Last major update issued on December 23, 2011 at 05:20 UTC.
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Annotated geomagnetic activity charts - Carrington rotation
2115 [September-October 2011] -
2116 [October-November 2011]
[Solar polar fields vs solar cycles - updated
June 27, 2011]
The geomagnetic field was quiet on December 22. Solar wind speed ranged between 357 and 446 km/s, still weakly under the influence of a low speed stream from CH489.
Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 145.8 (increasing 10.6 over the last solar rotation). The planetary A index was 2 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 2.5). Three hour interval K indices: 21000011 (planetary), 21001212 (Boulder).
The background x-ray flux is at the class B6 level.
At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 11 spotted regions (in 2K resolution SDO images).
Region 11380 [S20E07] decayed slowly and could soon become spotless.
Region 11381 [S18W31] decayed quickly retaining only rudimentary penumbra
on both polarities. Flare: C5.4 at 02:08 UTC.
This event was associated with weak type II and IV radio sweeps and a very slow
and small CME.
Region 11382 [S16W24] decayed slowly and currently has a fairly simple
magnetic layout.
Region 11383 [N03E27] was quiet and stable.
Region 11384 [N13E38] matured and lost some spots. A minor M class flare
is still possible.
Spotted regions not reported by NOAA/SWPC:
[S1378] emerged in the northern hemisphere near the central meridian on
December 17. Note that SWPC considers this to be region 11376. The region
developed slowly on Dec.19, then very quickly on Dec.20-21. This large and compact region
is capable of producing M class flares. Location at midnight: N19W73.
[S1386] reemerged with a single tiny spot on December 22. Location at midnight:
N20E30
[S1387] emerged in the northeast quadrant on December 20. Location at
midnight: N10W13
[S1389] emerged in the southeast quadrant on December 21 adn developed
slowly on Dec.22. Location at midnight: S31E11
[S1390] rotated into view at the southeast limb on December 22. Location
at midnight: S16E86
[S1391] emerged in the southwest quadrant on December 22. Location at
midnight: S14W54
December 20-22: No obviously Earth directed CMEs observed.
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 above coronal hole map is based on a new method where coronal holes are detected automatically. The method may need some fine tuning, however, it has significant advantages over detecting coronal holes manually. The main improvement is the ability to detect coronal holes at and just beyond the solar limbs. Early results using this method for SDO images over a span of several weeks indicate a good match between coronal holes observed over the visible disk and their extent and position at the east and west limbs. Note that the polar coronal holes are easily detected using the new method, the extent and intensity of both holes are consistent with other data sources.
Long distance low and medium frequency (below 2 MHz) propagation along paths north of due west over high and upper middle latitudes is fair. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is poor to fair.
The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet on December 23-25.
| 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 magnetic polarity overlay |
Comment | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWPC | STAR SDO | SWPC | STAR | Current | Previous | |||||
| 11376 | 2011.12.11 2011.12.13 |
13 | N18W72 | 0440 | DKO |
spotless location: N25W58 note that SWPC has region S1378 as 11376 |
||||
| 11377 | 2011.12.13 2011.12.14 |
N12W68 | plage | |||||||
| 11381 | 2011.12.16 2011.12.18 |
15 | 12 | S18W28 | 0180 | DAI | DRO |
 |
 |
location: S18W31 area: 0030 |
| 11380 | 2011.12.16 2011.12.17 |
3 | S21E03 | 0000 | BXO |
 |
 |
location: S20E07 | ||
| 11382 | 2011.12.17 2011.12.18 |
9 | 27 | S19W21 | 0150 | DAI | DSI |
 |
 |
area: 0200 location: S16W24 |
| S1377 | 2011.12.17 | N08W58 | plage | |||||||
| S1378 | 2011.12.17 | 20 | N19W73 | 0700 | EKC |
 |
 |
beta-gamma | ||
| 11383 | 2011.12.18 2011.12.19 |
1 | 3 | N03E25 | 0020 | HRX | CRO |
 |
 |
location: N03E27 |
| S1380 | 2011.12.18 | N27W13 | plage | |||||||
| 11384 | 2011.12.19 2011.12.20 |
17 | 21 | N12E37 | 0300 | DKO | DHO |
 |
 |
area: 0750 location: N13E38 |
| S1383 | 2011.12.19 | S22W34 | plage | |||||||
| S1384 | 2011.12.19 | N18W35 | plage | |||||||
| S1385 | 2011.12.20 | S03W04 | plage | |||||||
| S1386 | 2011.12.20 | 1 | N20E20 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
||||
| S1387 | 2011.12.20 | 2 | N12W03 | 0000 | BXO |
 |
 |
|||
| S1388 | 2011.12.21 | S15E13 |
 |
plage | ||||||
| S1389 | 2011.12.21 | 13 | S31E11 | 0020 | BXI |
 |
 |
|||
| S1390 | 2011.12.22 | 1 | S16E86 | 0040 | HSX |
 |
||||
| S1391 | 2011.12.22 | 1 | S14W54 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
||||
| Total spot count: | 55 | 104 | ||||||||
| Sunspot number: | 105 | 214 | (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions) | |||||||
| Weighted penumbral SN: | 88 | 140 | (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): | 63 | 96 | k * (sunspot number). k = 0.6 for SWPC. k = 0.45 (changed from 0.33 on Nov.1) for STAR SDO | |||||||
| 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 |
| 2010.10 | 81.6 | 23.5 | 23.2 (+3.6) | 6.07 / 6.27 |
| 2010.11 | 82.5 | 21.5 | 26.5 (+3.3) | 4.80 / 5.50 |
| 2010.12 | 84.2 | 14.4 | 28.8 (+2.3) | 3.41 / 4.35 |
| 2011.01 | 83.6 | 19.1 | 31.0 (+2.2) | 4.32 / 5.51 |
| 2011.02 | 94.6 | 29.4 | 33.4 (+2.4) | 5.41 / 6.44 |
| 2011.03 | 115.0 | 56.2 | 36.9 (+3.5) | 7.79 / 8.18 |
| 2011.04 | 112.6 | 54.4 | 41.8 (+4.9) | 9.71 / 8.83 |
| 2011.05 | 95.8 | 41.6 | 47.6 (+5.8) | 9.18 / 8.94 |
| 2011.06 | 95.8 | 37.0 | (53.7 projected, +6.1) | 8.96 / 8.06 |
| 2011.07 | 94.2 | 43.9 | (60.0 projected, +6.3) | 9.14 / 8.16 |
| 2011.08 | 101.7 | 50.6 | (65.5 projected, +5.5) | 8.16 / 7.26 |
| 2011.09 | 133.8 | 78.0 | (68.8 projected, +3.3) | 12.80 / 12.27 |
| 2011.10 | 137.3 | 88.0 | (72.3 projected, +3.5) | 7.52 |
| 2011.11 | 153.5 | 96.7 | (76.6 projected, +4.3) | 4.58 |
| 2011.12 | 141.0 (1) | 75.7 (2A) / 106.7 (2B) | (82.1 projected, +5.5) | (3.59) |
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.
