Alert reader Andrew writes:
“I was just looking at the SOHO images and is it just me or does it look like there’s a sunspot developing in the lower left quadrant? If so, would this still be a cycle 23 spot given its low latitude?”
It appears that a new spot is indeed emerging, and unless I’m dyslexic about the polarity it looks as if this is the first cycle 24 spot in the southern hemisphere.
Compare it to the last cycle 24 spot, in the northern hemisphere:
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/04/13/second-cycle-24-spot-a-tiny-tim-spot/
Note the when crossing to the southern hemisphere, magnetic polarity reverses and you cross the equator and this spot is reversed from the polarity of the last cycle 24 spot in the northern hemisphere.
Michelson Doppler Image (MDI):
Magnetogram:
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Yes, it looks as a 24 one.
A few days ago there were in the magnetogram dispersed concentrations of N and S that could have been interpreted as a weak swarm of 24s.
As we say in Greece, one swallow does not introduce spring.
It’s tiny!!
Spaceweather.com is calling it a 24 spot.
Nevermind. It was just a fly on the lens…
PS. I have learned more about sunspots in the last couple of months than I ever thought possible.
frog: Yes, amazing how not seeing any will do that.
Helios Sneezed.
It’s already gone. http://solarscience.auditblogs.com/2008/05/04/sc24-i-must-be-cursed/
Dammit!
It’s tiny!
Another tiny Tim.
Wouldn’t it be a bit of a stretch to say Cycle 24 has started?
Is the puny size an indication of how this Cycle 24 is starting? It seems to be stalling and sputtering. Is this spot expected to bite the dust like the earlier ones?
Here is a blink-animation for the new SC24 (?) sunspot. The magnetic abnormality appeared in the frame at 2008-05-03 06:58. The sunspots appeared in the frame at 2008-05-03 20:46.
http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/8986/mdi20080504ld1.gif
A minimum of 3 sunspots can be discerned in some frames. In the last frame with sunspots, their size and number appears to be decreasing. I will update the blink-animation when more frames become available.
Mike
Note: To view using IE press the “F11” key to toggle between full screen and the normal IE display. To stop the animation, press the “Esc” key. To restart the animation press “F5”. The solar image is best viewed in full size, if using IE pass the pointer over the image and click if a magnifying glass is displayed with a “plus” sign in the center. The blink speed is one frame every 2.5 seconds with a 8 second delay on the last frame.
I would like to state for the record that that is a different Andrew than me. He is welcome to take the label for use here, and I will come up with something else. For the record, I sometimes use the label “timetochooseagain” so that is what I will use from now on, I suppose.
There have been very small SC24 magnetic fields almost every week for the last few months but the size of them is far too small to even get close to produce sunspots. The duration of those “micro” magnetic fields seems to last a very short time, 1 or 2 days.
Now, there is no doubt that SC24 has started to produce sunspots but the big question is, how long will it keep producing very tiny spots and be outnumbered by SC23? Does anyone have data or pictures available from the last transition between SC22 and 23? Did it also just produce very tine spots for a year until the big one started to appear?
Is this a normal transition, i.e. it starts with very tiny spots and then later as it accelerates it starts to produce big spots that lasts for more than a few days?
Talk about a Timy Tim. I though it was a busted pixel on my flat panel….
I think it is gone already:
http://solarscience.auditblogs.com/2008/05/04/sc24-i-must-be-cursed/
SIDC has an alert on the event which they officially classified as Solar Cycle 24. No number has been assigned as yet.
http://sidc.oma.be/products/presto/
:Issued: 2008 May 04 1243 UTC
:Product: documentation at http://www.sidc.be/products/presto
#——————————————————————–#
# FAST WARNING ‘PRESTO’ MESSAGE from the SIDC (RWC-Belgium) #
#——————————————————————–#
A small A sunspot group appeared today at latitude -28 degrees. This tiny feature belongs to the new solar cycle and is the first one to appear in the Southern hemisphere. No significant activity is expected from this group. The solar wind speed is still elevated (500 km/s) but without major impact on the Earth magnetosphere. We predict quiet to unsettled geomagnetic conditions for one or two days, followed by quiet conditions. We thus issued an all quiet alert.
NASA appears to be on holiday and their near real-time image database is a tad bit slow this morning.
Mike
SIDC is calling it a Cycle 24 sunspot. The Sun is slowly waking up.
http://sidc.oma.be/products/presto/
A small sunspot group appeared today at latitude -28 degrees. This
tiny feature belongs to the new solar cycle and is the first one to
appear in the Southern hemisphere. No significant activity is expected
from this group. The solar wind speed is still elevated (500 km/s) but
without major impact on the Earth magnetosphere. We predict quiet to
unsettled geomagnetic conditions for one or two days, followed by quiet
conditions. We thus issued an all quiet alert.
this raises an interesting question. How long does a sunspot have to exist before it is labeled as such by the powers-that-be?
Scoff: Cycle 24 can’t be said actually to have “started” until C24-spots outnumber C23-spots.
Did this spot get a “number”? And what’s the running total now? (Just how Tiny does Tim have to be before that give him a number and take away his name, anyway?)
Hi,
I imaged it myself today (from Norway), using an 8-inch Schmidt Cassegrain and a webcam, plus white light solar filter. It is a stack of about 600 single frames.
http://arnholm.org/astro/sun/sc24/sc24_spot_20080504_1010ut.jpg
There is also a a whole disk image taken with a digicam throuh a smaller telescope. That spot is indeed a tiny one
http://arnholm.org/astro/sun/sc24/sun_20080503.jpg
The other Andrew – sorry. I usually type in my last name too but didn’t for some reason. Feel free to keep using your first name. I’ll make sure to use my full name from now on.
Anyway, it’s still visible on the current magnetogram image, though it’s almost gone from the continuum image.
[…] 24 Spot Posted on May 4, 2008 by chillguy33 Will Cycle 24 please come on down? Trained eyes (Anthony Watts) say the polarity is correct (reversed, since below the Sun’s equator). Now, will it stick […]
At the risk of being accused of not wearing my aluminum foil helmet today (honestly I have it on), the MDI Continuum and MDI Magnetogram SOHO images have still not updated after over 11 hours at http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/data_query while current images of other data products are already available. Without the SOHO MDI images we are blind. For example we can’t accurately determine how long this new SC24 sunspot lasts.
I check the MDI history using Excel for both datasets and found that in the last 400 downloads (early February 2008); there have been outages which lasted as long as 2 days, 17 hours and 38 minutes! The sun has been so inactive that no one apparently cared.
System will only fail when the data is most critical!
The second I post this message the updates will become available.
I am making this post to insure an update.
Mike
Like Pluto was downgraded recently to a dwarf planet, I think these early new SC24 sunspots should be renamed as dwarf sunspots.
Dumb question – I know the solar cycle business and sunspot deal. What I’m not clear on is what significance it has. Does it mean warmer, cooler, does the delay in starting the next cycle mean something? Maybe someone can explain or provide a link to a solar cycle primer.
Carsten Arnholm,
Great shot!
Hey Anthony,
Check out:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/04/do0405.xml