Solar Section

September 27, 2019

A Short Summary of Carrington Rotation 2221

Carrington Rotation CR2221 covered the time period from 2019-08-22 2136 UT – 2019-09-19 0347 UT.
At the time of this writing 167 Images/Observations were submitted for the archives. The submissions can be viewed in ALPO’s Solar Archive for CR2221:
http://alpo-astronomy.org/gallery3/index.php/Solar-Observations-Archive/SolarImages2019/CR2221
The rotation brought us one short lived active region, AR2748, which lasted two days. The region covered an area of 20 millionths on its second day on September 3rd. During the rotation we had 26 spotless days . The highest Wolf number for the rotation was 12 on September 3rd. The Rotation continued the transition from C24 to C25 with a number of reverse polarized areas. See our .pdf of the Reverse Polarized Areas Overview which includes the latest updates by clicking here:
http://www.alpo-astronomy.org/solarblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-04-xx-RevPolarized.pdf .
Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low and the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 553. Finally, the Sun produced 1 A-class, and no B, or C-class flares during the rotation.
This time we would like to feature some images submitted by, David Teske, a composite with a reverse polarized area by Theo Ramakers and a nice WL image, as Howard Eskildsen captured a plane flying through his field of view. Please click the thumbnails below to see the full image. Thanks to all contributors for another great rotation. Please take a look at all the drawings/images by clicking on the link above which will bring you to our archive for CR2221.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers
Assistant Coordinator, the ALPOSS

September 1, 2019

A Short Summary of Carrington Rotation 2220

Carrington Rotation CR2220 covered the time period from 2019-07-26 1607 UT – 2019-08-22 2136 UT.
At the time of this writing 174 Images/Observations were submitted for the archives. The submissions can be viewed in ALPO’s Solar Archive for CR2220:
http://alpo-astronomy.org/gallery3/index.php/Solar-Observations-Archive/SolarImages2019/CR2220
The rotation brought us two short lived active regions, AR2746 and AR2747, each of which lasted only one day. In fact, AR2747 was already gone by the end of the day resulting in a recorded area of 0 millionths while AR2746 measured 10 millionths for one day only on August 6th. This also was the Total Rotation Active Region Area for CR2220. During the rotation we had 25 spotless days . The highest Wolf number for the rotation was 12 on August 8th. The Rotation continued the transition from C24 to C25 with a number of reverse polarized areas on August 18th. See our .pdf of the Reverse Polarized Areas Overview which includes the latest updates by clicking here:
http://www.alpo-astronomy.org/solarblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-04-xx-RevPolarized.pdf .
Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low and the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 528. Finally, the Sun produced 4 A-class, and no B, or C-class flares during the rotation.
This time we would like to feature some images submitted by, David Teske, Howard Eskildsen, and Theo Ramakers. Please click the thumbnails below to see the full image. Thanks to all contributors for another great rotation. Please take a look at all the drawings/images by clicking on the link above which will bring you to our archive for CR2220.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers
Assistant Coordinator, the ALPOSS

July 31, 2019

A Short Summary of Carrington Rotation 2219

Carrington Rotation CR2219 covered the time period from 2019-06-29 1113 UT – 2019-07-26 1607 UT.
197 Images/Observations were submitted for the archives. The submissions can be viewed in ALPO’s Solar Archive for CR2219:
http://alpo-astronomy.org/gallery3/index.php/Solar-Observations-Archive/SolarImages2019/CR2219
The most notable event during this period was the total eclipse in South America on July 2nd. In addition, the rotation brought us 2 short lived active regions, AR2744 and AR2745, which each lasted only one day. In fact, AR2745 was already gone by the end of the day resulting in a recorded area of 0 millionths. The highest Daily Active Region Area for the rotation was the area of AR2844 of 20 millionths on July 8th, which also was the Total Rotation Active Region Areas for CR2219. During the rotation we had 25 spotless days . The highest Wolf number for the rotation was 12 on July 8th, and we should note that we have not seen an Ri of 0 yet. The Rotation continued the transition from C24 to C25 with a number of reverse polarized areas of which the largest one, AR2744, is included in our report on July 7th. This was the second named active region that was reverse polarized since Solar maximum. (The first one was AR2620 on 2019-12-21) See our .pdf of the Reverse Polarized Areas Overview with the latest updates of these reverse polarized areas for this rotation by clicking here:
http://www.alpo-astronomy.org/solarblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-04-xx-RevPolarized.pdf .
Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low and the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 502, which brings the total spotless days for Cycle 24 so far to 855. Finally, the Sun produced 3 A-class, 5 B, and no C-class flares during the rotation.
This time we would like to feature some images submitted by, Guilherme Grassmann, Geert Vandenbulcke, and German Morales. Please click the thumbnails below to see the full image. Thanks to all contributors for another great rotation. Please take a look at all the drawings/images by clicking on the link above which will bring you to our archive for CR2219.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers
Assistant Coordinator, the ALPOSS

