Posts Tagged ‘sunspot’
Part 2 of 2: Life-changing Moment and Solar Cycle 25
December 31st, 2021 | 
Author: From the RAIN HamCast episode #57, 2021-XII-25 (used with permission):
RAIN’s Hap Holly/KC9RP spoke with Tomas recently about Solar Cycle 25. This is the second and final excerpt from their discussion.
From the introduction to The RAIN HamCast, Episode #57:
In this episode, we continue our discussion with Tomas Hood/NW7US, the author of many writings about space weather and effects of solar activity the past 20-plus years.
(Part 1 of 2 can be found here: Episode #56, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnuSOXhFELQ)
Tomas has been a short wave enthusiast since 1973, a ham operator since 1990, and is a United States Army Signal Corps veteran today. He launched the first civilian space weather propagation website, HFRadio.org, in the mid 90’s; HFradio later spawned SunSpotWatch.com; at press time Sunspotwatch.com is being revamped for the new Solar Cycle 25.
Tomas has contributed to the Space Weather Propagation column in CQ magazine for over 20 years, and for The Spectrum Monitor magazine since 2014. A product of the Pacific northwest, Tomas resides now in Fayetteville, Ohio.
RAIN’s Hap Holly/KC9RP spoke with Tomas recently about Solar Cycle 25. This is the second and final excerpt from their discussion.
Here is the second part of the two-part interview:
If you missed part one of this conversation, you’ll find it as RAIN Hamcast #56 both on therainreport.com and on the RAIN Hamcast page on YouTube, as well as here: Episode #56, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnuSOXhFELQ.
RAIN Hamcast #58 will post January 8, 2022. Hap Holly/KC9RP edits and produces this biweekly ham radio podcast. It is copyright 1985-2021 , RAIN, all rights reserved. RAIN programming is made available under a Creative Commons license ; you are encouraged to download, share, post and transmit the RAIN Hamcast in its entirety via Amateur Radio. Your support and feedback are welcome on therainreport.com. Thanks for YouTube Technical Assistance from Tom Shimizu/N9JDI. I’m Will Rogers/K5WLR bidding you very 73 and 44 from the Radio Amateur Information Network.
KEEP ON HAMMING!
Footnote: Yes, NW7US misspoke about the time it takes sunlight to travel from the Sun to the Earth. He meant that it takes sunlight and radio waves just over 8 minutes to make that trip…
Strongest X-Ray Solar Flare in New Cycle 25! A Class M4.4 Flare on 29 Nov 2020
Here’s a look at the strongest X-ray flare so far in Cycle 25, and the strongest in three years. The flare measured as an M4.4-class Solar Flare, and it peaked at 13:11 UTC on 29 NOV 2020.
Stunning Ultra-HD View; Sun Timelapse 2015 NASA/SDO
This video is ten minutes of coolness.
This cool time-lapse video shows the Sun (in ultra-high definition 3840×2160 – 4k on YouTube) during the entire year, 2015. The video captures the Sun in the 171-angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. Our naked, unaided eyes cannot see this, but this movie uses false-colorization (yellow/gold) so that we can watch in high definition.
The movie covers a time period of January 2, 2015 to January 28, 2016 at a cadence of one frame every hour, or 24 frames per day. This timelapse is repeated with narration by solar scientist Nicholeen Viall and contains close-ups and annotations. The 171-angstrom light highlights material around 600,000 Kelvin and shows features in the upper transition region and quiet corona of the sun.
The first half tells you a bit about the video and the Sun, and you can see the entire year 2015 rotate by. The second half is narrated by a NASA scientist. It is worth watching all ten minutes. And, then, sharing!
The sun is always changing and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is always watching.
Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, SDO keeps a 24-hour eye on the entire disk of the sun, with a prime view of the graceful dance of solar material coursing through the sun’s atmosphere, the corona. SDO’s sixth year in orbit was no exception. This video shows that entire sixth year–from Jan. 1, 2015 to Jan. 28, 2016 as one time-lapse sequence. Each frame represents 1 hour.
SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) captures a shot of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. The images shown here are based on a wavelength of 171 angstroms, which is in the extreme ultraviolet range and shows solar material at around 600,000 Kelvin (about 1 million degrees F.) In this wavelength it is easy to see the sun’s 25-day rotation.
During the course of the video, the sun subtly increases and decreases in apparent size. This is because the distance between the SDO spacecraft and the sun varies over time. The image is, however, remarkably consistent and stable despite the fact that SDO orbits Earth at 6,876 mph and the Earth orbits the sun at 67,062 miles per hour.
A blending of an entire year, 2015, of the Sun as seen by NASA SDO at EUV 171 Angstroms
Why This is Important
Scientists study these images to better understand the complex electromagnetic system causing the constant movement on the sun, which can ultimately have an effect closer to Earth, too: Flares and another type of solar explosion called coronal mass ejections can sometimes disrupt technology in space. Moreover, studying our closest star is one way of learning about other stars in the galaxy. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. built, operates, and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.
For us radio enthusiasts, the study of the Sun helps us understand the dynamics of radio signal propagation. And, that aids us in communicating more effectively and skill.
Thanks for sharing, voting, and watching. More information and live Sun content can be accessed 24/7 at http://SunSpotWatch.com
You can also get the Space Weather and Radio Propagation Self-study Course at http://SunSpotWatch.com/swc
Falling sunspots?
Sunspot number today has fallen to 50, the lowest for quite a while and 10m propagation is forecast to be “fair” again.
Yesterday, 10m did open for me to the USA and plenty of stateside stations copied my 500mW beacon in the end after a late start. I suspect today it may be harder going as we seem, on average, to now be on the downward slope towards the next minimum, although this is years away. If predictions of the next maximum are to be believed, a SN of 50 would be considered a decent figure for the next sunspot peak! Of course, the predictions could be wrong, although the predictions have improved a lot and most got cycle 24 pretty accurately.
I have not yet turned on the 10m beacon this morning as we have visitors. It will probably be turned on just before lunch. I am still on MF but there are few active stations in range.
Falling sunspot numbers?
Sunspot number for Dec 27th 2014 has fallen to 92 and 10m propagation is forecast to be “fair”. Although we’ll still get good days, we must now expect sunspot numbers to gradually decline as the years go by towards the next sunspot minimum. Usually the decline downwards tends to be faster than the climb after the minimum, although many are predicting that the next maximum (cycle 25) will be miserably low.
See http://www.solen.info/solar/ .
See also http://sc25.com/ .
LHS Episode #136: Introduction to FreeDV
Hello, everyone! We are back again with another fun and informative episode of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, your hosts discuss solar flares, lots of space weather, stable and easy-to-install Linux distributions, H.R. 4969, Quentin Tarantino, dinner rolls and the amazing and fun new transmission mode for HF known as FreeDV. Don’t miss a second of this action-packed episode.
73 de The LHS Guys
Solar Cycle 25 Predictions
It has been notoriously hard to predict future solar cycles, but the science is improving all the time. Right now, the experts are predicting that solar cycle 25 will be very small indeed. Some think we are moving towards another Maunder Minimum when solar sunspots all but vanish for around 50 years. If so, most of us alive now will never experience “good” HF conditions ever again in our lifetimes. Experts can be wrong!
On a positive note, poor solar activity often means the lower frequency bands are better. With some luck, we may have a new international contiguous band at 60m in a few years’ time. This depends on WRC2015.
Regarding cycle 24, it looks like the peak was Feb 2014.
See http://www.solen.info/solar/ .
