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Solar Bulletin, May 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 5May 2004
Table I. Mean Sunspot Numbers for May 2004
[boldface = maximum, minimum]		Table II. May Observers
Day N Raw Mean Ra
1 36 57 40
2 32 46 33
3 26 54 40
4 37 49 37
5 37 40 30
6 45 32 24
7 40 29 20
8 33 29 21
9 28 37 28
10 34 44 31
11 32 44 32
12 29 61 43
13 31 62 45
14 38 84 62
15 41 94 70
16 37 105 82
17 43 104 79
18 35 96 73
19 41 89 70
20 39 79 63
21 37 78 57
22 28 72 54
23 31 89 65
24 36 99 74
25 35 88 65
26 34 65 48
27 43 51 38
28 34 46 33
29 40 47 36
30 28 56 41
31 40 51 38
Means:35.563.847.4
No. of Observers: 66
No. of Observations: 1100

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

Table III. Means of Raw Group Counts (RG) and Ratios of Spots to Groups (S:G) in May   2004
Day RG S:G Day RG S:G Day RG S:G Day RG S:G
1 3.0 9.2 9 2.8 3.4 17 6.2 6.7 25 4.3 10.3
2 2.4 9.4 10 3.3 3.2 18 6.0 5.9 26 2.8 13.0
3 3.2 6.6 11 3.3 3.4 19 6.0 4.8 27 2.3 12.1
4 3.1 5.9 12 3.8 6.2 20 5.2 5.2 28 2.0 12.9
5 2.4 6.7 13 3.5 8.0 21 4.6 6.8 29 2.2 11.5
6 2.2 4.6 14 4.3 9.4 22 4.2 7.3 30 3.0 8.6
7 2.3 2.3 15 4.6 10.3 23 4.5 9.9 31 3.0 7.2
8 2.2 2.9 16 6.3 6.7 24 5.3 8.9 Mn. 3.7 7.4

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

Figure 2
Click image to enlarge.
Fig.2 Smoothed Mean Sunspot Numbers (Waldmeier method) from January 1999 to November 2003.

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

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances (SID) Recorded During May 2004

(Analysis performed by Michael Hill, SID Analyst)
Date Max Imp Date Max Imp Date Max Imp
040501 0447 1- 040523 1741 1+      
040501 1359 2 040523 1954 1+      
040501 1538 2 040524 1105 1+      
040502 0343 2 040526 1244 1-      
040502 0535 1- 040528 1013 1      
040502 0834 2 040530 1930 1+      
040502 1119 2 040531 0027 2+      
040502 1600 2+ 040531 0854 1      
040508 1430 1 040531 1036 1+      
040513 0743 2            
040513 0935 2            
040513 1334 2            
040515 1445 1+            
040518 0828 2+            
040518 1603 2            
040519 1846 1+            
040519 1951 2            
040520 1721 1+            
040521 0555 1+            
040521 1623 1            
040521 2352 1            
040522 0713 2            
040522 1158 1+            
040522 1302 1            
040523 1459 2+            


Importance rating: Duration -1: <191: 19-251+: 26-322: 33-452+: 46-853: 86-1253+: >125

Observer Code Station(s) monitored
A Clerkin A29 NAA
J Winkler A50 NAA NML
D Toldo A52 NAA NSS
J Ellerbe A63 ICV
P King A80 FTA
W Moos A84 FTA
M Hill A87 NAA
J Mandaville A90 NPM
L Anderson A91 NWC
G DiFillipo A93 DHO HWU
T Poulos A95 NAA
R Battaiola A96 HWU
J Wallace A97 NAA
M King A99 HWU
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
  1. Event reported by two or more observers within +/- 5 minutes
  2. Event matched to GOES-8 XRA event to within +/- 15 minutes and event time < 1000 UT
  3. Reported by observer with a high quality rating > 8 (scale 1-10)

SID ratings

Solar Events

May was a typical month for this time in the solar cycle. The GOES-12 satellite recorded 208 X-Ray flares. However, most of these were the smaller B and C class events. There was only one M-Class and no X-Class event. SID observers recorded 34 correlated SID events for the month, most of these of a medium importance rating. I got an email from a student at Stanford Solar Center requesting information on a SID event on May 21St. I checked the GOES data and there was indeed an X-Ray flare at the time in question, 2354 UT. Checking the data analysis I had done showed that one observer, Len Anderson (A91), had recorded it but it was not reported as it was not correlated with any other observer. I checked my charts and, much to my surprise, it was on my chart but was very small and near the end of my observing window, close to sunset. Hence, I had not recorded it. I then got one last observer report from Paul Mortfield (A108), and his data did have the event recorded. Hence, a new analysis run on observers data now reported this event, since it correlated well with A91 s event. Two lessons can be learned from this. First, check your data charts carefully. I'm not advocating reporting every bump on the data trace, but look at the small ones carefully and see if they have the characteristic SID signature of a quick rise and slower decline. The one I missed did but it only showed up when I zoomed in on it using the SIDGraph program that I use for analysis. Secondly, all your reports are important, even if they only contain a few entries. One of those may be the one that is needed to correlate with another observer in order to force an event to be reported by the analysis software. There has to be this correlation criterion to filter out observers who report every bump on their data trace, even though it might just be noise. The only way to offset this is to have multiple observers see the same events. So all of your reports, even if they are sparse some months, are very important to the SID program. Thanks to all of you for continuing to send in reports even as the sun approaches solar miniumum in the coming years.

Solar Flare Summary Based on GOES-12 Data – May 2004
Solar Flare Summary
 
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