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
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
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
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
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
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
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 31st, 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 8th 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 16th 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 21st 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.
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 |
Ramp Up of Solar Activity Cycle 25
By Theo Ramakers
Brief Summary of CR 2238
By Kim Hay
ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator
Carrington Sunspot Data for CR2238
Data from SILSO
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We invite you to join the A.L.P.O. Solar email list to keep current with all the Solar activity and the efforts of your fellow observers. |
Brief Summary of CR 2237
By Kim Hay
ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator
CR2237 started on November 1, 2020 at 07:21 UT and ended on November 28 at 14:45 UT.
November started off very low in sunspot numbers with AR2780 and AR2781 producing a C class flare on November 8th. This in turn triggered an auroral display in the upper atmosphere for the Northern hemisphere. By the 12th AR2782 produced a C class flare, and the Stereo A satellite was monitoring two UV hotspots on the backside of the sun which were getting close to appearing
On November 18th new Sunspot AR2783 appeared. On November 20th, this spot produced two long B flares in UV. There was a Northern group AR2784 that showed up briefly on November 22nd. Then the next day saw AR2785 (S23E66, Hsx/alpha) and AR2786 (S16E74 Hsx/alpha), and AR2783 (S22W00, Cso/beta) develop trailer spots with B-class activity. AR2784 (N23E08 Bxo/beta) was stable and quiet. A C class flare was reported from AR2785. The Wilson Effect was seen on images by the SDO and Pete Lawrence (UK). It was also captured in images by ALPO observers Theo Ramakers and Frank J. Melillo (see below).
November 25th revealed two small groups rotating into view that were not yet numbered. Space Weather Prediction Centre reported that “AR2785 is 110 millionths and Cso(Beta) while AR2786 is at 800 millionths and Fko (Beta/Gamma)”. The associated auroral display produced the purple glow known as “Steve” (discovered by Canadians 10 years ago), a river of gas with temperatures of 3,000º C passing through the Earth’s magnetosphere faster than 13,000 miles/hour. In an article at spaceweather.com published November 22nd it appears that “Steve” now has green cannon balls under a sequence of vertical pillars dubbed “the green picket fence”.
As CR2237 was drawing to a close AR2786 was growing larger and producing C class flares on November 26th. Two days later an M class flare came from the backside of the sun originating from spots had not rotated into view yet. AR2786 (beta/gamma) was breaking up with light bridges.
So, all in all a very exciting and interesting month for sunspot and Solar activity. We are definitely in Solar Cycle 25!
Thanks to the following Observer’s who submitted their sketches (S) and digital images (D) which are now archived in the A.L.P.O Solar Gallery for CR2237:
Brief Summary of CR 2236
By Kim Hay
ALPO Solar Assistant Coordinator
CR2236 started on October 5, 2020 at 00:18 UT and ended on November 1 at 07:20 UT.
The uptick in the number of Cycle 25 sunspots that were produced made for an exciting month. Sunspot Numbers for the rotation were AR2274 through AR2279. The graph below shows the daily counts based on data reported by Spaceweather.com and the SILSO World Data Centre – Royal Observatory of Belgium.
There were several CMEs that produced a range of C1 and C4 class flares. On October 28th one CME had enough energy to produce M class flares while exhibiting a Beta-Gamma magnetic field.
On October 26th sunspot AR2778 appeared, initially spanning over 90,000 km. Within 24 hours it grew to 100,000 km in size. As reported by Solar observer Theo Ramakers in his rotation summary report, “Total Active Region Area for AR2776 was 420 millionths with the maximum daily area of 110 millionth on October 19th. AR2778 however, which developed much faster, accounted for 830 millionths for its short appearance in CR2236 of the Total Active Region Area for the Rotation of 2000 millionths.” For those interested in learning how to calculate the millionths of sunspots please reference the following article by Peter Meadows of the BAA available on the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System
Cycle 25 sunspot AR2776 also displayed an “Ellerman Bomb” on October 18th and was captured by both Theo Ramakers and Howard Eskildsen in images they submitted to the ALPO Solar Gallery. Per Wikipedia, an Ellerman Bomb involves “randomly moving filaments as two oppositely charged ion flows meet the Sun’s photosphere.” These are micro flares which are named after Ferdinand Ellerman who studied the Solar Blasts in the early 20th century. Great work by Howard and Theo capturing this event!
Images & Sketches can be found on the Solar ALPO image gallery for CR2236 from the following individuals:
Theo Ramakers
Howard Eskildsen
Frank J. Melillo
Guilherme Grassmann
Geert Vandenbuicke
Monty Leventhal (sketch)
David Teske (sketch)
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