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Post by af4ex on Feb 5, 2011 18:23:10 GMT
Here's something interesting, the geomagnetic storm yesterday had a "visible" effect on HF propagation, as you can see below. The HAARP site monitors the HF spectrum from 1-30MHz. Signals from "over the horizon" show up as brights spots in time and frequency on the spectrogram. Normally, the maximum usable frequency is between 15MHz and 20MHz these days. But the storm seems to have lifted the MUF and changed the prop. Unfortunately only a temporary effect, but gives you an idea of the kind of prop we would have if the solar activity increased considerably. maestro.haarp.alaska.edu/data/spectrum2/www/hf.htmlNote: Have to be careful interpreting these HAARP spectrograms because HAARP injects gigawatt HF signals to conduct ionospheric heating experiments, which could have similar effects. But in this case, since I see no bright bands at the lower part of the screen (coming from the HAARP antennas), I conclude this is a natural effect we are observing. Attachments:
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bradk
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Post by bradk on Feb 5, 2011 18:28:19 GMT
Thanks John.
What does HAARP expect to find/accomplish by heating the ionosphere?
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Post by af4ex on Feb 5, 2011 23:22:51 GMT
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bop
New Member
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Post by bop on Feb 7, 2011 1:32:49 GMT
They can use it to create ionospheric lensing to bounces OTH RADAR and submarine communication and missile defense stuff. Uber duper secret stuff.
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N9AAT
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DON'T PANIC
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Post by N9AAT on Feb 7, 2011 14:32:58 GMT
Another interesting item. In my shop at work, we had a VOR site NOTAM'ed off the air on Saturday for it's radials being 3 degrees off. I've had this happen before during another storm about 8 months ago. Flight Check will fly the VOR again this Thursday and I'm very interested to see if the radials have gone back to normal like the other site did. Hmmmmmm ...  |
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N9AAT
Level 3 Rank
DON'T PANIC
Posts: 153
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Post by N9AAT on Feb 7, 2011 14:50:30 GMT
Oh, I have also seen the effect of lensing first-hand. Back in 1987 or 88, I was stationed at a USAF site in Berlin. We were doing early work with automatic antenna testing, and one day in the RF Distribution Room I was listening to AFN on the FM receiver. I noticed that the wrong frequency for AFB Berlin, then realized I was listening to AFN Munich, about 300 miles away! Pretty good coverage for an FM station. The effect went on for several hours then faded away. Over the next several months I checked the frequency again but never heard Munich again.
Rod Serling, were are you when we need you! ;D
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Post by af4ex on Feb 7, 2011 18:20:01 GMT
@n9aat > ... then realized I was listening to AFN Munich, about 300 > miles away! Pretty good coverage for an FM station. ... But not unusual for tropospheric ducting , which occurs naturally, especially after thunderstorms. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_propagationWhen I was a kid, living in Ohio, I used to pick up VHF TV stations thousands of miles away, as far away as Cuba and Mexico. www.dxing.com/tvfmdx.htm What makes you that think your experience was lensing due to artificial ionospheric heating? |
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bradk
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Post by bradk on Feb 7, 2011 23:05:53 GMT
How did the sunspot number get so high today? I think there is only one spot aand to get to this number normally takes 2 or 3 groups...
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Post by af4ex on Feb 7, 2011 23:53:42 GMT
It's currently 41 and there are officially 3 active regions:
I. Regions with Sunspots. Locations Valid at 06/2400Z
Nmbr Location Lo Area Z LL NN Mag Type
1150 S22W51 178 0000 Axx 01 01 Alpha
1152 S20W26 154 0015 Bxo 02 05 Beta
1153 N16W42 168 0015 Bxo 08 05 Beta
1153 is big, actually looks like two spots to me. 1152 and 1150 are tiny specks.
I know very little about spot counting, except that each spot is worth roughly 15 points. So 41 seems consistent with that rubric.
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Post by af4ex on Feb 8, 2011 0:15:32 GMT
... on second look I don't see the 1150 speck anymore, so maybe 1153 makes up for it by having two groups (or maybe now the count is lower) Attachments:
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Post by af4ex on Feb 8, 2011 0:44:18 GMT
... and check out the NE quadrant. There's a new speck. Just showed up. Even Solen hasn't numbered it yet. It's also collocated with bright spots in x-ray and EUV, so might stick around. Attachments:
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Post by af4ex on Feb 8, 2011 1:20:21 GMT
... and one more comment (then I'll stop using up the oxygen here): I think the big plage areas to the east of the new speck are more significant, in terms of activity, even though they are 'spotless'. (EUV: there's also something bright rotating into view on the east limb) :-| Attachments:
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bradk
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Post by bradk on Feb 8, 2011 2:09:53 GMT
Good points, and the counts lag so we will likely see a drop in a few hours.
the specks we are seeing seem to be drifting equatorially to me as well.
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Post by af4ex on Feb 8, 2011 2:46:16 GMT
bradk> ... so we will likely see a drop in a few hours. Not so sure about that. The latest Penticton readings show the SFI moving up slightly. X-ray background is also rising and there's that new activity in the eastern regions.
2011 Feb 2 2800 79 79 79
2011 Feb 3 2800 80 80 80
2011 Feb 4 2800 81 82 81
2011 Feb 5 2800 81 81 80
2011 Feb 6 2800 80 80 80
2011 Feb 7 2800 82 82 82
The solar glass looks half-full to me 
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Post by af4ex on Feb 8, 2011 4:05:07 GMT
... and more new specks, near 1153. But you were right Brad, the counts lag so the SN has dropped to 26. Zagging down when it should be zigging up. :-\ Attachments:
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