Solar Bulletin, January 2006

• Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance Report

Solar Bulletin
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF VARIABLE STAR OBSERVERS - SOLAR COMMITTEE
Carl E. Feehrer, Editor 9 Gleason Rd. Bedford, MA 01730	Email: cfeehrer@hotmail.com ISSN 0271-8480
Volume 62 Number 1	January 2006

Table I. Mean Sunspot Numbers for January 2006 [boldface = maximum, minimum]

Table II. January Observers

Day N Raw Mean Ra 1 20 39 27 2 18 33 24 3 21 35 24 4 20 25 18 5 21 15 10 6 16 15 11 7 26 12 8 8 27 11 8 9 29 12 8 10 31 11 8 11 29 11 8 12 29 6 5 13 20 1 1 14 12 2 2 15 23 29 21 16 27 39 27 17 28 33 24 18 22 40 28 19 32 32 23 20 22 23 17 21 18 33 24 22 30 46 32 23 27 50 34 24 29 40 28 25 27 30 21 26 35 20 14 27 26 17 12 28 26 3 2 29 27 2 1 30 22 0 0 31 20 0 0 Means: 24.5 21.5 15.1 No. of Observers: 57 No. of Observations: 760 Reporting Addresses Sunspot Reports -- email: solar@aavso.org postal mail: AAVSO, 25 Birch St. Cambridge, MA 02138 FAX (AAVSO): (617) 354-0665 SID Solar Flare Reports -- email: noatak@aol.com postal mail: Mike Hill 114 Prospect St. Marlboro, MA 01752

10 AAP P.Abbott 17 ANGR R.Ang 22 ARAG G.Araujo 13 BARH H.Barnes 8 BATR R.Battaiola 3 BEB R.Berg 10 BERJ J.Berdejo 3 BLAJ J.Blackwell 9 BMF M.Boschat 17 BOSB B.Bose 27 BRAB B.Branchett 27 BRAD D.Branchett 1 BRAM M.Bradbury 26 BRAR R.Branch 23 BROB R.Brown 2 CAMP P.Campbell 24 CHAG G.Morales 21 CKB B.Cudnik 12 CLZ L.Corp 2 COMT T.Compton 18 DEJV J.van Delft 14 DGP G.Dyck 12 FERJ J.Fernandez 25 FLET T.Fleming 22 FUJK K.Fujimori 1 GOEM M.Goetz 5 HAYK K.Hay 10 JAMD D.James 13 KAPJ J.Kaplan 16 KNJS J.Knight 2 KROL L.Krozel 4 LARJ J.Larriba 2 LERM M.Lerman 15 MARJ J.Maranon 25 MCE E.Mochizuki 11 MENM M.Menegotto 12 MMI M.Moeller 26 OATS S.Oatney 12 PEKT R.Pektas 7 RICE E.Richardson 18 RITA A.Ritchie 14 SCHG G.Scholl 1 SDP D.Sharples 7 SIMC C.Simpson 3 STEF G.Stefanopoulos 13 STEM G.Stemmler 14 STQ N.Stoikidis 23 SUZM M.Suzuki 17 SZAK K.Szatkowski 11 SZUM M.Szulc 24 TAKH H.Takuma 19 TESD D.Teske 13 TJV J.Temprano 13 URBP P.Urbanski 15 VARG A.Vargas 21 WILW W.Wilson 5 WRP R.Wheeler

Click image to enlarge. Fig. 1. 10 cm Solar Flux and American Relative Sunspot Numbers (Ra) for January 2006 (10cm Source: http://www.drao.nrc.ca/icarus)

Click image to enlarge. Fig.2 Smoothed Mean Sunspot Numbers (Rsm) from January 2000 to July 2005 (Waldmeier method).

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Note: Several errors were found in the list of 2005 observers published in last month's Solar Bulletin. A revised list is presented in Table III on page 3.

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Table III (Revised). Sunspot and SID Observers Who Contributed Reports During 2005.

Sunspot Observers   AAP Patrick Abbott Canada ARAG Gema Araujo Spain ARE Richard Allessi USA AJV Javier Alonso Spain ANGR Raymund Ang Philippines BARH Howard Barnes New Zealand BATR Roberto Battaiola Italy BEB Ray Berg USA BERJ Jose Berdejo Spain BLAJ John Blackwell USA BMF Michael Boschat Canada BOSB Biswajit Bose India BRAB Brenda Branchett USA BRAD David Branchett USA BRAM Mark Bradbury USA BRAR Robert Branch USA BROB Bob Brown USA CAMP Paul Campbell Canada CHAG German Morales Bolivia CKB Brian Cudnik USA CLZ Laurent Corp France COMT Thomas Compton USA CR Tom Cragg Australia DEJV Jacques van Delft South Africa DELS Susan Delaney USA DEMF Frank Dempsey Canada DGP Gerald Dyck USA DRAJ Jean Dragesco France DUBF Franky Dubois Belgium FEEC Carl Feehrer USA FERJ Jose Fernandez Spain FLET Tom Fleming USA FUJK Kenichi Fujimori Japan GOEM Martin Goetz Germany HALB Brian Halls England HAYK Kim Hay Canada HRUT Timothy Hrutkay USA JAMD David James USA JEFT Thomas Jeffrey USA JENJ Jamey Jenkins USA JENS Simon Jenner England KAPJ John Kaplan USA KHAR Rana Khan India KNJS James Knight South Africa KQR Richard Kinne USA KROL Larry Krozel USA KUZM Mikhail Kuzmin Russia LARJ Jose Larriba Spain LERM Michel Lerman Canada LEVM Monty Leventhal Australia MARE Enrico Mariani Italy MARJ Jose Maranon Spain MCE Etsuiku Mochizuki Japan MEU Euan Mason New Zealand MENM Miguel Menegotto Argentina MMI Michael Moeller Germany OATS Susan Oatney USA OBSO IPS Observatory Australia OYE Yenal Ogmen Turkey

