Friday, August 21, 2009

Propagation news and a quiet sun !


Another spotless sun !!

The quiet sun continues to baffle us. If there are no sunspots today, and I don't expect any to emerge, this will be the forty-second day in a row with no sunspots. July 10 was the lastday we saw any spots. There is really no way to predict when the next sunspot will appear. If we see no sunspots through the end of the month, then nearly 80 percent of 2009 so far will have been spotless.

Unsettled to active geomagnetic conditions were predicted for August 19, with a planetary A index of 20, lowered to 15 by August 17. As seen at www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/indices/DGD.txt, the planetary A index rose to only 10 on August 19 and 11 on August 20. The current prediction from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center shows a predicted planetary A index of 5 for every day through the end of August. Geophysical Institute Prague also predicts quiet and stable geomagnetic conditions through the rest of the month. (Tad Cook K7RA/ARLP Propagation)

Propagation Forecast available online
The NZ4O Daily LF/MF/HF/6M Frequency Radiowave Propagation Forecast #2009-29
has been published on Thursday 08/20/2009 at 1800 UTC, valid 0000 UTC
Saturday 08/22/2009 through 2359 UTC Friday 08/28/2009 at
www.wcflunatall.com/nz4o3.htm .
Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O
Lakeland, FL, USA
nz4o@arrl.net