2023-02-09

Return of the Sunspots.

The sun is rotating. 

The sunspots that disappeared from the visible side of the sun 2 weeks ago have returned in force.

An emerging sunspot group adds to the show.

3 weeks ago the solar flux was well above 200. When the big sunspot groups disappeared the flux went down to about 135, still well above the 100 mark. 10m has been excellent for several months now, and there have been some openings on 6m.

Today's solar flux is again above the 200 mark, as today's (Thursday) solar flux No. is 215, and it looks like this will continue for some days. Today (Thursday) has seen several M-class solar flares.

What does this mean for our propagation?

Most of the time pretty good HF propagation, especially on the high bands. At times of solar flares there can be some SIDs (Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance) with the lower bands in particular having fade-outs.


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