Solar Bulletin November, 2002

• Editor's Notes
• Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance Report

Click image to enlarge. Fig.1.10 cm Solar Flux and Comparison of Ri (provisional) and Ra Estimates for November (r=0.965). (Ri Source: http://sidc..oma.be/index.php3) (10cm Source: http://www.drao.nrc.ca/icarus)

Click image to enlarge. Fig.2 Maximum, Mean, and Minimum Ra Values for Each Month from January 2001 to Present.

Click image to enlarge. Fig. 3. Smoothed Mean Sunspot Numbers (Rsm) from January 2000 to May 2002 (Waldmeier Method).

Click image to enlarge. Fig. 4. Mean Numbers of Observations Contained in Sunspot Reports Each Month from January 2001 to Present.

Editor's Notes
Casper Hossfield (1918-2002)
It is my sad duty to inform observers that Casper, "Cap", Hossfield (A-05, HSF) died at the age of 84 on November 26 as the result of a stroke sustained the day before. According to his sons, his passing was peaceful and dignified.

Cap joined the AAVSO 40 years ago. He served as chair of the Solar Division from 1963 to 1979 and, for the last three years, has been the Editor of the Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances Supplement that is published along with the Solar Bulletin each month. In 1999, he received an Honor Award for outstanding contributions and dedication to the goals of the organization.

Along with Arthur Stokes, who passed away almost exactly a year ago, Cap was responsible for creating the designs of most of the SID receivers and antenna configurations used by observers today. Until the very end of his life, he continued to work at simplifying these designs and reducing component costs in order to attract the largest possible audience of builders. His latest revision appeared in last month's Solar Bulletin.

Cap's interests were not limited to the design of SID equipment.. He also devoted much time and energy to the design of seismic sensors, gravity wave detectors, and magnetometers, and he contributed designs, authored papers and presented talks on and demonstrations of many of these items. In recent years, he became convinced that SID receivers were capable of detecting strong gamma ray bursts (GRB) and, only a few months ago, had the satisfaction of reporting a candidate signal received by an observer to the High Energy Group at NASA/Huntsville with whom the AAVSO has a working relationship. At the time of his death, he was working on a paper relating to the history of sunspot observation in the Solar Division and was administering an experiment aimed at demonstrating the differences to be expected between the classic Wolf and more modern Zurich methods of counting. (I engaged in an animated email exchange regarding this experiment with Cap the day before his stroke and can attest to the excitement with which he looked forward to the outcome of the research.)

Whether they met Cap in person or via email, most all observers will remember him as a patient, resourceful, helpful, inventive, cheerful, truly unique individual who was always ready to try something technically new and who encouraged all who wanted to share in that adventure to "Come along. You'll never know if it works if you don't try it!"

Thank you, Cap, for all you have done for us. We will miss you very much.

Continuation of SID Observing, Reporting and Analysis
Although there is no plan at present to continue the monthly SID Supplement to the Bulletin, analyses and reporting of solar flare data will continue to be conducted by Mike Hill, chairperson of the SID group. Observers are encouraged to send their monthly reports to him, as before.

The SID Equipment section of the Solar Division website will continue to be updated as new designs for SID receivers, antennas, recording methods, etc. that are useful for solar work are developed. Observers who are interested in discussing and building SID and related equipment should subscribe to the special interest group administered by Doug Welch at http://mailman.mcmaster.ca/mailman/listinfo/aavso-sid-list.

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

Observer Code Station(s) monitored D Toldo A52 HWU NWC S Hansen A59 CFH NAA J Ellerbe A63 ICV A Panzer A83 NAA W Moos A84 FTA M Hill A87 NAA G DiFillipo A93 HWU T Poulos A95 NAA R Battaiola A96 DHO HWU J Wallace A97 NAA M King A99 HWU P Campbell A100 NLK F Steyn A102 NAA NWC E Smith A105 DHO L Observatory A107 DHO

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

Cap was an amateur. An amateur radio man, an amateur astronomer, an amateur physicist; A true amateur scientist. I met him four years ago. When I first heard his name, "Cap", I just naturally envisioned an old timer - tinkering with old tube type radios and whip antennas. When I met him, he looked just like I had envisioned. An older man with a big old white bearded face, dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt. Sort of rough around the edges but with a big friendly smile, always willing to talk to anyone. He looked like a "Cap". He looked like he had been around and seen a few things in his years.

But beyond this look of an old timer who had been around since the birth of radio, he had a way about him. He had ideas - lots of them. And he followed up on these with more ideas and projects that he had worked on to test out these ideas. He had dreams - lots of them. And he worked diligently at accomplishing these dreams. He never seemed to stop. He was always on the go. You have all seen his monthly supplement. You have all seen his enthusiastic postings to the SID/GRB newsgroup. He was eternally involved. Cap inspired all of us and was a great asset to the AAVSO Solar Division and in his latter years, the SID group.

Now that we have lost him we will certainly have a void. People like him are hard to replace. Not just because of what he knew, and he certainly knew a lot, but because of the time and energy that he was able to give to our group. People like him are often replaced by more than one person. And those people will wonder how he did it all himself. This will be the case with Cap. He will be sorely missed but we should always be happy with the memories of his life and his contributions to the group. We would do well to use these as our continued inspiration to be the amateur that he was. Ever productive and ever inquisitive about the world around us and the many opportunities that we have at hand to peer into its mysteries.

November is showing signs of a slowing solar activity level. There were 213 X-Ray flare events recorded by the GOES-8 Satellite. Of these 12 were M-Class events. The rest were for the most part C-Class events. Observers recorded a total of 59 Correlated events this month. Most had a low to medium importance rating with one large event recorded on the 17th at 0543 UT. I have been watching the sun a bit on the weekends and (I'll admit it) on- line at Spaceweather.com, and one can certainly see the slowing down. Much smaller spot groups and many fewer large prominences visible in the H-Alpha range.

Keep those recorders going. It may be slowing down but SID event data, even the low counts during minimum are important to make better sense of the data during the maxium years. Lets keep at this with the same enthusiasm as would be fitting for Cap.