News from <PSC>

2008-10-31: with more new Cycle 24 regions developing, data on the new cycle is being gathered. <PSC> expects to have gathered enough data to publish a first prediction on the Cycle 24 sunspots maximum in January 2009.

2008-10-29: we have been working on a new <PSC> website in the past weeks. The new website is more accessible than the current one, and the index directly displays the most important data like indexes, forecasts and solar images. We are finishing the last details, and will start testing next week. The new <PSC> website is planned to go live on Saturday 15th November. Here is a small preview on what you can expect:

2008-10-12: since the birth of Region 11002 (a Cycle 24 region), solar activity has been increasing slowly. Yesterday Region 11005 was the second significant Cycle 24 region to emerge with a maximum of 9 sunspots, and is the largest Cycle 24 region until now. It is a positive sign indicating that Cycle 24 is progressing normally, and we are not stuck in a new solar minimum.

2008-09-25: 3 days ago the 6th Solar Cycle 24 active region as spotted. It rapidly developed into the largest Cycle 24 until today with 8 sunspots. Unfortunately this region lost all of it's spots within 2 days, but it's a small positive sign for the Cycle 24 progression.

2008-08-13: because we are on holiday, the <PSC> forecasts and Region Maps services will be postponed until September 3rd. Our Current Conditions page is automatically updated. In the same week as September 3rd we will also issue a new <LT-PROPCAST>, our 3 monthly review and forecast. The <PSC> Forum will be checked every now and then for new messages.

2008-08-07: today's UV image of the sun, shows as the sun at it's most inactive stage during the sunspot minimum. Next to that an image of the sun at the sunspot maximum during December 2001.

2008-07-16: today at 1700 UTC the Solar Flux was as low as 64.2, which is the lowest value measured since April 2nd 1954. What does it say about the the new Solar Cycle 24 maximum? Just look at the maximum sunspot number of the following Solar Cycle 19, which peaked in 1958: http://www.dxlc.com/solar/cycl19.html

2008-07-15: we were not able to get our old <PSC> Forum back online, so we also lost all posting. We built a new forum with some new categories which allows you to discuss subjects which are not directly related to propagations or solar activity. We also opened up three permanent polls to see what antenna and transceivers our visitors use, and what kind of propagation the like most. Unfortunately you will need to register again, also if you were registered on the old forum.

2008-07-11: for unknown reasons the <PSC> Forum has shut down. We are working on a solution to get the forum up and running again.

2008-06-29: we are not regularly updating the <SOLAR-ACTIVITY INDEX> anymore. Because of the holiday season in July and August, we will update our <SOLAR-ACTIVITY INDEX> if there are any changes in solar activity, that might influence propagation. Our other forecasts will be updated as usual.

2008-05-29: we have a new team member in <PSC>, his operator name is Aroldo, and QRZ is 32PSC8. His QTH is the most southern tip of South America, the city of Punta Arenas. Aroldo will report on propagation on this particular part in the world.

2008-05-05: last weekend Jean-Paul attended the Delta Xray Radio Club's meeting in Wittenberg, Germany, with a presentation about Propagation & Solar Activity. The presentation has been made available on he <PSC> website and can be downloaded here (approx. 8MB).

During the meeting 13DX015 Pete joined the <PSC> team. Pete was one of the very experienced operators which was in the team which supported the WWDX <PSC> project back in the 90's.

2008-03-24: our team member 43SD280 Jordan has opened an independent forum where we can discuss propagation and solar activity in general. You can access it with the navigation button "PSC Forum" on the main page. Thanks for your work Jordan!

2008-03-23: today <PSC> has formed its own team of propagation observers. This team will help to improve the quality of propagation forecasts, by providing regular information about propagation worldwide. You can read about the team and its members on the "About us" page. Also interested in propagation and want to help forecast propagation? Join the <PSC> team, and contact us via the contactform.

2008-03-10: another milestone for <PSC>. Past 30 days we have had over 1500 pageviews. Many thanks to our new and regular visitors.

