There’s been a little discussion about the plage area that came around the solar rim in the last two days, and now it appears that it has formed a spot. (h/t to Leif Svalgaard)
Click for full sized image
Note that other similar sized black “specks” on the image are stuck pixels in the SOHO imager.
The question now is: how long will the sunspeck last? Longevity has not been a virtue for similarly sized sunspecks this year.
UPDATE: As of 1600 UTC 10-05-2008 the speck is gone on the latest SOHO MDI – Anthony
Jan Janssens has an interesting discussion on it (h/t to John-x)
4 October 08 – There is a new sunspotgroup visible on the southern solar hemisphere (as already reported yesterday by Pete Lawrence on the Spaceweather-website).
Belgian solar observers saw earlier this morning at least one sunspot clearly in this region.
Interestingly, Locarno (07:15 UT ; Q=2) and SIDC/Ukkel (07:45 UT ; Q=2?) did not report anything just a few hours earlier… Kanzelhöhe (09:03UT) did notice a bipolar group.
My own observations (C8, 68x) do not show “clearly” a B-group: a clear Axx for sure, but if there’s still something there, it rather looks like a small photospheric region imbedded in somewhat brighter faculae fields… A greyish pore at most (at least around 8:30UT, with Q=3 and some cirrus). The region is also very nice in H-alpha: 3 closely packed and relatively bright small areas, with some dark fibrils in the neighbourhood.
GONG-images also show the group. NSO-magnetograms clearly reflect an overnight enhancement of the magnetic fields in this region. The polarity is that of a SC23-group… at a latitude of at least -20°… This can possibly still be a high latitude SC23-group. Late June 1997, NOAA 8056 -with SC22-polarity- appeared with a latitude of +17°. See SOHO for magnetogram, and Kanzelhöhe for a drawing. The nearby group is NOAA 8055, a SC23-group (= new cycle) at +15°! And this happened more than a year after cycle minimum and the start of SC23. I have no magnetograms of earlier SC-transits to evaluate how exceptional or common all this is. At least this is a new element for discussion!
http://users.telenet.be/j.janssens/Engwelcome.html
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That little wisp of a speck still counts…
“Joint USAF/NOAA Report of Solar and Geophysical Activity
SDF Number 278 Issued at 2200Z on 04 Oct 2008
“…New Region 1003 (S23E28) was numbered today.”
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/forecast.html
Pamela Gray (15:46:03) :
“…if the country is in a frothin fit over something, we just mull it over at the local tavern and wonder at the amount of stress other people must be feelin, cuz we sure don’t feel it here.”
You can probably buy a 20KW generator and a big ol’ tank o’ diesel, and not even be sued!
NOAA had a daily sunspot number of 12 today.
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/solar_indices.html
With this morning’s Ursigram, the SIDC estimated ISN was zero, and if the speck does not reappear overnight, tomorrow’s SIDC ISN will be zero also.
From what we learned in August, NOAA regards SIDC’s number as official, so the “official” count for October 4th should still be zero. Even though it got a NOAA number.
I’ve learnt to immediately resort to the magnetorgrams. “spots” or “specks”, or, as in this case a “specklette” are much more visible in the magnetic domain.
It’s really hard to tell whether it’s 23 or 24. Also, it’s really stretching the imagination to call this a sunspot, when the backgroun field is only slightly less pronounced.
John-X, no you have it bass-awkward. he phrase should read:
“slavery, subservience and subsitance is freedom”
Hehe, i got lucky, my house on Whidbey has a commercial 10kw propane generator. It’s great for those 4 day power outages after the windstorms.
[…] via Bobby Lane on Watts Up With That? […]
President Klaus is a breath of fresh air, a breath that is moving around the world and gaining praise everywhere it is felt.
He approaches the subject from a singular angle. Having been subjected to brutal and inefficient totalitarian rule, his starting point on any issue is that no one and no country should have to experience what he and his country suffered. Where he sees a multi-national movement seeking to impose the oppressive control he experienced under the USSR it is hardly surprising that his first reaction is to resist.
He has spoken in similar terms on many issues but has a particular concern about the political agenda of the radical warmists because he sees no difference between what they propose and what kept his country subjugated for decades.
I must, of course, make clear that this is my opinion. I do not claim to speak on behalf of President Klaus.
That ‘sunspleck’ is so darned close to background noise it gets lost in the uncertainty. If you wished to study something that faint, I highly suggest taking 25 images, 25 flats and 25 darks and then run it though some good IRAF routines, like the Caltech pipeline, then see if you still have something.
As a matter of fact, I would like to see a one of these things dithered to a higher resolution. Let’s get a better look.
Lief: How long have we had the Sun under constant 24 hr monitoring so that temporary spots would actually be found and then observed to have disappeared in a matter of hours?
This spot and Sept.11 spot are uncertain to have been noticed without 24 hr solar monitoring.
Pamela — there are more anti-oxidants in a ripe Willamette Valley tomato than in a bar of chocolate, and a much smaller carbon footprint! Beer is another story altogether. My gripe (admittedly one among many) is that AGW crowd is taxing me (us) in the cause of preventing the ripening of tomatoes. What makes sense about that?
