4. Location at midnight:
N13E62
[S933] emerged with a few tiny spots in an old plage area in the
northeast quadrant on April 4. Location at midnight: N19E34
[S934] emerged in the southwest quadrant on April 4. Location at midnight:
S24W49. Note that SWPC has recycled region number 11181 for this region, 11181
is spotless and 13 degrees further west.
April 2-4: No obviously Earth directed CMEs were observed in LASCO and STEREO 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
No obvious coronal holes are currently in or near Earth facing positions.
The darkest areas on the solar disk are likely coronal holes.
Long distance low and medium frequency (below 2 MHz) propagation along paths north of due west over high and upper middle latitudes is poor. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is fair.
The geomagnetic field is expected to be mostly quiet on April 5-7.
| 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.
(Click on image for higher resolution image) Compare to the previous day's image
When available the active region map has a coronal hole polarity overlay where red (pink) is negative and blue (blue-green) 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 polarity overlay |
Comment | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWPC | STAR SDO | SWPC | STAR | Current | Previous | |||||
| 11181 | 2011.03.24 2011.03.25 |
2 | S27W50 | 0010 | AXX | plage SWPC position S27W50 is the same as 1 day earlier. This is region S934 location: S27W63 |
||||
| 11180 | 2011.03.24 2011.03.25 |
1 | 1 | N24W63 | 0020 | HSX | AXX |
 |
 |
|
| 11183 | 2011.03.26 2011.03.27 |
7 | 9 | N15W41 | 0090 | CSO | CSO |
 |
 |
location: N14W43 |
| S924 | 2011.03.29 | N36W30 | plage | |||||||
| 11184 | 2011.03.30 2011.04.01 |
22 | 28 | N17W13 | 0170 | DSO | CSI |
 |
 |
|
| S927 | 2011.03.31 | N25E13 | plage | |||||||
| S928 | 2011.04.01 | 8 | N12E02 | 0000 | BXO |
 |
 |
|||
| S929 | 2011.04.01 | 1 | S26W29 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
 |
|||
| S930 | 2011.04.01 | S07W61 | plage | |||||||
| 11185 | 2011.04.03 2011.04.04 |
1 | 8 | N23E62 | 0050 | HSX | CAI |
 |
 |
formerly region S931 location: N23E64 |
| S932 | 2011.04.04 | 1 | N13E62 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
||||
| S933 | 2011.04.04 | 4 | N19E34 | 0000 | BXO |
 |
||||
| S934 | 2011.04.04 | 3 | S24W49 | 0010 | BXO |
 |
SWPC has recycled region number 11181 for these spots | |||
| Total spot count: | 33 | 63 | ||||||||
| Sunspot number: | 83 | 153 | ||||||||
| Month | Average measured solar flux | International sunspot number (SIDC) | Smoothed sunspot number | Average ap (3) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008.07 | 65.7 (SF minimum) | 0.5 | 2.8 (-0.4) | |
| 2008.12 | 69.2 | 0.8 | 1.7 (-) sunspot minimum |
3.25 |
| 2010.02 | 84.7 | 18.8 | 10.6 (+1.3) | 4.15 / 4.61 |
| 2010.03 | 83.4 | 15.4 | 12.3 (+1.7) | 4.58 / 4.65 |
| 2010.04 | 75.9 | 8.0 | 14.0 (+1.7) | 10.22 / 10.24 |
| 2010.05 | 73.8 | 8.7 | 15.5 (+1.5) | 9.18 / 8.15 |
| 2010.06 | 72.5 | 13.6 | 16.4 (+0.9) | 8.17 / 6.85 |
| 2010.07 | 79.8 | 16.1 | 16.7 (+0.3) | 6.31 / 5.15 |
| 2010.08 | 79.2 | 19.6 | 17.4 (+0.7) | 8.49 / 7.77 |
| 2010.09 | 81.1 | 25.2 | 19.6 (+2.2) | 5.33 / 5.45 |
| 2010.10 | 81.6 | 23.5 | (22.6 predicted, +3.0) | 6.07 / 6.27 |
| 2010.11 | 82.5 | 21.5 | (25.7 predicted, +3.1) | 4.80 / 5.50 |
| 2010.12 | 84.2 | 14.4 | (28.9 predicted, +3.2) | 3.41 / 4.35 |
| 2011.01 | 83.6 | 19.1 | (31.9 predicted, +3.0) | 4.32 |
| 2011.02 | 94.6 | 29.4 | (34.4 predicted, +2.5) | 5.41 |
| 2011.03 | 115.0 | 56.2 | (36.7 predicted, +2.3) | 7.79 |
| 2011.04 | 110.8 (1) | 9.4 (2A) / 70.3 (2B) | (39.6 predicted, +2.9) | (14.47) |
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). The
official SIDC international sunspot number is typically 30-50% lower. 2B) Month
average to date.
3) Running average based on the preliminary daily SWPC ap indices.
Values in red are based on the official NGDC
ap indices.
This report has been prepared by Jan Alvestad. It is based on analysis of data from whatever sources are available at the time the report is prepared. All time references are to the UTC day. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
SDO images are courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
