AAVSO: Solar Bulletin, March 2004

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 60 Number 3	March 2004

Table I. Mean Sunspot Numbers for March 2004
[boldface = maximum, minimum]

Table II. March Observers

Day	N	Raw Mean	Ra
1	33	62	43
2	33	45	32
3	33	38	26
4	28	37	27
5	24	59	42
6	26	59	42
7	32	53	38
8	34	49	36
9	38	53	38
10	38	50	36
11	31	52	38
12	22	68	49
13	46	61	44
14	31	55	39
15	38	46	34
16	30	50	36
17	35	73	54
18	29	70	52
19	43	81	60
20	27	79	57
21	32	71	51
22	40	76	57
23	41	88	64
24	30	86	63
25	27	119	85
26	28	129	98
27	33	115	84
28	32	104	75
29	38	83	64
30	20	74	54
31	33	74	56
Means:	32.4	69.6	50.8
No. of Observers: 69 No. of Observations: 1005

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

11	AAP	P.Abbott
26	ARAG	G.Araujo
3	ATON	A.Attanasio
15	BARH	H.Barnes
3	BATR	R.Battaiola
5	BEB	R.Berg
14	BERJ	J.Berdejo
7	BLAJ	J.Blackwell
6	BMF	M.Boschat
26	BOSB	B.Bose
31	BRAB	B.Branchett
29	BRAR	R.Branch
24	BROB	R.Brown
3	BXA	A.Baransky
3	CAMP	P.Campbell
14	CARJ	J.Carlson
30	CHAG	G.Morales
14	CLZ	C.Laurent
8	COMT	T.Compton
27	CR	T.Cragg
26	DEJV	J.van Delft
2	DEMF	F.Dempsey
8	DGP	G.Dyck
22	DRAJ	J.Dragesco
25	DUBF	F.Dubois
11	FEEC	C.Feehrer
19	FERJ	J.Fernandes
27	FLET	T.Fleming
23	FUJK	K.Fujimori
13	GOEM	M.Goetz
4	GOLA	A.Golovin
27	GUNM	M.Gundlach
6	HAYK	K.Hay
13	HRUT	T.Hrutkay
18	JAMD	D.James
20	JEFT	T.Jeffrey
6	JENJ	J.Jenkins
3	JENS	S.Jenner
16	KAPJ	J.Kaplan
5	KHAR	R.Khan
17	KNJS	J&S Knight
5	KQR	R.Kinne
6	KROL	L.Krozel
2	KUZM	M.Kuzmin
7	LERM	M.Lerman
8	LEVM	M.Leventhal
5	MARE	E.Mariani
28	MARJ	J.Maranon
8	MAV	D.Matsnev
22	MCE	E.Mochizuki
19	MMI	M.Moeller
15	OBSO	IPS Observatory
7	RICE	E.Richardson
9	RITA	A.Ritchie
26	SCGL	G.Schott
15	SCHG	G.Scholl
6	SIMC	C.Simpson
20	STEM	G.Stemmler
17	STQ	N.Stoikidis
25	SUZM	M.Suzuki
19	SZUM	M.Szulc
23	TESD	D.Teske
7	THR	R.Thompson
15	TJV	J.Temprano
19	URBP	P.Urbanski
13	VARG	A.Vargas
9	VELM	M.Velea
16	WILW	W.Wilson
24	YESH	H.Yesilyaprak

Table III. Means of Raw Group Counts (RG) and Ratios of Spots to Groups (S:G) in March 2004
Day	RG	S:G	Day	RG	S:G	Day	RG	S:G	Day	RG	S:G
1	3.4	8.0	9	3.3	6.3	17	5.1	4.3	25	7.0	6.9
2	2.3	9.9	10	2.9	6.8	18	4.5	5.5	26	7.9	6.3
3	1.7	12.0	11	2.6	10.0	19	4.6	7.5	27	7.2	6.1
4	1.6	13.6	12	3.4	9.8	20	4.2	8.9	28	6.2	6.8
5	3.0	9.9	13	3.5	7.3	21	3.4	10.9	29	4.5	8.4
6	3.2	8.6	14	3.2	7.3	22	3.7	10.8	30	3.3	12.3
7	3.2	6.7	15	3.2	4.5	23	3.9	12.4	31	3.7	10.0
8	2.9	6.9	16	3.7	3.5	24	4.0	11.5	Mn.	3.9	8.4

Click image to enlarge.
Fig. 1. 10 cm Solar Flux and American Relative Sunspot Numbers (Ra) for March 2004
(10cm Source: http://www.drao.nrc.ca/icarus)

Editor's Note:

As most observers know by now, Dr. Janet Mattei, Director of the AAVSO, passed away on March 22. Below is the announcement of her death that was written by one of her close friends, AAVSO observer Mario Motta, and circulated on the the Internet. It is reprinted here for solar observers who may not have received word via email or seen the announcement on the AAVSO website. (NOTE: Funeral services were held on March 26.)

