The average daily sunspot numbers this week were about the same as last week, while the average daily solar flux declined a little more than eight points to 128.9. Geomagnetic indicators were quiet. The average daily sunspot numbers of 95.3 for the week is considerably below the average for the previous 90 days, which was 120.8. Sunspot numbers for December 15-21 were 44, 60, 95, 103, 133, 139 and 93, with a mean of 95.3. The 10.7 cm flux was 124.2, 121, 119.6, 127.4, 128.2, 137.4 and 144.5, with a mean of 128.9. The estimated planetary A indices were 0, 0, 0, 1, 4, 3 and 3, with a mean of 1.6. The estimated mid-latitude A indices were 2, 2, 2, 3, 6, 5 and 5, with a mean of 3.6.
The solar flux has been climbing over the past week, after a low of 119.6 on December 17. The predicted flux values for the near term are 145 on December 23, 140 on December 24-27, 145 on December 28-30, then dropping suddenly to 120 on December 31-January 2, 125 on January 3-4, 128 on January 5-8, and then peaking at 130 on January 9-17. The predicted planetary A index is 5 on December 23 through January 4, 8 on January 5-6, and 5 on January 7-21. This is from NOAA and the U.S. Air Force Space Weather Operations. There is another opinion, of course: Geophysical Institute Prague predicts quiet conditions December 23, quiet to unsettled December 24, active conditions December 25, unsettled to active December 26, quiet to unsettled December 27 and quiet again on December 28-29.
Active conditions are quite different from an A index of 5, although the NOAA/USAF outlook is at least eight hours newer than the Prague prediction. But looking back 24 hours earlier to the December 21 prediction, USAF/NOAA has nothing different on December 25, although they do show an A index of 8 on December 29. You can check here for the latest prediction, which is updated daily after 2100.
ARRL Published Date Hits: 78
Category: News
Three new crew members -- Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin -- are on their way to the International Space Station. The Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft carrying the new trio launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0414 UTC Monday, November 14. The Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled to dock to the ISS at 0433 UTC Thursday, November 17. Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum, KF5AQG, and flight engineers Satoshi Furukawa, KE5DAW (JAXA) and Sergei Volkov, RU3DIS (RKA), will welcome their new crewmates when the hatches open a couple of hours later, at about 0655 UTC. Burbank, Shkaplerov and Ivanishin are scheduled to live and work aboard the ISS until March.
NASA TV will cover the Soyuz docking, beginning at 11 PM (EST) Tuesday, November 15. NASA TV coverage of the hatches opening and the welcoming ceremony aboard the orbiting laboratory will begin at 1:30 AM (EST) Wednesday, November 16.
This will be Burbank’s third visit to the ISS. His previous two visits were both aboard space shuttle Atlantis. He helped prepare the station for its first crew during STS-106 in 2000 and helped install the P3/P4 truss during STS-115 in 2006. Shkaplerov and Ivanishin are beginning their first mission as cosmonauts.
Expedition 29 will end when Fossum, Furukawa and Volkov undock from the Rassvet mini-research module inside the Soyuz TMA-02M on Monday, November 21. The outgoing trio is scheduled to land in the steppe of Kazakhstan at 0225 UTC the next day. Expedition 30 officially begins when the Soyuz spacecraft undocks. Burbank will take over station command in a ceremony scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 20. The ceremony will be aired on NASA TV at 8 AM (EST) the next day.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit, KD5MDT, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX, and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, PI9ISS, are scheduled to launch to the station Wednesday, December 21, joining Expedition 30 as flight engineers.
According to NASA, the six crew members will be busy with dozens of experiments during their time aboard the ISS. They will also welcome a new era of commercial resupply services from the United States. Expedition 30 is expected to greet the arrival of Dragon, a commercial resupply ship being built by SpaceX of Hawthorne, California. Dragon will perform a test flight and rendezvous with the station, soon followed by Cygnus (scheduled for flight during Expedition 31), another commercial resupply ship being built by Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Virginia.
Keep up with the astronauts on the ISS via Twitter. You can follow Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum, KF5AQG, and Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX, on the popular social network.