Last major update issued on February 14, 2012 at 05:40 UTC.
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Annotated geomagnetic activity charts - Carrington rotation
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2119 [January-February
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The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled on February 13. Solar wind speed ranged between 314 and 405 km/s. What was likely a transient associated with the CME observed late on February 9, was observed arriving at SOHO at 04:12 UTC. Only a minor increase in solar wind speed was observed while density increased significantly. Average solar wind density for the day was high. This transient caused an increase in geomagnetic activity after 06h UTC.
Solar flux measured at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 108.4 (decreasing 30.6 over the last solar rotation). The planetary A index was 9 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 8.9). Three hour interval K indices: 11323312 (planetary), 11433322 (Boulder).
The background x-ray flux is at the class B2 level.
At midnight UTC the visible solar disk had 6 spotted regions (in 2K resolution SDO images).
Region 11416 [S18W29] decayed slowly and quietly with the trailing
penumbra splitting into smaller penumbrae.
Region 11418 [S23W02] decayed sowly and quietly.
Region 11419 [N28E60] was quiet and stable.
Region 11420 [N11E64] was quiet and stable.
Spotted regions not reported by NOAA/SWPC:
[S1477] emerged in the southeast quadrant on February 13. Location at midnight:
S22E54
[S1478] emerged in the northeast quadrant on February 13, just north of
region 11417. Location at midnight: N25E25
February 11-13: No obviously Earth directed CMEs were observed in LASCO and
STEREO imagery.
February 10: A filament eruption in the northeast quadrant in the evening
was associated with a partial halo CME. A flank impact is possible on February 14.
Coronal hole history (since October
2002)
Compare today's report to the situation one solar rotation ago:
28 days ago
27 days ago
26 days ago
An trans equatorial coronal hole (CH501) will likely rotate into an Earth facing position on February 15-16.
The above coronal hole map is based on a method where coronal holes are detected automatically. While the method may need some fine tuning, 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 this method, the extent and intensity of both CHs 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 poor. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is poor to fair.
The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled with a chance of active intervals on February 14 due to weak CME effects. Quiet conditions are likely on February 15-17. A high speed stream from CH501 could cause quiet to active conditions on February 18-19.
| 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 | ||||||
| 2K | 1K | ||||||||||
| 11416 | 2012.02.08 2012.02.09 |
11 | 22 | 10 | S18W29 | 0270 | EKO | ESI |
 |
 |
area: 0400 |
| 11417 | 2012.02.09 2012.02.10 |
N18E18 |
 |
plage | |||||||
| S1466 | 2012.02.09 | N17W02 |
 |
plage | |||||||
| S1467 | 2012.02.09 | N29W39 | plage | ||||||||
| 11418 | 2012.02.10 2012.02.12 |
5 | 6 | 4 | S24W01 | 0010 | BXO | BXO |
 |
 |
|
| 11419 | 2012.02.12 | 2 | 4 | 3 | N26E59 | 0060 | CSO | CSO |
 |
 |
location: N28E60 |
| 11420 | 2012.02.12 | 1 | 1 | 1 | N09E64 | 0110 | HSX | HSX |
 |
 |
area: 0100 location: N11E64 |
| S1474 | 2012.02.12 | N04W38 |
 |
plage | |||||||
| S1475 | 2012.02.12 | S23E10 |
 |
plage | |||||||
| S1476 | 2012.02.12 | N10W07 |
 |
plage | |||||||
| S1477 | 2012.02.13 | 1 | S22E54 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
|||||
| S1478 | 2012.02.13 | 2 | 1 | N25E25 | 0000 | AXX |
 |
||||
| Total spot count: | 19 | 36 | 19 | ||||||||
| Sunspot number: | 59 | 96 | 69 | (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions) | |||||||
| Weighted penumbral SN: | 39 | 51 | 34 | (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): | 35 | 43 | k * (sunspot number). k = 0.6 for SWPC. k = 0.45 (changed from 0.33 on Nov.1, 2011) for STAR SDO 2K | ||||||||
| 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 |
| 2010.11 | 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 | 53.2 (+5.6) | 8.96 / 8.06 |
| 2011.07 | 94.2 | 43.9 | 57.2 (+4.0) | 9.14 / 8.16 |
| 2011.08 | 101.7 | 50.6 | (60.4 projected, +3.2) | 8.16 / 7.26 |
| 2011.09 | 133.8 | 78.0 | (63.1 projected, +2.7) | 12.80 / 12.27 |
| 2011.10 | 137.3 | 88.0 | (65.8 projected, +2.7) | 7.52 / 8.28 |
| 2011.11 | 153.5 | 96.7 | (69.1 projected, +3.3) | 4.58 / 5.55 |
| 2011.12 | 141.3 | 73.0 | (73.9 projected, +4.8) | 3.32 |
| 2012.01 | 132.5 | 58.3 | (79.3 projected, +5.4) | 6.59 |
| 2012.02 | 108.0 (1) | 21.7 (2A) / 48.5 (2B) | (82.4 projected, +3.1) | (6.99) |
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.
