Chair and Sunspot Observing Group Leader: Carl E. Feehrer Solar Flare/SID Observing Group Leader: Mike Hill

Monthly reporting by sunspot and SID observers continued at relatively strong levels during the period. A small decrease in the number of sunspot observers actually reporting , 59 vs. 62 for a similar period in 2003, was compensated for by an essentially unchanged report total, 855 vs. 863. The number of SID observers reporting actually increased to 17 from a 2003 level of 13, with a total of 63 validated events reported during this period vs. 67 in 2003.

Observer Awards

Sunspot Observers
Two additional observers, Brian Cudnik of the United States and Miyoshi Suzuki of Japan have now met the initial goal of 1500 observations, bringing the total to seven since inception of the awards program in 1999. Certificates of achievement will be presented to these two observers and to others who have met the 1500 criterion by the time of the next annual meeting.

SID Observers
Two additional observers, Peter King of England and Ted Poulos of the United States, join the earlier group of nine SID observers who have met the initial criterion of 40 months of reporting. Certificates of achievement will also be presented to these observers and later qualifiers at the next annual meeting.

Website Activity

Judging from the numbers of downloads, the solar pages of the website, including those devoted to the Solar Bulletin, SID and sunspot data files, and images contributed by observers, continue to be popular. During this reporting period, a total of 30,091 download requests--an average of 244 per day--were satisfied. In the corresponding period last year, a total of 26,390 pages--an average of 214 pages per day--were satisfied.

Several important updates of and revisions to SID equipment and station information files have been posted to the SID pages during the period.

The number of new images of the sun contributed during the period continues to decrease. This is due, we believe, to the progressive decline in good photographic opportunities as solar minimum is approached rather than to loss of interest.

Acknowledgements

The efforts of the Solar Committee continue to be supported by a loyal group of observers, many of whom have contributed to the program for a long time. We express our thanks to these observers and to volunteer Arthur Ritchie and AAVSO staff who aid in preparing data, distributing the Bulletin, and keeping the website up to date.

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

(Analysis performed by Michael Hill, SID Analyst)
Date	Max	Imp
050305	2007	1
050310	1142	2
050312	0907	1+
050313	0819	2
050313	0829	1-
050313	1512	1-
050314	0708	1-
050314	1307	1-
050315	0646	1-
050315	0654	2+
050319	0709	2
050319	1801	1+
050319	2022	1+
050320	0614	1

Importance rating: Duration

-1: <19

1: 19-25

1+: 26-32

2: 33-45

2+: 46-85

3: 86-125

3+: >125

Solar Events

March proved to be a very slow month for SIDS. Five observers reported in with no SID events and a good deal of observers who did report in had very few SIDs to report. Thanks to all of you for reporting in these lean times however. It keeps the data consistent across the entire solar cycle. There were only 14 correlated SID events in March. These were spread evenly across the small and medium importance ranges with no long duration events. There were only 135 X-Ray flares reported by the GOES satellite. Of these all were B and C class events. As can be seen below the beginning and end of the month were almost devoid of any X-Ray activity.

Solar Flare Summary Based on GOES-12 Data