Finally, 1st cycle 24 SPOT

[Ulrich Rieth]

Hi all!

The time of waiting is over.
Today we can really salute the first cycle 24 sun-SPOT.
It is a very tiny region in the SOHO MDI whitelight images.
As it is so tiny, you should first take a look at the magnetogramm:

It's the little nothing at the 10:30 position.
And now to the whitelight:

There it is even harder to see, but if you remember the position in the magnetogram, you will get it.
So from now on it should hopefully take only month and not years for the sunspot numbers really show a rising trend and more solar storms to show up in earth magnetosphere.
Sunny greetings and all the best for 2008 from the admins and mods of the STD Space Weather Forum!

 Ulrich

[Ulrich Rieth]

:Issued: 2008 Jan 04 1308 UTC
:Product: documentation at http://www.sidc.be/products/presto
#--------------------------------------------------------------------#
# FAST WARNING 'PRESTO' MESSAGE  from the SIDC (RWC-Belgium)         #
#--------------------------------------------------------------------#
Several observatories have reported the presence of a high latitude
sunspot group (Catania: http://web.ct.astro.it/sun/draw.jpg, Kanzelhohe:
http://cesar.kso.ac.at/sunspot_drawings/2008/kanz_drawx_fd_20080104_0832.jpg).
MDI images show a bipolar structure. This bipole is the first of the
new solar cycle which actually develops into a visible sunspot group.
Solar cycle 24 has arrived!
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[Jeff VE6EFR]

This indeed is good news. A little late for a Christmas present but hey, I'll take it anyway.