We have had some solar ups and downs over the past week. A high-speed stream from a large coronal hole has kept the Kp index high at times, plus the solar flux index has been relatively low due to a lack of sunspots. The coronal hole has been massive, covering from the Sun’s south pole […]

Last week, we suffered from the double whammy of a reduced solar flux index and an increased Kp index. The solar flux index went down to 119 by Thursday 18 December, with the sunspots looking pretty spartan when compared with just a week or so ago. Unfortunately, a coronal hole contributed to a fast solar […]

We had a bit of everything last week including increased Kp indices, a high solar flux, an X-class solar flare and coronal mass ejections. The solar flux index hit a maximum of 220 on Thursday 4 December. This brought good HF conditions until Sunday 7 December. The index declined to 169 on Thursday 11 December, […]

The prediction made for last week was for the solar flux index to increase, possibly reaching 155 by 1 December and 175 by 6 December. In fact, it hit 196 on 1 December and 200 on 2 December. This was no doubt aided by three large sunspot groups in the Sun’s southern hemisphere. We also […]