AAVSO: Solar Bulletin, May 2005

Solar Bulletin, May 2005

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 61 Number 5

May 2005

Table I. Mean Sunspot Numbers for May 2005
[boldface = maximum, minimum]

Table II. May Observers

Day	N	Raw Mean	Ra
1	37	52	38
2	40	51	37
3	42	62	44
4	35	58	42
5	43	57	40
6	37	56	42
7	36	51	35
8	42	59	43
9	38	80	57
10	40	106	75
11	35	109	77
12	33	101	73
13	26	85	60
14	32	72	51
15	29	57	41
16	32	57	39
17	30	43	31
18	33	29	20
19	37	25	18
20	38	16	11
21	27	20	13
22	32	30	21
23	37	32	22
24	35	35	24
25	43	42	30
26	47	55	38
27	46	57	40
28	34	54	36
29	38	59	42
30	28	62	42
31	37	70	49
Means:	36.1	56.2	39.7
No. of Observers: 62 No. of Observations: 1119

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

16	AAP	P.Abbott
26	ARAG	G.Araujo
2	ARE	R.Allessi
7	BARH	H.Barnes
19	BATR	R.Battaiola
16	BEB	R.Berg
14	BERJ	J.Berdejo
2	BLAJ	J.Blackwell
9	BMF	M.Boschat
19	BOSB	B.Bose
25	BRAB	B.Branchett
29	BRAR	R.Branch
22	BROB	R.Brown
27	BVK	K.Bankston
30	CHAG	G.Morales
31	CKB	B.Cudnik
12	CLZ	L.Corp
12	COMT	T.Compton
28	CR	T.Cragg
20	DEJV	J.van Delft
6	DEMF	F.Dempsey
25	DRAJ	J.Dragesco
27	DUBF	F.Dubois
2	FEEC	C.Feehrer
21	FERJ	J.Fernandez
24	FLET	T.Fleming
24	FUJK	K.Fujimori
17	GOEM	M.Goetz
12	HAYK	K.Hay
17	HRUT	T.Hrutkay
24	JAMD	D.James
8	JENJ	J.Jenkins
19	KAPJ	J.Kaplan
29	KNJS	J&S
2	KROL	L.Krozel
9	LARJ	J.Larriba
10	LERM	M.Lerman
20	LEVM	M.Leventhal
18	MARE	E.Mariani
29	MARJ	J.Maranon
25	MCE	E.Mochizuki
5	MEU	E.Mason
11	MMI	M.Moeller
19	OBSO	IPS Observatory
13	RICE	E.Richardson
10	RITA	A.Ritchie
25	SCGL	G.Schott
10	SCHG	G.Scholl
14	SIMC	C.Simpson
6	STEF	G.Stefanopoulis
19	STEM	G.Stemmler
25	STQ	N.Stoikidis
25	SUZM	M.Suzuki
26	SZAK	K.Szatkowski
26	SZUM	M.Szulc
7	THR	R.Thompson
25	TJV	J.Temprano
27	URBP	P.Urbanski
21	VARG	A.Vargas
17	VIDD	D.Vidican
27	WILW	W.Wilson
27	YESH	H.Yesilyaprak

Table III. Means of Raw Group Counts (RG) and Ratios of Spots to Groups (S:G) in May 2005

Click image to enlarge.
Fig. 1. 10 cm Solar Flux and American Relative Sunspot Numbers (Ra) for May 2005
(10cm Source: http://www.drao.nrc.ca/icarus)

Click image to enlarge.
Fig.2 Smoothed Mean Sunspot Numbers (Waldmeier method) from January 2000 to November 2004.

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

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances (SID) Recorded During May 2005

(Analysis performed by Michael Hill, SID Analyst)
Date	Max	Imp	Date	Max	Imp	Date	Max	Imp
050501	0019	1-	050511	1930	1+	050518	0829	1+
050501	0820	1-	050511	1943	2+	050521	1351	2+
050501	1637	2+	050512	0116	1-	050526	2109	1+
050503	1037	1+	050512	0702	1	050526	2136	2
050505	1444	1+	050512	0734	2	050527	0508	1-
050505	2019	1+	050512	1357	2+	050527	0635	1+
050506	0317	2+	050512	1707	1	050527	1231	2+
050506	0552	2+	050512	1743	2+	050528	0231	2
050506	1127	2	050512	1954	1-	050528	0500	1-
050507	0812	2	050513	0822	1+
050507	0851	1-	050513	1643	2+
050509	1104	2	050513	1709	2
050509	1147	1+	050514	1507	1+
050509	1233	1+	050514	1601	1+
050509	2107	2+	050515	1748	2+
050510	0523	2+	050515	1856	2+
050510	0907	1+	050515	2046	1
050510	1227	1	050515	2236	2
050510	1838	1+	050516	0242	1+
050510	1952	1+	050516	0911	2
050510	1959	2	050516	1301	1+
050511	0623	1-	050517	0240	1+
050511	0643	2+	050517	0404	1
050511	0908	1+	050517	0553	1+
050511	1702	1+	050517	1021	2+

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 NAU
J Winkler	A50	NAA NML NPM
D Toldo	A52	NWC XXX
W Moos	A84	ICV
M Hill	A87	NAA
J Mandaville	A90	NPM
L Anderson	A91	NWC
G Di Filippo	A93	HWU
T Poulos	A95	NAA
R Battaiola	A96	HWU
J Wallace	A97	NAA
M King	A99	HWU
F Steyn	A102	NAA NWC
B Bose	A103	VTX
L Observatory	A107	DHO
P Mortfield	A108	NAA
M Suhovecky	A115	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

May turned out to be a fairly active month for SID events. As opposed to last month's mere twelve events, this month we recorded 60 correlated SID events. The GOES-12 satellite recored 221 X-Ray flares and of these, 13 were M-Class events with the peak activity being around the beginning of the month and mid-month.

The SID event count actually surprised me at first because although a number of you had lengthy reports, none approached this number. The maximum number of events reported by any one observer was 29. The reason the count was so high however was the good coverage across the entire day provided by our network of observers, which runs from California to Massachussets, across the Atlantic to England, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, South Africa, India, and Australia. This coverage is very important and all of you in all the corners of the world serve an important function to capture all the SID events which this month, more than others I have seen, were spread quite evenly across the 24 hours of the day on all the active days. The results of this month point to the strength of our network and the importance of each and every one of you to make it that way. Keep up the good work and thanks to all.

Solar Flare Summary Based on GOES-12 Data

SID ratings

Solar Bulletin, May 2005

Solar Bulletin

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance Report

Solar Events