Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Activity chart

Last major update issued on January 12, 2022 at 10:20 UT

Charts (* = updated daily) Data and archive
  Solar wind (*) Solar and geomagnetic data - last month (*)
  Electron fluence (*) Archived daily reports and monthly data since 2003.01 (January 1, 2022)
Solar cycle Solar cycles 23-25 (January 1, 2022) Historical solar and geomagnetic data charts 1954-2006 (April 5, 2007)
  Cycle 24-25 progress (January 1, 2022) Noon SDO sunspot count 1K image / 4K (*)
  Solar cycles 1-24 (June 1, 2020) POES auroral activity level October 2009 - December 2012]
  Comparison of cycles 21-25 (January 1, 2022) 3rd SSN Workshop, Tucson, 2013
  Comparison of cycles 12-14, 16, 24-25 (January 1, 2022) 4th SSN Workshop, Locarno, 2014
  Solar polar fields vs. solar cycles (August 22, 2021) Cycle 25 spots (final update December 25, 2019)
  Solar cycles 24-25 transition using 365d smoothing Research: Solar Cycle 25 Started on November 17, 2019 with 365 Days Smoothing

Recent activity

The geomagnetic field was quiet on January 11. The high latitude magnetometer at Andenes recorded quiet to unsettled levels.

Solar flux density measured at 20h UT on 2.8 GHz was 100.0 - decreasing 2.5 over the previous solar rotation. (Centered 1 year average SF at 1 AU - 183 days ago: 82.31). The Potsdam WDC planetary A index was 4 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 4.0). Three hour interval K indices: 11111210 (planetary), 12212311 (Boulder), 12010320 (Andenes).

The background x-ray flux was at the class B3 level (GOES 16).

At the time of counting spots (see image time), spots were observed in 7 active regions using 2K resolution (SN: 125) and in 5 active regions using 1K resolution (SN: 70) SDO/HMI images.

Region 12924 [S31W39] decayed slowly and quietly.
Region 12925 [S34W05] was quiet and stable.
Region 12926 [N18W37] developed slowly and quietly.
Region 12927 [S20E40] was quiet and stable.

Spotted regions not observed (or interpreted differently) by SWPC:
New region S7289 [S20E12] emerged with tiny spots.
New region S7290 [N22E38] was observed with tiny spots in an old plage area.
New region S7291 [N08E37] emerged with a tiny spot.

A spotless plage region to the east of AR 12927 was the source of a C1.0 flare at 08:38 UT

What appears to have been a large flare occurred behind the northeast limb early on January 12. Parts of a fast CME were seen off the limb even in SDO/AIA imagery. The flare was recorded as a long duration B9 event peaking at 05:30 UT.

C2+ flares:

Magnitude Peak time (UT) Location AR Recorded by Comment
           

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs)

January 9-11: No obviously Earth directed CMEs were observed in available LASCO imagery.

Coronal holes

[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]

A southern hemisphere coronal hole (CH1054) will rotate into an Earth facing position on January 12-14.

Propagation

Long distance low and medium frequency (below 2 MHz) propagation along paths north of due west over upper middle and high latitudes is poor to fair. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is poor.

Forecast

The geomagnetic field is expected to be mostly quiet on January 12-15 becoming quiet to active on January 16-18 due to effects from CH1054.

Coronal holes (1) Coronal mass ejection (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: 0-30% probability, Yellow: 30-70% probability, Red: 70-100% probability.

Active solar regions


(Click on image for 2K resolution). 4K resolution. Compare to the previous day's image.
0.5K image

When available the active region map has a coronal hole polarity overlay where red (pink) is negative and blue is positive.

Data for all officially numbered solar regions according to the Solar Region Summary provided by NOAA/SWPC, all other regions are numbered sequentially as they emerge using the STAR spot number. 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. SWPC data considered to be not sufficiently precise (location, area, classification) are colored red.