Sunspot Observers (cont.)   PEKT Riza Pektas Turkey RICE E. C. Richardson England RIDC Charles Ridgway USA RITA Arthur Ritchie USA SCGL Gerd Lutz Schott Germany SCHG Greg Scholl USA SDP Dolores Sharples USA SIMC Clyde Simpson USA STEF George Stefanopoulos Greece STEM Gerhard Stemmler Germany STQ Nick Stoikidis Greece SUZM Miyoshi Suzuki Japan SZAK Kryzstoff Szatkowski Poland SZUM Mieczyslaw Szulc Poland TESD David Teske USA THR Raymond Thompson Canada TJV Javier Temprano Spain URBP Piotr Urbanski Poland VARG Alberto Vargas Boliva VIDD Daniel Vidican Romania WILW William Wilson USA WRP Russell Wheeler USA YESH Hulya Yesilyaprak Turkey

SID Observers   A-29 Andy Clerkin USA A-50 Jerry Winkler USA A-52 Domenic Toldo South Africa A-59 Steve Hansen USA A-63 James Ellerbe Spain A-80 Peter King England A-84 Walter Moos Switzerland A-87 Mike Hill USA A-90 Jim Mandaville USA A-91 Len Anderson Australia A-93 Guglielmo DiFilipo Italy A-95 Ted Poulos USA A-96 Roberto Battaiola Italy A-97 Jon Wallace USA A-99 Michael King England A-100 Paul Campbell Canada A-101 Giorgio Bressan Italy A-102 Francois Steyn South Africa A-103 Biswajit Bose India A-107 Nick Stoikidis Greece A-108 Paul Mortfield USA A-112 Andries Son Belgium A-115 Mark Suhovecky USA A-116 Trent Bjorndahl Canada A-117 Ken Hubal USA

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Several months ago, I informed AAVSO headquarters that I would be retiring from my positions as Solar Committee Chair and Sunspot Analyst. My service to the organization will end with publication of the April issue of the Solar Bulletin in May, 2006.

Mike Hill, our SID analyst will continue his service, and Paul Mortfield, an experienced SID observer has volunteered to assume the responsibilities of Solar Committee chair. Paul has worked on SOHO and solar outreach efforts within NASA's Sun-Earth Connection Forum and has been active on both the amateur and professional sides of the table. His involvement with SOHO and NASA and the formulation of solar activities and observing programs for schools, his hosting of solar educational broadcasts for NASA-TV and his presentations of talks to astronomical clubs in the US and Canada make him well-qualified for the position.

The task of identifying and training a volunteer interested in assuming the tasks associated with record-keeping, corresponding with sunspot observers and monthly analyses of sunspot reports remains. I would be pleased to hear from any observer who would consider taking on this role. If you are interested, please email me at cfeehrer@hotmail.com or write to me at the following address: 9 Gleason Road, Bedford, MA 01730.

At least two aspects of the task should be recognized by potential volunteers: 1) Software used to conduct monthly analyses is written in QuickBasic for an MS-DOS environment. It will run successfully with Win 95, Win 98, and Win XP operating systems, but will not run on a Macintosh. 2) Although not mandatory, a volunteer should be willing to travel to AAVSO meetings at their own expense.

Thank you all for continuing to send your sunspot reports to the AAVSO's Solar Committee. It has been a pleasure for me to serve as Committee Chair and analyst for the last 6-plus years.

CEF

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance Report

Michael Hill, SID Analyst 114 Prospect St Marlborough, MA 01752 USA noatak@aol.com

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances (SID) Recorded During January 2006

(Analysis performed by Michael Hill, SID Analyst)
Date	Max	Imp
060105	0924	1
060122	0700	1-
060122	1243	1-
060122	1409	1-
060122	1658	1+
060124	0724	1+

Importance rating: Duration

-1: <19

1: 19-25

1+: 26-32

2: 33-45

2+: 46-85

3: 86-125

3+: >125

Observer Code Station(s) monitored D Toldo A52 DHO M Hill A87 NAA G Di Filippo A93 HWU T Poulos A95 NAA R Battaiola A96 HWU P Campbell A100 NLK G Bressan A101 HWU F Steyn A102 NAA NWC L Observatory A107 DHO P Mortfield A108 NAA M Suhovecky A115 NAA K Hubal A117 NAA

The events listed above meet at least one of the following criteria Event reported by two or more observers within +/- 5 minutes Event matched to GOES-8 XRA event to within +/- 15 minutes and event time < 1000 UT Reported by observer with a high quality rating > 8 (scale 1-10)

Solar Events

January was a very slow month for solar flare activity and hence SID detections. Only 6 correlated SIDs were reported this month and those were all of low importance rating. The dates of SID detection correlate well with the flare activity reported by the GOES-12 satellite. As can be seen there was one C-Class flare on the 5th, which was detected as a SID. The other SIDs detected all fell around the 22nd of the month where there was a burst of solar activity as can be seen on the graph below. The GOES satellite reported only 100 flare events and all of these were B and C class events. Keep monitoring however. As has been seen before, one never knows when the sun will suddenly become active. I myself am waiting anxiously now for the first spot of cycle 24 to emerge and hence the first burst of new cycle flare activity.

Solar Flare Summary Based on GOES-12 Data