January 3, 2008 Space Weather Prediction Center Summary of Space Weather Observations The Summary of Space Weather Observations is a daily report of solar regions with sunspot groups observed on the preceding day. See sample and description below. The SWPC Solar Region Summary is a similar daily report that also contains H-alpha Plages without Spots, and Regions Due to Return in the next 3 days. See http://swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/forecasts/SRS.html The characteristics for each active region (region with a sunspot group) are compiled from approximately half a dozen observatories that report to the SWPC in near-real time. The sunspot counts are typically higher than those reported in non-real time by the Sunspot Index Data Center (SIDC), Brussels, Belgium, and the American Association of Variable Star Observers. The last 75 Summary of Space Weather Observations reports are in this directory. Issue time: Daily after 0030 UTC, usually online by 0035 UTC. Period covered: Previous UTC day. Available: via SWPC Anonymous FTP server swpc.noaa.gov /pub/latest/dayobs.txt --- most recent report /pub/forecasts/dayobs --- last 75 reports via SWPC Web site: http://swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/latest/dayobs.txt http://swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/forecasts/dayobs.html via the NOAA Weather Wire service, see http://swpc.noaa.gov/wwire_guide.html or wwire.html See http://swpc.noaa.gov/Data/ for other SWPC data and products. *************************************************************** ** Please read the SWPC Disclaimer at http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ ** before using the forecasts and data in these reports. *************************************************************** SWPC provides near-real-time and recent data, solar and geomagnetic indices and solar event reports created from preliminary reports. Preliminary data may contain errors or be revised after further review. The historical products in this SWPC Warehouse are the preliminary reports as originally published. SWPC does not encourage the use of preliminary data for research purposes. Links to archive sites with final data: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/Data/ ****************************************************************** Please send comments and questions to SWPC.Webmaster@noaa.gov Report problems to SWPC.CustomerSupport@noaa.gov ==================================================== ====== Sample ==================================== :Product: Summary of Space Weather Observations dayobs.txt :Issued: 2007 Dec 03 0033 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center # Product description and SWPC contact on the Web # http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # Summary of Space Weather Observations # :Solar_Region_Summary: 2007 Dec 02 # Region Location Sunspot Characteristics # Helio Spot Spot Mag. # Num Lat.,CMD Long. Area Extent class count class 0976 S09E10 333 10 2 BXO 2 B 0977 S05E53 290 30 4 BXO 4 B ==================================================== ====== Description =============================== Region: The 4-digit region number assigned by SWPC to each sunspot group during its disk passage. Note: the region number is the last 4 digits of the official region number. When it reaches 9999 it will roll over to 0000, e.g. 9998, 9999, 0000, 0001. Location Helio: Location, in heliographic degrees latitude and degrees east or west from central meridian (CMD), rotated to 2400 UTC. Long.: Carrington longitude of the center of the group. Sunspot Characteristics: Area: The total corrected area of the sunspots in the sunspot group expressed in millionths of the solar hemisphere. Extent: Length of the group in degrees heliographic longitude as measured between the most extreme edges of the two most widely separated spots along the group's major axis. Spot class: Modified Zurich classification of the sunspot group. Spot count: Number of spots (umbra) visible within the sunspot group. Mag. class: The magnetic classification of the sunspot group.