DX-World

• By Max IK8LOV - exclusively for DX World.net

Solar indices:

SSN: 46 – ISN: 31
Area(tot): 580 – New AR today: 1

Active Regions:

AR1173 – I’ts a Plage; no Flares in the last 48 hr;
AR1175 – Sunspots inside: 3 (-5 from yesterday); Area: 80 (-50 from yesterday); no Flares in the last 48 hr;
AR1176 – Sunspots inside: 12 (+9 from yesterday); Area: 490 (+150 from yesterday); Flares in the last 48 hr: C3.9, C1.6, M1.4, B5.7, C1.1, B5.7, B6.2, B5.8, M1.0;
AR1177 – Sunspots inside: 1; Area: 10; no Flares in the last 48 hr.

Solar Flux @2800 MHz: 105 sfu (Penticton)

Trends: In the next few hours the AR1175 & AR1173 (now plage) will reach the hidden side of the Sun. However, during their short life (less than a week) they didn’t express a notable activity. Fortunately, from the eastern limb of the Star two new AR appeared in the last few hours on both hemispheres: on the northen side the AR1177 – born today – and on the southern one the AR1176 – the biggest and more active of all. It is interesting to notice that actually the 84.5% of the total perturbed area is occupied by the AR1176 and all flares observed for now are from the same AR… and that’s not all!

Let’s give a look to the last pic from Stereo Behind. Apart of the two AR shown – the ones on the visible side of the Sun – we can notice a row of new perturbed areas ready to jump on the Earth-side face of our Star. So, in the next few days they’ll appear to our view. Due to this, general solar activity is expected to grow during next days. Solar Flux Index and total perturbed Area will tend to increase too.

However, new solar activity trends are already evident from the X-Ray flux stream showed in the following plot:

Geomagnetic activity:

A: 12 – K: 1 (7 nT)

No important solar wind stream is expected in the next few hours.

Propagation

After two weeks of moderate conditions, propagation is expected to grow in the next few days due to the big AR1176 and the series of new perturbed regions ready to cross into the visible side of the Sun. So, MUF will grow and revitalize high parts of HF spectrum: 10m will be more lively even if far from levels reached during the first decade of this month. Let’s remember that on March 7 we reached the perturbed area value of 1650 millionths of the Sun’s visible hemisphere: about the triple of the actual area. 15m and 20m will offer better conditions, expecially in the daytime.

Low bands will be decisely less noisy even if the increasing x-ray stream will limit a bit more these bands. Attention to 6m and 10m E-sporadic openings. All the best to all WPX contesters!

For more news and alerts stay tuned with us.

73 and good DX

Max Laconca – IK8LOV

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Glossary:
SSN: SESC Sunspot Number by SWPC-NOAA (unless otherwise noted)
ISN: International Sunspot Number by SIDC
AR: Active Region numbered by SWPC-NOAA
Area: Sunspots area is millionths of the Sun’s visible hemisphere
Solar Flux @2800 MHz: Solar Radio Flux at 10.7 cm (measured in Penticton)