SOLAR CYCLE 25 ACTIVITY REPORT APRIL 17_2023
Solar activity has been at low levels for the past 24 hours. The largest solar event of the period was a C9 event observed at 17:44 UTC on April from a unnumbered sunspot.
There are currently 9 numbered sunspot regions on the solar disk:
AR3272,
AR3273,
AR3275,
AR3276,
AR3279,
AR3280,
AR3281,
AR3282 and new region
AR3283
The total number of sunspots has increased to 155 (65 of these are grouped into 9 active regions) NOAA forecasts for the next 24h: 99% chance for C flares, 50% chance for M flares and 10% chance for X flares.
AR3280 (S08W69) continues with a beta-gamma magnetic configuration, however its size has decreased to 200MH ON the other hand, AR3281 (S24E31) Continues with a beta-gamma magnetic configuration with an area of 300MH. So far both regions have only produced C-class solar flares.
● Auroral Activity
The geomagnetic field has been at quiet levels for the past 24 hours. According to
SpaceWeatherlive, solar wind speed reached a peak of
1196 km/s at 00:34 UTC on April 16 Maximum planetary index Kp 2
It is quite possible that this VERY high speed solar wind is the cause of a very high proton density per cubic centimeter that was recorded yesterday.
density: 69.3 p/cm³ (Very high density) at 04:38
These were some of the other density peaks recorded yesterday
At around 04:40 UTC 50 p/cm³ then it dropped to 0.42 p/cm³
At around 05:30 UTC 100 p/cm³ was recorded, then it dropped to 24.63 p/cm³.
At around 00:00 UTC on April 17 50 p/cm³ then it dropped to 6.71 p/cm³ at 02:11 UTC
These peaks were observed by other users of the DSCOVR spacecraft measurements.
I did not hear back from the experts I asked about this phenomenon. In SpaceWeatherlive a user answered that it was due to a
bug in the DSCOVR system.
Commonly, the solar wind density graph looks like this
After geomagnetic storms, the density may go to zero, not rise, as well as the neutron count.
According to
NOAA
Solar Proton Events at Earth can occur throughout the solar cycle but are most frequent in solar maximum years. SPEs result from fast coronal mass ejections. During an SPE, satellites experience dramatically increased bombardment by high-energy particles. Fluxes of particles with energies ≥ 10 MeV can reach 43,500 protons/cm2/sec/ster. Single Event Upset rates in spacecraft electronics increase with high fluxes since there is a higher likelihood of impact on a sensitive location. In addition, these high energy particles can access the polar ionosphere and create an enhanced region of ionization (called the ‘D-Region’) which interferes with HF radio communication in these areas.
High-energy particles can reach Earth anywhere from 20 minutes to many hours following the initiating solar event. The particle energy spectrum and arrival time seen by satellites varies with the location and nature of the event on the solar disk.
SPE may also come from cosmic rays from the Galaxy.
Protons also have extrasolar origin from galactic cosmic rays, where they make up about 90% of the total particle flux. These protons often have higher energy than solar wind protons, and their intensity is far more uniform and less variable than protons coming from the Sun, the production of which is heavily affected by solar proton events such as coronal mass ejections.
Wikipedia
In my opinion this phenomenon was not due to a bug in DSCOVR this happened because of the speed that the solar wind reached or it has an extrasolar origin.
Aurora Oval Bz: 0.04 nT
North
● Current Conditions at 05:30 UTC on April 17
▪︎ Geospace quiet
▪︎ Geomagnetic conditions now : Kp 2
▪︎ Solar wind speed record: 372.5 km/sec (Normal speed)
▪︎ density: 6.49 p/cm³ (low density)
▪︎ Neutron Counts today: -0.1%
Below Average
▪︎ X-ray Solar Flare: C4 at 04:16 UTC
▪︎ Sunspot number: 155 (SN 151 April 16)
▪︎ Spotless Days 2023 total: 0 days (0%)
SpaceWeather.com
SpaceWeatherlive..com