Monday, September 6, 2010

Update; SOLAR FLARE:

A little more than an hour ago, magnetic fields above sunspot 1105 reconnected, producing a brief but explosive C1-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a bright flash of extreme UV radiation from the blast site: 0.7 MB movie. Sunspot 1105 is growing rapidly and seems poised to produce more flares in the hours ahead.

It looks like the sun has developed rash. Sunspot group 1105 consists of more than 25 tiny spots scattered across an area some 40,000 km wide. Sascha Somodji sends this picture of the busy active region from his backyard observatory in Krefeld, Germany:

Sunspot group 1105 stands in marked contrast to nearby sunspot 1101, which consists of a single dark core. (Click here to see the two side by side.) If sunspot 1101 looks boring, that's because it is. The sunspot's magnetic underpinnings resemble a simple dipole, and the spot is correspondingly quiet. Sunspot group 1105, on the other hand, is much more complicated with a profusion of opposite magnetic polarities popping up and bumping together. Magnetic reconnection is happening there almost non-stop, causing sunspot 1105 to crackle with B-class solar flares. It is, indeed, a "rash sunspot."

more images: from Steve Rismiller of Milford, Ohio; from John Stetson of Portland, Maine; from Rolf Girssmann of Boostedt, Germany; from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany;


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HOW TO READ PROPAGATION NUMBERS

The A index [ LOW is GOOD ]

  • 1 to 6 is BEST
  • 7 to 9 is OK
  • 11 or more is BAD

Represents the overall geomagnetic condition of the ionosphere ("Ap" if averaged from the Kp-Index) (an average of the eight 3-hour K-Indices) ('A' referring to amplitude) over a given 24 hour period, ranging (linearly) typically from 1-100 but theoretically up to 400.

A lower A-Index generally suggests better propagation on the 10, 12, 15, 17, & 20 Meter Bands; a low & steady Ap-Index generally suggest good propagation on the 30, 40, 60, 80, & 160 Meter Bands.

SFI index [ HIGH is GOOD ]

  • 70 NOT GOOD
  • 80 GOOD
  • 90 BETTER
  • 100+ BEST

The measure of total radio emissions from the sun at 10.7cm (2800 MHz), on a scale of 60 (no sunspots) to 300, generally corresponding to the sunspot level, but being too low in energy to cause ionization, not related to the ionization level of the Ionosphere.

Higher Solar Flux generally suggests better propagation on the 10, 12, 15, 17, & 20 Meter Bands; Solar Flux rarely affects the 30, 40, 60, 80, & 160 Meter Bands.

K index [ LOW is GOOD ]

  • 0 or 1 is BEST
  • 2 is OK
  • 3 or more is BAD
  • 5 is VERY VERY BAD

The overall geomagnetic condition of the ionosphere ("Kp" if averaged over the planet) over the past 3 hours, measured by 13 magnetometers between 46 & 63 degrees of latitude, and ranging quasi-logarithmically from 0-9. Designed to detect solar particle radiation by its magnetic effect. A higher K-index generally means worse HF conditions.

A lower K-Index generally suggests better propagation on the 10, 12, 15, 17, & 20 Meter Bands; a low & steady Kp-Index generally suggest good propagation on the 30, 40, 60, 80, & 160 Meter Bands.

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