July 5, 2019

A Short Summary of Carrington Rotation 2218

Carrington Rotation CR2218 covered the time period from 2019-06-02 0629 UT – 2019-06-29 1113 UT. With the drop in activity so did the number of observations. 194 Images/Observations were submitted for the archives. The submissions can be viewed in ALPO’s Solar Archive for CR2218:
http://alpo-astronomy.org/gallery3/index.php/Solar-Observations-Archive/SolarImages2019/CR2218
On June 25th, the rotation brought us 2 active regions. AR2742 a one day active region, and AR2743, both of which ended the longest spotless streak since solar max. of 36 days. The highest Daily Active Region Area for the rotation was 20 millionths on June 25, while the total active region areas for the rotation was 40 millionths down from 3030 millionths in the last rotation. During the rotation we had 24 spotless days . The highest Wolf number for the rotation was 24, also on June 25th. The Rotation continued the transition from C24 to C25 with a small number of reverse polarized areas of which the most recent ones were on June 20th. See our .pdf overview with the last updates of these reverse polarized areas for this rotation by clicking here:
http://www.alpo-astronomy.org/solarblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-04-xx-RevPolarized.pdf .
Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low and the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 477, which brings the total spotless days for Cycle 24 so far to 830. Finally, the Sun produced 3 A-class, and zero B and zero C-class flares during the rotation.
This time we would like to feature some images submitted by, Frank Melillo, Howard Eskildsen and Theo Ramakers. Please click the thumbnails below to see the full image. Thanks to all contributors for another great rotation. Please take a look at all the drawings/images by clicking on the link above which will bring you to our archive for CR2218.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers
Assistant Coordinator, the ALPOSS

June 5, 2019

A Short Summary of Carrington Rotation 2217

Carrington Rotation CR2217 covered the time period from 2019-05-06 0118 UT – 2019-06-02 0629 UT.
354 Images/Observations were submitted for the archives. The submissions can be viewed in ALPO’s Solar Archive for CR2217:
http://alpo-astronomy.org/gallery3/index.php/Solar-Observations-Archive/SolarImages2019/CR2217
The rotation brought us 2 active regions, AR2740, and AR2741, as well as 1 spotless streak of 14 days. The highest Daily Active Region Area for the rotation was 410 millionths on May 8, while the total active region areas for the rotation was 3040 millionths. The highest Wolf number for the rotation 27, was also on May 8. The Rotation also continued the transition from C24 to C25 with a small number of reverse polarized areas of which the most recent one was on May 29. See our overview with the last updates of these reverse polarized areas for this rotation by clicking here. Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low and the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 453, which brings the total spotless days for Cycle 24 so far to 806. Despite this, the Sun produced 2 A-class, 28 B-class and 11 C-class flares during the rotation.
Last time we featured some images of new observers submitting images to our archive, and this time we would like to feature some drawings submitted by our new observers, Nelly-Hendrik de Bakker and Ivo Demeulenaere, as well as a longtime veteran observer from the UK, Anthony Broxton. Please click the thumbnails below to see the full drawing. Thanks to all contributors for another great rotation. Please take a look at all the drawings/images by clicking on the link above which will bring you to our archive for CR2217.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers
Assistant Coordinator, the ALPOSS

May 8, 2019

A Short Summary of Carrington Rotation 2216

Carrington Rotation 2216 covered the time period from 2019-04-08 1911 UT – 2019-05-06 0118 UT.
358 Images/Observations were submitted for the archives. The submissions can be viewed in ALPO’s Solar Archive for CR2216:

http://alpo-astronomy.org/gallery3/index.php/Solar-Observations-Archive/SolarImages2019/CR2216

The rotation brought us 3 active regions, AR2738, AR2739, and AR2740, as well as 1 spotless streak of 12 days. The highest Daily Active Region Area for the rotation was 410 millionths on April 18, while the total active region areas for the rotation was 3610 millionths. The highest Wolf number for the rotation was 24 on April 24, when in addition to AR2738, AR2739 started to emerge. A number of small reverse polarized areas were observed around the last days of March and the beginning of April. See our overview with the last updates for this rotation by clicking here. Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low and the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 439. Despite this, the Sun produced 1 A-class, 37 B-class and 2 C-class flares during the rotation .