Many tributes to, and memories of Janet have been sent to the AAVSO, and several are available on the website. I encourage all observers who can to view the words written in recognition of this remarkable woman and of her contributions to our science. We have lost a giant!

CEF
------
"Dear members, staff, and friends of the AAVSO.

"It is my very sad duty to inform you all that Dr. Janet Mattei died at 4:20 PM today 3/22/04 at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital after a long battle with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. In typical Janet fashion she fought a heroic battle with this deadly disease for the past 7 months, but in the past few weeks it overcame her. Last Tuesday she asked that I inform her friends worldwide when this time came for her. Last evening she slipped into a coma, and passed away just minutes ago.

"The AAVSO has lost a strong leader who has guided our organization to greatness. The world of astronomy has lost a patron of her field. Amateur astronomers the world over have lost a mentor who bridged the world of amateurs and professionals. I, along with many others the world over who knew her well, have lost a dear friend who will be deeply missed.

"Information about services will be forthcoming soon."

Mario Motta, MD

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance Report

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

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances (SID) Recorded During March 2004

(Analysis performed by Michael Hill, SID Analyst)
Date	Max	Imp	Date	Max	Imp	Date	Max	Imp
040304	1000	2	040319	0237	1-	040329	1552	1
040304	1008	1+	040319	0307	1-	040330	0951	2+
040304	1717	1-	040319	0419	1-	040330	1300	1
040305	0905	2+	040319	0743	2	040330	1759	1+
040305	0914	2+	040319	0851	2	040331	0605	2
040305	1853	2	040319	1637	1	040331	0937	2+
040306	0700	1+	040321	0954	2
040306	1023	1-	040322	0616	2+
040306	1218	2+	040323	0714	2+
040306	1517	1-	040324	1429	2
040306	1631	1+	040324	1850	1+
040306	1933	2	040324	2018	2
040309	0438	2	040324	2135	1
040309	0650	1+	040324	2330	2
040309	0656	2	040325	0436	1+
040312	0238	1+	040325	0714	2+
040317	0930	1+	040325	1212	2+
040317	1430	1+	040325	1510	1-
040318	0516	1+	040327	0948	2
040318	0606	1-	040327	1434	1
040318	0618	2	040327	1647	1+
040318	0949	1-	040328	0408	2+
040318	1448	1+	040328	0448	1-
040318	1929	1+	040328	0636	2
040318	2237	2+	040329	1307	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
A Clerkin	A29	NAA
J Winkler	A50	NAA NPM NML
D Toldo	A52	NAA NWC
J Ellerbe	A63	ICV
W Moos	A84	FTA
M Hill	A87	NAA
L Anderson	A91	NWC
G DiFillipo	A93	DHO HWU
T Poulos	A95	NAA
R Battaiola	A96	DHO
J Wallace	A97	NAA
M King	A99	HWU
P Campbell	A100	NLK
F Steyn	A102	NWC
B Bose	A103	VTX
L Observatory	A107	DHO
P Mortfield	A108	NLK

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

March turned out to be a pretty active month, especially toward the end of the month when we saw some fairly large groupings cross the solar disk. These resulted in a fair amount of flare activity as well as a well placed CME that just didn't have the strength to really light up our skies. Those of your farther North may have seen some aurora if you were lucky. SID observers reported a total of 58 coordinated events - quite a jump from last months twenty five. A good number of these were moderately significant events with an importance rating of 1+, 2, and 2+. The most active days were the 18th and 19th of the month. There were 206 X-Ray flare events recorded by the GOES-12 satellite. Of these only five were M-Class events. The rest were smaller C and B class events. The most active days for X-Ray flares were also the 18th and 19th which is to be expected. Oddly enough, however, the 29th and 30th appear to have been equally active but with much fewer corresponding SID events. One reason for this is the regular Monday maintenance shutdown of NAA, which is the strong station many of us in the North East United States monitor for SIDs. The 29th happened to be a Monday; An example of why it is important to get good coverage by other observers on multiple stations. The reason why not many SIDs were detected on the 30th eludes me. With the exception of the M-Class event on the 18th, the 18-19th X-Ray events had the same average activity level as those on the 29-30th. This might be something for someone to look into sometime as an additional challenge beyond just recording and reporting SID events.

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