Solar Section

December 28, 2022

Summary for Carrrington Rotations CR2262 to CR2264 Available

ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator Kim Hay has generated a brief summary report for Carrington Rotations 2262 through 2264. It is available at the following link for your review.

October 23, 2022

Summary for Carrrington Rotations CR2259 to CR2261 Available

ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator Kim Hay has generated a brief summary report for Carrington Rotations 2259 through 2261. It is available at the following link for your review

August 7, 2022

Summary for Carrrington Rotations CR2254 to CR2258 Available

ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator Kim Hay has generated a brief summary report for Carrington Rotations 2254 through 2258. It is available at the following link for your review

April 11, 2022

Summary for Carrrington Rotations CR2251 to CR2253 Available

ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator Kim Hay has generated a brief summary report for Carrington Rotations 2251 and 2253. It is available at the following link for your review

January 6, 2022

Summary for Carrrington Rotation CR2249_CR2250 Available

ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator Kim Hay has generated a brief summary report of Carrington Rotations 2249 and 2250. It is available at the following link for your review

October 14, 2021

Summary of CR 2246-2248 Available

ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator Kim Hay has generated a brief summary report of Carrington Rotations 2246, 2247, and 2248. It is available at the following link for your review

July 18, 2021

Summary of CR 2243-2245 Available

ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator Kim Hay has generated a brief summary report of Carrington Rotations 2243 through 2245. It is available at the following link for your review

May 5, 2021

Summary of CR 2240-2242 Available

ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator Kim Hay has generated a brief summary report of Carrington Rotations 2240 through 2242. It is available at the following link for your review

February 21, 2021

Brief Summary of CR 2239

By Kim Hay
ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator

Carrington Rotation #2239 (CR2239) started on December 25, 2020 at 22:30 (2020-12-25.9375; 2020.98819; Julian Date 2459209.43874) and ended on January 22, 2021 at 06:35.

The rotation continued with AR2794 & AR2795 taking the show. Even though they were beginning to decay by December 31^st, the groups still exhibited stable magnetic fields but failed to generate much activity in the flaring aspect. With the start of the new year solar activity declined, leading to a period of 12 days without any sunspot or group activity. On January 8^th SOHO recorded the Sun ejecting a large filament into space past Jupiter, “one of the biggest in years” according to the SpaceWeather.com website.

Things picked up on January 16^th with the arrival of group AR2796 in the Southern Hemisphere. It was joined the next day by another new group coming over the limb from the far side, earning its numbered designation as AR2797 on the 18th. January 21^st brought us AR2798 which continued its trek across the Sun with AR2797. At the tail end of the cycle groups AR2797 and AR2798 were crackling with C class flares.

Cycle CR2239 seemed to have fewer sunspot groups, closing out with a total of five active regions (AR2794-2798). Interestingly, all of them were located in the Sun’s southern hemisphere.

Data taken from the Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations (SILSO) website

Thanks to the observers listed below who contributed 168 images and sketches to the ALPO Solar Image Gallery. Their work documenting CR2239 included observations in white light, H-alpha, and Calcium-K. We invite all interested Solar observers to join us on the ALPO Solar groups.io list where recent observation and news can be found. Details on how to subscribe can be found here.

Paul Andrew	Frank Melillo
Anthony Broxton	John O’Neal
Vlamir da Silva Junior	Theo Ramakers
Howard Eskildsen	Randy Tatum
Guilherme Grassmann	David Teske
Monty Leventhal	Geert Vandenbulcke

January 31, 2021

Ramp Up of Solar Activity Cycle 25

By Theo Ramakers

I was asked if it was true that it seemed that Cycle 25 activity ramped up faster than previous rotations. In order to try to shed some light into this, I am providing two graphs. It is noted here that each graph, while created by me, is based on data provided in the daily GEOalert notifications from NOAA’s Spaceweather Prediction Center (SWPC). Each graph shows the value of the sum of all daily active region areas for a Rotation since January 1, 2008 (Blue lines, mostly in the middle, with their scale on the left). Also shown is the number of spotless days. (red lines at the side with the scale on the right). The difference between the two graphs is that one of them shows the number of consecutive spotless days at the end of this spotless period (Streak).

The second graph below shows the number of spotless days by ROTATION at the last day of the rotation The number of these days reported by the size of the bars in this graph, don’t have to be consecutive, but the reported value is shown for an equal time period for all (one rotation). The Minimum for Cycle 23/24 (Beginning of Cycle 24) was in December of 2008. The Minimum for Cycle 24/25 (Beginning of Cycle 25) was during December of 2019, giving a cycle duration of 11 years. It is clearly seen that the blue lines (indicating Solar Activity) don’t start showing in 2009, one year following the minimum , but this cannot be said for 2020, a year after the next minimum. We surely see noticeable activity during the end of 2020. In addition, the Total Active Region Areas by Rotation show a higher value now than during the beginning of the previous solar minimum. In fact the Total Active Region Area by Rotation did not exceed 5000 millionths until August 9, 2010, or 20 months after the previous minimum. For the current Cycle, November 27, 2020 marks the first time where the 5000 millionths barrier was broken, and by well over 1000 millionths, which is only 11 months. So to summarize the results so far, Cycle 25 seems to gain in activity much faster than Cycle 24 did. We are eager to learn if this fast ramp up will continue.

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