Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Activity chart

Last major update issued on December 2, 2025 at 05:05 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 (December 1, 2025)
Solar cycle Solar cycles 23-25 (December 1, 2025) Historical solar and geomagnetic data charts 1954-2006 (April 5, 2007)
  Cycle 24-25 progress (December 1, 2025) Noon SDO sunspot count 1K image / 4K (*)
  Solar cycles 1-24 (August 1, 2020) POES auroral activity level [October 2009 - December 2012]
  Comparison of cycles 21-25 (December 1, 2025) 3rd SSN Workshop, Tucson, 2013
  Comparison of cycles 12-14, 16, 24-25 (December 1, 2025) 4th SSN Workshop, Locarno, 2014
  Solar polar fields vs. solar cycles (August 17, 2025) Cycle 25 initial spots (final update December 25, 2019)
  Solar cycles 24-25 transition using 365d smoothing  

Recent activity

The geomagnetic field was at quiet to active levels on December 1 as effects associated with CH1332 came to an end. Solar wind speed at SOHO ranged between 423 and 614 km/sec, averaging 522 km/sec (-104 km/sec compared to the previous day). The high latitude magnetometer at Andenes was at quiet to major storm levels. The above 10 MeV proton flux was at background levels all day.

Solar flux density measured at 20h UT on 2.8 GHz was 196.7 - increasing 45.1 over the previous solar rotation.

The 365 day average solar flux at 1 AU was 157.23 (183 days ago). The 81 day average solar flux at 1 AU was 143.4 (41 days ago, this is 47.0% of the total SC25 solar flux range from the max 81 day average peak on September 4, 2024 at 227.3 and an average 81 day flux of 69 at solar minimum). SC25 365d peak: 195.9 on October 13, 2024.

The Potsdam WDC planetary A index was 10 (STAR Ap - based on the average of three hour interval ap indices: 9.5). Three hour interval K indices: 41222321 (planetary), 41232321 (Boulder), 61213344 (Andenes).

The background x-ray flux is at the class C2 level (GOES 19).

At the time of counting spots (see image time), spots were observed in 12 active regions using 2K resolution (SN: 310) and in 11 active regions using 1K resolution (SN: 208) SDO/HMI images.

AR 14288 [N17W71] decayed slowly and was mostly quiet.
AR 14290 [S09W60] decayed slowly and quietly.
AR 14291 [S12W57] decayed slowly and quietly.
AR 14294 [S15E48] decayed significantly losing area and with the major penumbra fragmenting into smaller penumbrae. There are still small magnetic delta configurations in the trailing spot section and a chance of major flaring.
AR 14295 [N05E54] was quiet and stable.
AR 14296 [S14E60] produced a few C flares and has major flare potential.
New AR 14297 [S12W15] emerged with new flux on November 30 and was numbered the next day by SWPC. C flares are possible.
New AR 14298 [S17E32] was split off from AR 14294 and was mostly quiet.
New AR 14299 [N22E68] rotated into view on November 30 and received its NOAA number the next day. The trailing spot section has a magnetic delta configuration and could produce further X flares.

Spotted regions not observed (or interpreted differently) by SWPC/USAF:
AR S11650 [N20E32] was quiet and stable. The spot group has reversed polarities.
New AR S11654 [N08E78] rotated into view with small spots. This region or another region just behind the northeast limb was the source of a flare estimated at M3.4 just after 03:30 UT
New AR S11656 [S14W08] emerged with tiny spots.

C2+ flares

Magnitude Peak time (UT) Location Source Recorded by Comment
C2.7 00:10   14299 GOES18  
C3.1 01:07   14288 GOES18  
X1.9/1N 02:49 N22E79 14299 GOES18 CME, strong type II and IV radio sweeps
C5.8 05:56   14296 GOES18  
C7.9 06:20 S17E79 14296 GOES18  
C4.8 07:18   14294 GOES18  
C2.9 08:43   14299 GOES18  
C4.0 09:01   14298 GOES18 simultaneous flare in AR 14288
C6.0 10:13   14294 GOES18  
C3.9 11:42   14296 GOES18  
C3.6 12:04   14294 GOES18  
C4.2 12:49   14296 GOES18 simultaneous flare in AR 14294
C2.4 13:28   14294 GOES18  
C2.8 13:39   14299 GOES18  
C3.0 13:51   14299 GOES18  
C3.5 14:23   14294 GOES18  
C4.2 16:37   14294 GOES18  
C3.1 17:15   14299 GOES18  
C3.0 17:22   14299 GOES18  
C2.4 17:59   14294 GOES18  
C3.2 19:01   14294 GOES18  
C3.2 19:19   14294 GOES18  
C3.3 19:32   14299 GOES18  
C4.7 21:54   14294 GOES18  
C2.9 22:55   14294 GOES18  
C2.9 23:55   14296 GOES18  

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs)

November 29-30: No obviously Earth directed CMEs were observed in available coronagraph imagery.
December 1: AR 14299 was the source of an X1.9 flare peaking at 02:49 UT. A fast and wide partial halo CME was observed in LASCO imagery. Despite the source location at the northeast limb, there's a chance a shock could reach Earth on December 3 or 4.

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 recurrent trans equatorial negative polarity coronal hole (CH1333) will be Earth facing on November 30 - December 3.

