It has been a strange day. Fires have evacuated the Mt. Wilson Observatory in California, and SOHO images have not been updating all day. Power is down at the mountain and the webcam has gone offline. See status here. Mt. Wilson Observatory is now in the hands of nature and CDF. Let’s hope CDF wins.
It is about 4 hours now past ooGMT Sept1, 2009 I’ve checked all my sources. Besides the fate of Mt. Wilson, we’ve all been waiting to find out two things:
1- Will we have a spotless calendar month for the sun in August 2009?
2- Do I still have my solar mojo?
The Catania sunspot drawing shows nothing for the 31st.
Other solar observatories, Uccle in Beligium, Locarno in Germany, both show nothing on August 31st sketches.
This animation from SIDC of the past 30+ days shows nothing for August but DOES show group 1025 popping up on 9/1/2009
http://sidc.oma.be/html/cmap_animator.html
I also checked SIDC’s sunspot report data for August, nothing.
It looks like the spot today, group 1025, squeaked by and was not observed until after August 31st game clock ran out at 00 GMT 91/2009
Then I checked NOAA SWPC….
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/latest/DSD.txt
Message to NOAA Space Weather: Out damned spot!
And wouldn’t you know it, they have something whereas last year it was the other way around…NOAA had nothing, SIDC (via Catania) did…so where does that leave us?
Leif said last year that SIDC had the last word…so unless they change their report, we may indeed have a spotless calendar month.
We’ll have to see what happens when their report comes out tomorrow. They issue a new report on the first of each month.
http://sidc.oma.be/products/ri_hemispheric/
Watch that space.
Geoff Sharp (18:49:05) :
Layman’s sunspots. Great work you guys (Robert and Geoff). I does give us a better ‘standard’ to use on a go forward basis (and past for that matter). These microdots that last an hour just seem to be hic-ups on the sun and were not suppose to surface!!
My money’s on the CDF-they’ll give it all they got.-Sometimes with their life,knew a few S-2 drivers in my Airtanker days and many CDF people.Loved working with them…
Lance wrote: “…These microdots that last an hour just seem to be hic-ups on the sun and were not suppose to surface!!”
Maybe this is all that SC24 can do at its maximum! Every tiny tim should be closely examined for its direction of magnetization and latitude so that when the first SC25 spots start showing up, we won’t be surprised. After all, if we are entering a minimum like the Maunder Minimum, there won’t be these nice periodic peaks and valleys for the next few cycles.
SIDC doesn’t give NOAA 1025 a number …
Only commented on the anomaly….
http://sidc.oma.be/products/meu/index.php
SO is the spotless count still running?
Bill H (22:48:22) :
SIDC doesn’t give NOAA 1025 a number …
Only commented on the anomaly….
http://sidc.oma.be/products/meu/index.php
SO is the spotless count still running?
We are in an interesting position. SIDC have all month to think about it, and as they are considered the standard (?) do we stop racking up the days and wait until the end of the month? If so and the result is negative it will be quite a bombshell, something like 82 days spotless if we continue the current trend.
Geoff Sharp (23:02:52) :
Bill H (22:48:22) :
SIDC doesn’t give NOAA 1025 a number …
Only commented on the anomaly….
http://sidc.oma.be/products/meu/index.php
SO is the spotless count still running?
We are in an interesting position. SIDC have all month to think about it, and as they are considered the standard (?) do we stop racking up the days and wait until the end of the month? If so and the result is negative it will be quite a bombshell, something like 82 days spotless if we continue the current trend.
Well….. IF they fail to count it we have just set a new record TODAY! and then every day we continue spotless…. will they let this fester or will they pop the pimple?
The community in which the Mt Wilson fire started was, prior to the fire, discussing laying off firefighters to save on the budget. Funny that the biggest wildfire in state history should pop up then to save firemens jobs…. almost as if someone set the fire for job security.
The magnetogram of today (Sep 2) is quite interesting. The fading current attempt to a spot is clearly visible and of cycle 24. However at the equator some structures are discernable with the polarity of cycle 23. Perhaps another C23 spot is in the offing? (If so, should we call that an EZ effect ? 🙂 )
Catania manages to count both the 1st and the 2nd of September with a spot that did not last 24 hours, slapping up thier AR report with Day 2.
DSD.txt shows up with Sept 1 & 2nd.
SOHO shows nothing but noise in the images for 19:01 UT and 23:03 UT Sept 1st. 03:08 UT Sept 2 is likewise blank.
This is not the 1st time this sort of thing has come up, and if I recall correctly it’s happened more than once.
rbateman (01:21:18) :
Catania manages to count both the 1st and the 2nd of September with a spot that did not last 24 hours, slapping up thier AR report with Day 2.
DSD.txt shows up with Sept 1 & 2nd.
SOHO shows nothing but noise in the images for 19:01 UT and 23:03 UT Sept 1st. 03:08 UT Sept 2 is likewise blank.
This is not the 1st time this sort of thing has come up, and if I recall correctly it’s happened more than once.
Maybe a few of us could send them an email…ask them to explain why they are so different from the other 62 stations?
Geoff Sharp (02:48:36) :
rbateman (01:21:18) :
I get spots before my eyes the morning after I’ve drunk too much. Maybe the guys in Catania have been on the old vino?…
Bill H (18:22:39) :
How has the observatory fared? anyone know?
Good, so far. They’ve managed to reduce the Station fire enough to give them an edge.
The webcam went off yesterday afternoon, believed to be due to backfires set to create a firebreak burning up a phone line. The fire dept has made saving the obs a priority now that they can re-allocate fighters. There’s a log of sorts being maintained at http://www.chara.gsu.edu/CHARA/fire.php and Fox has live web coverage going on here: http://media.myfoxla.com/live/
Today the sun is blank and the sunspot number is 12.
August was blank, no spots see : http://www.solen.info/solar/
Scroll down, the International Sunspot Number for August 2009 is : 0.0
The Average solar flux at Earth for August 2009 is 67.3
Shouldn’t the candidate month of sunspot minimum move to January 2009 now?
Mr. Alex (07:47:33) :
The Sun was blank when it rose yesterday on the Pacific Coast. It’s been blank ever since then, but today has a SSN value of 12.
Jimmy Haigh (04:09:45) :
Maybe they need to go to AAA (Astronomer-Alcoholics Anonymous)??
Geoff Sharp (02:48:36) :
Not a bad idea. Who has actually seen Catania?
Invisible as it may be, NOAA is sticking with the SSN-12 speck on Sept 1. See http://www2.nict.go.jp/y/y223/sept/swcenter/sunspot.html
I guess even a speck momentarily visible in just the last hour of August and the first hour of September would count for both days by NOAA’s present method of reckoning.
Geoff Sharp (18:49:05) :
Layman’s sunspots.
Why not just run a 200 year repro telescope along side the latest gear, if you can`t see the speck with the repro don`t count it, apples with apples.
What I find strange about the sunspects we saw is that the visible spects were seen before anything on the magnetogram… was it conveniently off line?
Good article about the sun and Global Warming from the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-goldberg1-2009sep01,0,2797425.column
I think I see a tiny little plaque in the lower left equatorial region (thus Cycle 23?). Either than or its a stuck pixel.
Slightly related topic:
Telegraphs Ran on Electric Air in Crazy 1859 Magnetic Storm
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/telegraphs-ran-on-electric-air-in-crazy-magnetic-storm-150-years-ago/