Last major update issued on April 29, 2011 at 04:20 UTC.
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Annotated geomagnetic activity charts - Carrington rotation
2107 [Feb.-March
2011] - 2108 [March-April
2011] NEW
The geomagnetic field was quiet on April 28. Solar wind speed ranged between 326 and 381 km/s. The interplanetary magnetic field at ACE has been southwards since 15h UTC.
Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 110.4 (increasing 1.5 over the last solar rotation). The planetary A index was 3 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 3.1). Three hour interval K indices: 00011221 (planetary), 00001111 (Boulder).
The background x-ray flux is at the class B3 level.
At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 12 spotted regions.
Region 11195 decayed slowly and quietly.
Region 11196 was mostly quiet. Flare:
C1.0 at 02:40 UTC.
Region 11199 became more complex again with minor polarity intermixing
observed. Flare: C2.4 at 11:58 UTC.
Region 11200 was quiet and stable.
Region 11201 displayed no significant changes and was quiet.
New region 11202 emerged in the northeast quadrant on April 24 and was
numbered by NOAA/SWPC 4 days later.
New region 11203 rotated partially into view at the northeast limb on
April 28.
Spotted regions not numbered by NOAA/SWPC:
[S973] reemerged with a single tiny spot on April 28. Location at
midnight: N32W47
[S976] emerged in the northeast quadrant on April 28. Location at midnight:
N07E45
[S977] emerged in the northeast quadrant on April 28. Location at midnight:
N05E29
[S978] emerged near the southwest limb on April 28. Location at midnight:
S20W82
[S979] emerged with a tiny spot in an old plage area in the northeast
quadrant on April 28. Location at midnight: N28E07
April 26-28: 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
A trans equatorial coronal hole (CH446) was in an Earth facing position on April 26-28.
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 quiet to active on April 29 - May 1 due to effects from CH446, minor storm intervals are possible on April 29-30.
| 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 | |||||
| 11195 | 2011.04.18 2011.04.19 |
6 | 10 | S18W52 | 0220 | DHO | DHO |
 |
 |
|
| 11196 | 2011.04.19 2011.04.20 |
2 | 8 | S23W32 | 0010 | BXO | BXO |
 |
 |
location: S26W26 |
| 11197 | 2011.04.19 2011.04.21 |
S16W41 | plage location: S17W35 |
|||||||
| S967 | 2011.04.22 | S15W23 |
 |
plage | ||||||
| 11201 | 2011.04.24 2011.04.27 |
4 | N16E26 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
 |
location: N13E27 | ||
| 11202 | 2011.04.24 2011.04.28 |
2 | 6 | N15W38 | 0010 | BXO | BXO |
 |
 |
formerly region S969 |
| 11199 | 2011.04.25 2011.04.26 |
10 | 17 | N18W48 | 0170 | DHI | DSI |
 |
 |
beta-gamma location: N20W49 |
| 11200 | 2011.04.25 2011.04.26 |
3 | S17E14 | 0000 | BXO |
 |
 |
location: S17E17 | ||
| S973 | 2011.04.26 | 1 | N32W47 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
||||
| S974 | 2011.04.27 | S37E40 |
 |
plage | ||||||
| S975 | 2011.04.27 | N17E01 |
 |
plage | ||||||
| 11203 | 2011.04.28 | 1 | 1 | N19E77 | 0040 | HSX | HSX |
 |
location: N18E75 area: 0080 |
|
| S976 | 2011.04.28 | 2 | N07E45 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
||||
| S977 | 2011.04.28 | 3 | N05E29 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
||||
| S978 | 2011.04.28 | 3 | S20W82 | 0010 | AXX |
 |
||||
| S979 | 2011.04.28 | 1 | N28E07 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
||||
| Total spot count: | 21 | 59 | ||||||||
| Sunspot number: | 71 | 179 | ||||||||
| 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 / 5.51 |
| 2011.02 | 94.6 | 29.4 | (34.4 predicted, +2.5) | 5.41 / 6.44 |
| 2011.03 | 115.0 | 56.2 | (36.7 predicted, +2.3) | 7.79 |
| 2011.04 | 112.8 (1) | 76.7 (2A) / 82.2 (2B) | (39.6 predicted, +2.9) | (9.11) |
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.