Active region SWPC date numbered
STAR detected
Spot count Location at midnight Area Classification SDO / HMI 4K continuum
image with magnetic polarity overlays
Comment
SWPC/
USAF
Magnetic
(SDO)
SWPC STAR Current Previous
2K 1K
12924 2022.01.03
2022.01.04
5 19 10 S31W40 0350 EHO EAO

area: 0440

S7279 2022.01.04       N21W32            
12925 2022.01.04
2022.01.05
2 8 1 S33W07 0080 HSX CSO

area: 0120

location: S34W05

S7281 2022.01.06       S19W22          
S7283 2022.01.07       S18E07            
12926 2022.01.07
2022.01.09
3 12 5 N20W35 0050 CSO CRI location: N18W37
S7285 2022.01.07       S03W13           likely SC24
12927 2022.01.08
2022.01.09
1 6 1 S20E40 0080 HSX HSX  
S7287 2022.01.09       S32W26          
S7288 2022.01.09       N09W04            
S7289 2022.01.11   6 3 S20E12 0020   CRO    
S7290 2022.01.11   3   N22E38 0003   BXO    
S7291 2022.01.11   1   N08E37 0001   AXX    
Total spot count: 11 55 20  
Sunspot number: 51 125 70  (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions)
Weighted SN: 36 76 41  (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): 56 69 56  

Monthly solar cycle data

Month Average solar flux International sunspot number
(WDC-SILSO)
Smoothed sunspot number (4) Average ap
(3)
Measured 1 AU
2014.02 170.3
(cycle peak)
166.3 146.1 (SC24 peak) 110.5 10.70
2014.04 143.9 144.8 112.5 116.4 (solar max) 7.88
2017.09 91.3 92.3 43.6 18.2 (-1.3) 18.22
(cycle peak)
2019.11 70.2 68.7 0.5 2.0 (-0.6)
(Solar minimum using 365d smoothing:
November 17, 2019)
4.19
2019.12 70.8 68.6 1.6 1.8 (-0.2)
(ISN 13 months smoothed
solar minimum)
3.22
2020.06 69.5 71.7 5.8 7.9 (+2.3) 3.75
2020.07 69.5 71.8 6.3 9.0 (+1.1) 4.28
2020.08 71.6 73.4 7.6 9.5 (+0.5) 5.68
2020.09 70.7 71.4 0.7 10.5 (+1.0) 8.59
2020.10 74.6 74.2 14.6 11.9 (+1.4) 6.13
2020.11 89.9 88.0 34.5 13.6 (+1.7) 4.77
2020.12 86.9 84.2 23.1 15.3 (+1.7) 4.72
2021.01 76.0 73.6 10.4 17.3 (+2.0) 4.39
2021.02 74.3 72.4 8.3 19.1 (+1.8) 9.50
2021.03 76.0 75.2 17.3 21.8 (+2.7) 10.17
2021.04 75.9 76.4 24.5 24.9 (+3.1) 8.40
2021.05 75.3 77.1 21.2 25.9 (+1.0) 6.50
2021.06 79.4 81.8 25.3 27.8 (+1.9) 5.52
2021.07 81.0 83.6 34.4 (31.8 projected, +4.0) 5.51
2021.08 77.7 79.7 22.4 (36.5 projected, +4.7) 6.19
2021.09 87.0 88.2 51.5 (42.2 projected, +5.7) 6.33
2021.10 88.9 88.3 38.1 (46.6 projected, +4.4) 7.38
2021.11 86.2 84.4 35.1 (51.2 projected, +4.6) 9.83
2021.12 103.0 99.8 67.6 (57.0 projected, +5.8) 6.5
2022.01 94.9 (1)   11.4 (2A) / 32.2 (2B) / 86.0 (2C) (60.6 projected, +3.6) (6.5)
2022.02       (65.4 projected, +4.8)  
2022.03       (70.8 projected, +5.4)  
2022.04       (75.9 projected, +5.1)  
2022.05       (82.3 projected, +6.4)  
2022.06       (88.2 projected, +5.9)  

1) Running average based on the daily 20:00 UTC observed solar flux value at 2800 MHz and any corrections applied to that measurement.
2A) Current impact on the monthly sunspot number based on the Boulder (NOAA/SWPC) sunspot number (accumulated daily sunspots / month days).
2B) Boulder SN current month average to date.
2C) STAR SDO 1K Wolf number 30 day average.
3) Running average based on the quicklook and definitive Potsdam WDC ap indices. Values in red are based on the definitive international GFZ Potsdam WDC ap indices.
4) Source: SIDC-SILSO.

Solar cycles 24-25

Smoothed SF and sunspot numbers

 

This report has been prepared by Jan Alvestad. It is based on the analysis of data from whatever sources are available at the time the report is prepared. All time references are to Universal Time. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

SDO images are courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.