File:SSN Predict SWPC.gif

SSN_Predict_SWPC.gif(720 × 550 pixels, file size: 3.4 MB, MIME type: image/gif, looped, 90 frames, 3 min 8 s)

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Summary

Description

SWPC Sunspot Number Predictions For Solar Cycle 23 and 24

The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) at http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ issues weekly reports on solar activity know as Preliminary Report and Forecast (PRF) of Solar Geophysical Data or “The Weekly”. Generally on the week following the end of the month a monthly summary is issued which includes graphics for the past month.

In the summary is the “ISES Solar Cycle Sunspot Number Progression” graphic which shows past, present and predicted average sunspot numbers by month. SWPC maintains a compressed archive of all weekly PRD reports in PDF format since 1996 which is available here. Individual weekly reports for 2007 are available here and current reports for 2008 are available here.

All of “The Weekly” reports were inspected to identify the monthly summaries and determine the quality of the “ISES Solar Cycle Sunspot Number Progression” graphic contained therein. It was determined that the graphs prior to April 30, 2003 were in a significantly different format, had quality control problems and skipped months, therefore only graphs from April 30, 2003 to present were used.

Using Adobe Acrobat Professional the “ISES Solar Cycle Sunspot Number Progression” graphics was extracted from each of “The Weekly” PDF reports as oversized TIFF graphics to preserve resolution. The standard publication size for the graphic was 720×550 pixels but the aspect ratio for some of the graphs was not preserved within the PDF document. When the oversized TIFF graphic were resized to 720×550 without preserving the aspect ratio within the PDF the original 720×550 graphic was recovered in all cases. The 720×550 TIFF graphic was then converted to a GIF graphic for use in the animation sequence.

While extracting the “ISES Solar Cycle Sunspot Number Progression” graphs it was found that January 31, 2008 monthly summary had not been generated, a fact which SWPC confirmed in response to an Email inquiry. The February 29, 2008 graphic was hand edited at the pixel level to recreate the missing month and is identified in the animation sequence “proxy200801.gif”. The remaining graphics are all identified by the PRF document number.

The Advanced GIF Animator program was used to create the animation sequence. With the exception of January 31, 2008 all of the frames are prefixed by PRF9999 when 9999 is the document number of the original PDF report from which the graphic was extracted.

The recovery of the graphics went very well and there was no discernible flicker between frames indicating that the PDF extraction process was near prefect. With the exception of the missing monthly summary for January 31, 2008 the SWPC product has been amazingly consistent since April 30, 2003. SWPC is to be commended for the high quality of their data and its public availability.
Date April 30, 2003 to preset date, as monthly images are available.
Source

Solar Cycle Progression: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/warehouse.html
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/weekly/weekly07.html

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/weekly/index.html
Author GIF graphics by the SWPC research team, animation by Michael Ronayne.

Licensing

Public domain
This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taken or made as part of an employee's official duties.

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File history

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current21:16, 9 July 2010Thumbnail for version as of 21:16, 9 July 2010720 × 550 (3.4 MB)Michael Ronayne
11:09, 7 August 2009Thumbnail for version as of 11:09, 7 August 2009720 × 550 (3.33 MB)Michael RonayneSWPC Sunspot prediction was unchanged for June and July.
10:19, 7 June 2009Thumbnail for version as of 10:19, 7 June 2009720 × 550 (3.24 MB)Michael RonayneSWPC made a major downward revision in solar activity on May 8, 2009 eliminating the high prediction and delaying the onset of solar maximum. Because of the mid-month change, May 2009 contains two predictions. As solar activity begins to show some slight
03:34, 8 May 2009Thumbnail for version as of 03:34, 8 May 2009720 × 550 (3.1 MB)Michael RonayneUpdates through the end of April 2009. Note that Sunspot prediction was not advanced this month. (Fixed image size problem.)
15:27, 7 May 2009Thumbnail for version as of 15:27, 7 May 2009720 × 679 (3.1 MB)Michael RonayneUpdates through the end of April 2009. Note that Sunspot prediction was not advanced this month.
01:08, 12 April 2009Thumbnail for version as of 01:08, 12 April 2009720 × 550 (3.06 MB)Michael RonayneUpdates through end of March 2009.
21:31, 2 March 2009Thumbnail for version as of 21:31, 2 March 2009720 × 550 (3.01 MB)Michael RonayneSWPC has made two revisions to Sunspot activity predictions in the space of one week.
18:48, 25 February 2009Thumbnail for version as of 18:48, 25 February 2009720 × 550 (2.96 MB)Michael RonayneNew SWPC Sunspot prediction dated 02/24/2009 was added.
13:38, 20 February 2009Thumbnail for version as of 13:38, 20 February 2009720 × 553 (2.91 MB)Michael Ronayne{{Information |Description= |Source= |Date= |Author= |Permission= |other_versions= }}
03:49, 3 October 2008Thumbnail for version as of 03:49, 3 October 2008720 × 550 (2.69 MB)Michael Ronayne{{Information |Description=The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) at http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ issues weekly reports on solar activity know as Preliminary Report and Forecast (PRF) of Solar Geophysical Data or “The Weekly”. Generally on the week f
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