This time we would like to feature some images submitted by three of our new observers which have recently started to submit images, Geert Verbank, Paul Debacker, and Geert Vandenbuncke. Please click the thumbnails below to see the full image. Thanks to all contributors for another great rotation. Please take a look at all the drawings/images by clicking on the link above which will bring you to our archive for CR2216.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers
Assistant Coordinator, the ALPOSS

April 12, 2019

A Short Summary of Carrington Rotation 2215

Carrington Rotation 2215 covered the time period from 2019-03-12 1201 UT – 2019-04-08 1911 UT .
358 Images/Observations were submitted for the archives. The submissions can be viewed in ALPO’s Solar Archive for CR2215:

http://alpo-astronomy.org/gallery3/index.php/Solar-Observations-Archive/SolarImages2019/CR2215

The rotation brought us 4 active regions, AR2735, AR2736, AR2737, and AR2738, and 3 spotless streaks, one of 5, one of 6, and the last one of 3 days. The highest Daily Active Region Area for the rotation was 420 millionths on March 23, while the total active region areas for the rotation was 1470 millionths. The highest Wolf number for the rotation was 49 on March 22 when two active regions were visible at the same day. A number of small reverse polarized areas were observed around the last days of March and the beginning of April. See our overview with the last updates by clicking here. Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low and the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 427. Despite this, during the rotation the Sun produced 70 B-class and 11 C-class flares.

This time we would like to feature some images submitted by three of our observers, Raffaello Braga, Theo Ramakers with a composite of AR2735 and AR2736 , and a WL image by Jeffrey Carels. Please click the thumbnails below to link to the images in the archive. Thanks to all contributors for another great rotation. Please take a look at all the drawings/images by clicking on the link above which will bring you to our archive for CR2215.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers
Assistant Coordinator, the ALPOSS

April 9, 2019

Are we there yet?

Assistant Coordinator for the Solar Section of the ALPO, Theo Ramakers has been looking for some time to find and document, reverse polarized areas on the Sun, which might be an indication of Solar Cycle 25 activity. Granted that we are looking for large and named active regions with reverse polarization in the higher latitudes (approx. 30 degrees). However, smaller activities might give an indication of how we are getting on with this transition. In addition for them to be included in this summary, we needed to have an image in our archive which was submitted by one of our observers to be used in comparison to the SDO’s HMIB magnetograms. His article “Are we there yet”, appeared in the spring issue of ALPO’s Journal “The Strolling Astronomer”, which you can access here. In addition, you can stay up to date with this hunt for reverse polarized areas, since ALPO is making the summary document available on-line. This summary will be updated regularly and show these areas mapped to actual observer images for you to check out! To access the latest overview, please click on the image below which will load the pdf document containing the latest areas.

April 7, 2019

Reverse polarized areas

You are thinking that spotless days at the Sun are boring? Think again!!! Here three composites of images which have been submitted to the ALPO archive in the last week or so, which show evidence of a little (?) Cycle 25 activity. Although very miniscule, but they make themselves known. Since the polarization of the Sun switches with every cycle, we have been looking for reverse polarized areas on the Sun for a while, and have seen a good number of them. So here three composites showing this activity on images of our observers. Since the areas are very small and not even qualify to be called a pore or a plage, they have been cropped out of the full disk images which you can find in our Archive. The images to the right of them in the composite have been provided by SDO (Solar Dynamic Observatory) and show the polarization of these reversed polarized areas. (Northern hemisphere leading white (right), positive polarization; Southern hemisphere leading black, negative)

April 4, 2019

ALPOSS – A report on Carrington Rotation CR2206 through CR2209

ALPOSS Coordinator and Scientific Advisor Richard Hill continues his papers covering the analysis of the activity of the Sun’s Carrington Rotations using the images and reports submitted to the Solar Section with a report on: CR2206 thru CR2209. This report covers the period from 2018-08-06 0143 UT, thru 2018-10-26 2051 UT . The reports are based on over 951 image and observation submissions by numerous contributors to the Solar Observations Archive. The report was published in the 2019 Spring issue of the ALPO Journal, the Strolling Astronomer, and can now also be accessed as a standalone document on ALPOSS Solar Observations & Reports page, or by downloading it, by clicking on the picture below.

Older Posts »