PS — why hasn’t our all-powerful Gummit promulgated a program to bailout the Sun and stimulate SC24?
Pamela. Chocolate is full of anti-oxidants, but, red wine -Cabernet Savignon especially from Australia and Chile- is full of the anti-ageing agent Resveratrol (Which is NOT an anti-oxidant!).
Obviously, one should have a glass of properly aged Cabernet with one’s chocolate. Or an appropriate slice of cheese.
Would this spec have been observed 100 years ago?
Robert Bateman (22:03:03) :
How long have we had the Sun under constant 24 hr monitoring so that temporary spots would actually be found and then observed to have disappeared in a matter of hours?
This spot and Sept.11 spot are uncertain to have been noticed without 24 hr solar monitoring.
Extensive monitoring goes way back to the 1880s as the Greenwich observatory collaborated with observatories in India. The Japanese have observed the Sun since about 1900 and Mt Wilson since 1912 [their website http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/intro.html says: “. . . observing the Sun every clear day since 1912”].
1912 works, as you have 3 observations spaced around the globe. A fleeting spot would then have a good chance of being recorded.
Mike Dubrasich (23:19:23) :
“…why hasn’t our all-powerful Gummit promulgated a program to bailout the Sun and stimulate SC24?”
They only “fix” problems of which they themselves are the cause.
Interesting review of paper by Sloan and Wofendale: Testing the proposed causal link between cosmic rays and cloud cover.
http://climatesanity.wordpress.com/
An Important Announcement Concerning the Cause of Sunspecks
As you may know, the Earth emits as much radio energy as a small star and with the advent of WiFi, Bluetooth and the iPhone, we as a society are continually emitting ever increasing amounts of electromagnetic (EM) transmissions. These EM emissions are interacting with the solar wind, forcing it back upon itself and therefore interfering with the Sun’s ability to generate sunspots. This is predicted by peer-reviewed models showing ever lower solar cycles in the future and is proven by the delayed start of cycle 24.
There is a scientific consensus that humanity is emitting every larger amounts of EM radiation and this is the cause of Anthropogenic Solar Cooling (ASC) – a major threat to not only the Earth, but life on Mars and Venus as well. The science is settled as almost every solar specialist with whom I have spoken on this issue agrees with the ASC hypothesis (there is one exception to the consensus, a Leif Somebody, but we ASCer’s write him off as a skeptic, a crank and a neer’do’well).
It is only a matter of time before the Mainstream Media realizes the scope of the approaching catastrophe and headlines ASC to boost failing circulation. This free publicity will shift priority funding away from other research and get Al Gore and Greenpeace to further publicize the threat of ASC by using it to raise hung piles of cash from the ordinary and scientifically intimidated citizens.
We MUST stop ASC now – Turn off your cell phone, wireless router, motors, lights, generators, and all other electric devices to reduce your EM footprint and save not only all life on the Earth, but on Mars and Venus as well.
Can’t get your EM footprint any smaller? Please visit my website and consider buying EM credits to offset your emissions. The poor third-world people who live in harmony with nature and lack the able to generate man-made EM waves will gladly sell their unused EM credits using my corporation as the sole broker.
Be Free, Be EM Free ™
This humor originally appeared at: http://deenorris.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/stop-anthropogenic-solar-cooling-now/
Dee,
I almost choked! Great post.
Dee Norris-
“Can’t get your EM footprint any smaller? Please visit my website and consider buying EM credits to offset your emissions.”
Brilliant!
Your EM waves also impact my aura. I’ve been imaging it with Kirlian photography for many years, and clearly your cell-phone and microwave oven usage has resulted in the profound changes in my aura’s magnitude and phase over the past few years.
I strongly recommend that you save and post your comment over at dot-earth. The responses should be very entertaining.
Dee Norris makes fun of this (and it is funny, well done). Who’ll bet the environmental lobby would NOT propose something like this?
EG
So whats the verdict on this spot? Is it sc23 or sc24?> Also does count for the day or not?
@paminator:
Kirlian captures images of natural EM, so you were safe if you forgo all man-made devices
Feel free to post it at dot-earth, but track it back to my website, rather than WUWT, I would not want to start a blog war for Anthony to have to deal with.
http://deenorris.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/stop-anthropogenic-solar-cooling-now/
Pamela,
Can my wife and I come live with you?
JimB
Budahmon (06:57:47) :
Interesting review of paper by Sloan and Wofendale: Testing the proposed causal link between cosmic rays and cloud cover.
The review concludes:
“Because the standard deviation of the lower cloud cover data is so high (nearly 1%), Sloan’s and Wolfendale’s attempt to to use Forbush decreases to verify or reject the possibility that cosmic ray flux changes induce lower cloud cover changes was poorly conceived. The data is far to noisy to tell one way or the other. […]”.
Now, why wouldn’t that not also apply to the attempts to show that there is a connection?