‰ Now 18 WPM transition file follows‰

In the past few days sunspots have reappeared after six days of
nothing.  In April so far weve seen 18 days with 0 spots.  But
currently a large sunspot, number 953 is rolling into view.  A solar
wind stream is also expected to hit earth, causing geomagnetic upset
on Saturday, April 28.  The Australian Space Forecast Centre
predicts quiet to unsettled conditions on April 27, active to minor
storm on Saturday, April 28, and active conditions on April 29.  The
U.S. Air Force predicts planetary A index from April 27 through May
1 at 5, 25, 15, 10 and 8.  Similar predictions from Geophysical
Institute Prague give us quiet conditions for April 27, active on
April 28, unsettled to active April 29, unsettled April 30, quiet to
unsettled on May 1, and back to quiet on May 2 and 3.  Lots of news
this week on the solar minimum and predicted solar maximum.  On
April 25, a Solar Cycle 24 Prediction Panel, consisting of members
from NOAA, NASA and other agencies looked at all available
predictions and attempted to reach a consensus.  It looks like the
minimum between cycles 23 and 24 may not occur for another year,
until March 2008, a year later than recently reported.  The accuracy
is expected to be plus or minus six months.  The peak of cycle 24 is
expected to occur in October 2011 if there is a large solar cycle,
and August 2012 for a small cycle.  You can see their statement on
the sec.noaa.gov web site.  Many people sent links to articles about
this.  Frank Donovan, W3LPL of Glenwood, Maryland sent a couple of
links, including one with a graphic representation of a range of
predictions, including PowerPoint presentations.  If you dont have
PowerPoint, you can find a free PowerPoint viewer to download for
Mac or Windows by searching for the two words PowerPoint Viewer in
Google, or any other search engine.  An AP story is on the
seattlepi.nwsource.com site and on the space.com/scienceastronomy
site.  We received a large volume of mail this week, and hope to get
to more of it in the next bulletin.  Also this week we saw some of
the early 3 D images from the NASA STEREO satellites.  To view in 3
D, you need those paper glasses with a red filter covering the left
eye, and cyan filter over the right eye.  You can see the images on
the nasa.gov site, and they also have info on where to find the
glasses.  I found mine for well under a dollar at Science, Art and
More, a shop that sells products for science education in my
neighborhood.  Sunspot numbers were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 14 with a
mean of 2.  10R7 cm flux was 68R3, 68R5 68R7, 68R9, 69R1, 73R2, and
76R5, with a mean of 70R5.  Estimated planetary A indices were 6, 3,
2, 10, 18, 4 and 5 with a mean of 6R9.  Estimated mid latitude A
indices were 4, 2, 2, 8, 10, 5 and 4, with a mean of 5‚

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