2008-02-27: <PSC> reached 1200 pageviews in the past 30 days, which is a new record. Many thanks to our new and regular visitors. Please keep your suggestions coming as we further improve the quality of our information.

2008-01-22: this summer <PSC> will start with an experimental European Sporadic-E (Es) map. This quite unpredictable propagation mode will be mapped for several weeks in June, based on the Google Earth maps. We will paste info from several clusters into this map, on which active Es clouds will be visualized. If the results are good, we will start with this new service during the Winter 2008/2009 Es season, with live maps for every active continent.

2008-01-22: <PSC> will attend the Delta Xray Radio Club's annual meeting, with a Propagation Seminar on Saturday afternoon. This year's meeting will be held in the historic city of Lutherstadt-Wittenberg in Germany. More info on the Delta Xray home page in the Members Area.

2008-01-21: in a relative short period since our active re-launch in October, we have established an average of 770 pageviews per month, from all continents. This number is still increasing, thanks to several friends of <PSC>, which are promoting our service quite active. Thanks to everybody!

2008-01-12: the active region maps have been added to our page with historic reports, which can be accessed via the "Historic" button on our main page.

2008-01-10: on the "Solar Images" page we have added a Sunspot Region Map to visualize the current active regions.

2008-01-09: today <PSC> was the first to spot the official 2nd Cycle 24 region. This region was not identified by SEC, so was numbered P080109 as the <PSC> procedures. This is the 2nd evidence that Cycle 24 is in full progress now.

2007-12-23: because of the holidays, we will not issue new forecasts on December 25th, 26th and 31st, as well as January 1st. If any drastic change in propagation is likely to occur we will issue a forecast.

2007-12-16: from today on, we will implement a change in numbering sunspot regions in our <SOLAR-ACTIVITY INDEX>. SEC (NOAA Space Environment Center) does not always number an active region when it appears, or comes into view. New regions that have not been numbered by SEC, but have been spotted by PSC, will be numbered with the letter "P", followed by the year, month and day. Multiple new regions on one day will be identified by adding a, b, c, d, etc. As soon as SEC numbers this region, we will follow the SEC numbering. For example a new spotted region on 18th December 2007 will be numbered by PSC as: P071218. The next spotted region on that day will be numbered P071218a.

2007-12-13: start of Cycle # 24 confirmed by NASA with the observation of a reverses polarity sunspot: Quote from the NASA SOHO site:

SOHO has observed (Dec. 13, 2007) what may be the first indication of a "reversed" magnetic polarity region when compared to the current solar cycle, something scientists consider to be a crucial indicator that the new sunspot cycle is about upon us. This so-called plage region did not have a strong enough magnetic field to form a sunspot, but scientists believe that it may nevertheless stand as an icon that the old cycle is ending and a new one, Cycle 24, is about to begin. Sunspots appear in groups with north and south polarities just like a magnet. In magnetic images of the Sun taken (by SOHO's MDI instrument) during the last solar cycle, sunspots in the northern hemisphere of the Sun have had white areas preceding the black; in this new spot, we can clearly see that black precedes white. (This orientation is reversed in the southern hemisphere.)

2007-12-11: our observation of a reversed polarity sunspot indicates that new Sunspot Cycle # 24 must be in progress.

2007-11-13: we announce the start of new Sunspot Cycle # 24 within less than three months from now.

2007-11-13: we have issued our first test forecasts:  <SOLAR-ACTIVITY INDEX>, <PROPMETER>, <PROPCAST> AND <LT-PROPCAST>.

2007-01-10: we announces first test forecasts to be issued in November 2007 until the end of 2007. Forecasts now may be issued irregulraly.

2007-07-01: Propagation Service Center<PSC> has been revived after being inactive for almost 8 years. At this moment we are working on getting most information online again in the new style. We expect to be up and running 100% in January 2008.

73

19DX072 Jean-Paul