Forecast

The geomagnetic field is expected to be at mostly quiet levels on December 2. Quiet to minor storm levels are likely on December 3-5 due to effects associated with CH1333, possibly with some contributions from the December 1 CME on December 3-4.

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: 0-30% 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
STAR SWPC STAR Current Previous
2K 1K
14288 2025.11.20
2025.11.20
9 14 7 N19W73 0060 DAI DAO

was AR S11626

area: 0100

location: N17W71

14290 2025.11.20
2025.11.21
1 2 1 S10W62 0020 HSX HRX

was AR S11627

location: S09W60

14291 2025.11.21
2025.11.22
5 10 3 S12W55 0020 CAO CRO

was AR S11630

area: 0030

location: S12W57

14293 2025.11.22
2025.11.24
      N08W54           was AR S11633

location: N08W47

S11639 2025.11.25       N09W10        

 

 
14297 2025.11.26
2025.12.01
5 24 11 S12W15 0020 BXI DRI was AR S11640

area: 0060

14294 2025.11.28
2025.11.28
40 71 37 S15E43 1440 FKC FKC beta-gamma-delta

was AR S11642

area: 1910

location: S15E48

S11643 2025.11.28       N16W49            
S11644 2025.11.28       N18E16            
S11645 2025.11.28       S05W56            
14296 2025.11.29
2025.11.30
12 23 15 S14E62 0640 EKI EKC was AR S11647

area: 1240

location: S14E60

14295 2025.11.29
2025.11.30
1 6 2 N04E51 0040 HSX CSO was AR S11648

area: 0100

location: N05E54

14299 2025.11.30
2025.12.01
9 14 10 N22E68 0150 DAI DKC beta-delta

was AR S11649

area: 0430

S11650 2025.11.30   8 4 N20E32 0020   BXO reversed polarities
S11651 2025.11.30       N10W20          
S11652 2025.11.30       N18W24          
S11653 2025.12.01       S62E13         reversed polarities
14298 2025.12.01 3 13 5 S16E32 0110 HSX CAO   area: 0220

location: S17E32

S11654 2025.12.01   3 3 N08E78 0070   HAX    
S11656 2025.12.01   2   S14W08 0004   BXO    
Total spot count: 85 190 98  
Sunspot number: 175 310 208  (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions)
Weighted SN: 135 249 157  (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): 193 171 166  

Monthly solar cycle data

Month Average solar flux International sunspot number
(WDC-SILSO)
Smoothed sunspot number (4) Average ap
(3)
Measured 1 AU
2024.05 187.7 191.9 172.1 149.1 (+4.6) 23.56
(SC25 peak)
2024.08  246.1
(SC25 peak)
252.2 216.0  (SC25 peak) 156.8 (+1.8) 15.96
2024.09 195.7 197.8 141.1 159.4 (+1.6) 15.36
2024.10 221.0 219.6 165.8 160.9 (+1.5) (SC25 solar max) 18.99
2024.11 199.6 195.3 154.1 157.2 (-3.7) 9.33
2024.12 197.3 191.2 154.6 151.2 (-6.0) 8.42
2025.01 190.3 184.2 137.0 146.2 (-5.0) 13.17
2025.02  184.2 179.7 155.7 139.8 (-6.4) 14.42
2025.03 163.7 162.1 134.2 135.9 (-3.9) 15.96
2025.04 162.5 163.6 141.4 133.3 (-2.6) 17.62
2025.05  135.3 138.3 78.5 128.5 (-4.8) 17.26
2025.06 131.3 135.4 114.6 (124.4 projected, -4.1) 21.43
2025.07 137.8 142.3 125.6 (121.7 projected, -2.7) 11.80
2025.08 154.9 158.7 133.5 (118.0 projected, -3.7) 9.97
2025.09 154.4 156.0 129.8 (114.1 projected, -3.9) 14.02
2025.10 139.5 138.6 114.6 (110.1 projected, -4.0) 15.64
2025.11 140.3 137.3 91.7 (107.9 projected, -2.2) 21.3
2025.12 196.7 (1)   5.6 (2A) / 175 (2B) / 119.3(2C) (106.3 projected, -1.6) (9.5)
2026.01       (102.3 projected, -4.0)  
2026.02       (98.2 projected, -4.1)  
2026.03       (93.8 projected, -4.4)  
2026.04       (90.1 projected, -3.7)  
2026.05       (88.9 projected, -1.2)  

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 27 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: WDC-SILSO, Royal Observatory Of Belgium, Brussels

Solar cycles 24-25

Smoothed SF and sunspot numbers

Update on the progress of solar cycle 25 as of October 2025

Sunspot activity was on a decreasing trend from September 2024 until mid August 2025 (using the average solar flux over 3 solar rotations as a proxy). Then a strong surge in activity saw solar flux peak in late August 2025 just below the largest peaks seen in 2024. A slow decrease in activity from the August level has been observed in September and October 2025.

All 365 day smoothed sunspot numbers reached a maximum on October 11-12, 2024
. This became the peak of SC25 (365 day smoothed peaks: STAR 1K: 236.1, STAR 2K: 364.3, NOAA SN: 156.0, ISN: 163.9), while the 365d smoothed solar flux peaked on October 13, 2024, just 1.7% below the SC23 peak, and 62.6% above the SC24 peak.

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This report has been prepared by Jan Alvestad. It is based on the analysis of data from whichever 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.