Last major update issued on March 23, 2011 at 05:45 UTC.
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Annotated geomagnetic activity charts - Carrington rotation
2106 [Jan.-Feb.2011]
- 2107 [Feb.-March
2011] NEW
The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled on March 22. Solar wind speed ranged between 306-363 km/s. After 10h UTC a fairly low speed stream from CH441/442 began to dominate the solar wind.
Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 99.8 (increasing 10.5 over the last solar rotation). The planetary A index was 6 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 5.9). Three hour interval K indices: 33112101 (planetary), 33223111 (Boulder).
The background x-ray flux is at the class B4 level.
At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 6 spotted regions.
Region 11173 was quiet and stable.
Region 11175 decayed slowly and quietly.
Region 11176 rotated fully into view. Judging by the plage field this
must have been a large region while on the backside disk. Although there is
polarity intermixing, there's no magnetic delta structure. M flares are possible.
Flares: C1.9 at 03:25, C3.9 at 03:37, C1.6
at 22:12 UTC. The region was the soutce of an M1.4 flare at 02:17 on March 23.
Spotted regions not numbered by NOAA/SWPC:
[S912] This region emerged in the northeast quadrant on March 21 and
decayed slightly on March 22.
Location at midnight: N10W06
[S914] rotated into view at the northeast limb on March 21. Location at
midnight: N20E65
[S915] emerged with a single tiny spot on March 22. Location at midnight:
S15E03
March 20-22: 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 small trans equatorial coronal hole (CH441) was in an Earth facing position on March 18-19. A coronal hole (CH442) in the northern hemisphere was Earth facing on March 19-20.
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 to fair. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is poor to fair.
The geomagnetic field is expected to quiet to unsettled on March 23-24 due to effects from CH441 and CH442, occasional active intervals are possible. Quiet conditions are likely on March 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 polarity overlay |
Comment | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SWPC | STAR SDO | SWPC | STAR | Current | Previous | |||||
11173 | 2011.03.15 2011.03.16 |
3 | S29W40 | 0000 | AXX | location: S29W38 | ||||
S908 | 2011.03.17 | N29W38 | plage | |||||||
11175 | 2011.03.17 2011.03.18 |
8 | 9 | N11W65 | 0130 | DSO | DSO | |||
S911 | 2011.03.18 | S22W16 | plage | |||||||
11176 | 2011.03.21 | 3 | 14 | S14E69 | 0340 | DHO | DKO | beta-gamma location: S16E69 |
||
S912 | 2011.03.21 | 1 | N10W06 | 0000 | AXX | |||||
S914 | 2011.03.21 | 2 | N20E65 | 0010 | AXX | |||||
S915 | 2011.03.22 | 1 | S15E03 | 0000 | AXX | |||||
Total spot count: | 11 | 30 | ||||||||
Sunspot number: | 31 | 90 |
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 |
2009.12 | 76.7 | 10.8 | 8.3 (+0.7) | 1.41 / 1.92 |
2010.01 | 81.1 | 13.2 | 9.3 (+1.0) | 2.93 / 3.07 |
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 | 16.8 (+0.4) | 6.31 / 5.15 |
2010.08 | 79.2 | 19.6 | 17.4 (+0.6) | 8.49 / 7.77 |
2010.09 | 81.1 | 25.2 | (19.1 predicted, +1.7) | 5.33 / 5.45 |
2010.10 | 81.6 | 23.5 | (21.7 predicted, +2.6) | 6.07 / 6.27 |
2010.11 | 82.5 | 21.6 | (24.5 predicted, +2.8) | 4.80 / 5.50 |
2010.12 | 84.2 | 14.5 | (26.9 predicted, +2.4) | 3.41 / 4.35 |
2011.01 | 83.6 | 19.1 | (29.0 predicted, +2.1) | 4.32 |
2011.02 | 94.6 | 29.4 | (31.1 predicted, +2.1) | 5.41 |
2011.03 | 115.6 (1) | 54.1 (2A) / 76.2 (2B) | (33.0 predicted, +1.9) | (9.38) |
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.