Solar Section

December 14, 2019

A Short Summary of Carrington Rotation 2224

Carrington Rotation CR2224 covered the time period from 2019-11-12 1744 UT – 2019-12-10 0116 UT.
Because of the general bad observing conditions, the number of submitted images went considerably down. At the time of this writing 126 images were submitted for the archives. The submissions can be viewed in ALPO’s Solar Archive for CR2224 which can be accessed at:
http://alpo-astronomy.org/gallery3/index.php/Solar-Observations-Archive/SolarImages2019/CR2224
The rotation brought us one very short active region AR2752 on the 13th, when SWPC reported it only in their midday report . The Region was registered with a size of zero millionths. AR2752 ended a spotless streak of 10 days. The Rotation continued the transition from C24 to C25 with a number of reverse polarized areas, which are now up to 91 since Solar Max. See our .pdf of the Reverse Polarized Areas Overview, which includes the latest updates by clicking here. Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low and the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 629. Finally, SWPC reported the same number of flares as in the last rotation: 3 A-class, 1 B, and no C-class flares.
This time we would like to feature 3 Ha images submitted by Guilherme Grassmann, Howard Eskildsen, and Theo Ramakers. Please click the thumbnails below to see the full image in the archive. Thanks to all contributors for another great rotation.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers
Assistant Coordinator, the ALPOSS

December 2, 2019

A report on CR2210 through CR2215

ALPOSS Coordinator and Scientific Advisor Richard Hill continues his reports 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: CR2210 thru CR2215. This report covers the period from 2018-10-26 2051 UT, thru 2019-04-08 1911 UT . The reports are based on over 1212 image and observation submissions by numerous contributors to the Solar Observations Archive. The report was published in the 2019 Autumn 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.

November 17, 2019

A Short Summary of Carrington Rotation 2223

Carrington Rotation CR2223 covered the time period from 2019-10-16 1033 UT – 2019-11-12 1744 UT.
At the time of this writing 207 Images/Observations were submitted for the archives, including 54 images of the Mercury transit. The submissions can be viewed in ALPO’s Solar Archive for CR2223, which also contains a folder for images of the Mercury Transit:
http://alpo-astronomy.org/gallery3/index.php/Solar-Observations-Archive/SolarImages2019/CR2223
The rotation brought us two, one day active regions, AR2750 and AR2751 each with a size of 10 millionths, but a Wolf Number of 11 and 13. AR2750 ended a spotless streak of 29 days. 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. Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low and the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 602. Finally, the Sun produced 3 A-class, 1 B, and no C-class flares during the rotation.
This time we would like to feature an image submitted by Dave Tyler, Frank Melillo, and a composite by Howard Eskildsen. Please click the thumbnails below to see the full image in the archive. Thanks to all contributors for another great rotation.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers
Assistant Coordinator, the ALPOSS

November 6, 2019

The Mercury Transit 2019

The Solar Section will again, like we did in 2016, create a separate folder in its archive for this event. We do recommend to submit your images and observations not only to your normal distribution list, but also send the image(s), attached to an email, to solar@alpo-astronomy.org . We will upload the images as part of our section archive.
More information about the transit can be found at the following website: http://www.eclipsewise.com/oh/tm2019.html
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers
Assistant Coordinator, Solar Section

October 20, 2019

A Short Summary of Carrington Rotation 2222

Carrington Rotation CR2222 covered the time period from 2019-09-19 0347 UT – 2019-10-16 1033 UT.
At the time of this writing 179 Images/Observations were submitted for the archives, which does not include observations of those who submit their images at the end of the month. The submissions can be viewed in ALPO’s Solar Archive for CR2222:
http://alpo-astronomy.org/gallery3/index.php/Solar-Observations-Archive/SolarImages2019/CR2222
The rotation brought us one short lived active region, AR2749 with a Wolf Number of 11, which lasted two days. However, SWPC recorded it size as 0 millionths. During the rotation we had 25 spotless days . 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. Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low and the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 577. Finally, the Sun produced 4 A-class, 1 B, and no C-class flares during the rotation.
This time we would like to feature an image submitted by Guilherme Grassman, a drawing by Michel Deconinck, and a CaK image by Howard Eskildsen, of AR2749. 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 CR2222.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers
Assistant Coordinator, the ALPOSS

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

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