Over the past reporting week (January 26 through February 1) average daily sunspot number declined 21.1 points to 31.6, compared to the previous seven days.

Average daily planetary A index increased from 8 to 15.6, and average mid-latitude A index rose 5 points to 11.4.

Predicted solar flux is 75 on February 3, 74 on February 4-5, 75 on February 6-10, 77 on February 11-12, then 78, 79 and 81 on February 13-15, 83 on February 16-18, 85 on February 19-21, 80 on February 22-24, then 75 and 76 on February 25-26, 75 on February 27 through March 1, 74 on March 2-3, 72 on March 4-5, 75 and 76 on March 6-7, 77 on March 8-11 and 78, 79 and 81 on March 12-14.

Predicted planetary A index is 16, 14, 12, 10 and 8 on February 3-7, 5 on February 8-13, 15 on February 14, 10 on February 15-16, 8 on February 17-18, 5 on February 19-21, 10 and 15 on February 22-23, 10 on February 24-26, then 25, 20 and 18 on February 27 through March 1, 15 on March 2-4, then 10 and 8 on March 5-6, 5 on March 7-12, 15 on March 13, 10 on March 14-15, and 8 on March 16-17.

Geomagnetic activity forecast for the period February 3-March 2, 2017 from OK1HH. Geomagnetic field will be:

Quiet on February 12, 26

Mostly quiet on February 10-11, 13-14, 22-23

Quiet to unsettled on February 9, 21, 27

Quiet to active on February 4-6, 8, 16-17, 20, 25, 28

Active to disturbed on February 3, 7, 15, 18-19, 24, March 1-2

Amplifications of the solar wind from coronal holes are expected on February 3-7, (8-9,) 16-21, (22,) 26-27

Remark: Parenthesis means lower probability of activity enhancement.

Thanks to David Moore for this article on how NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope sees events on the Sun’s far side: http://bit.ly/2kZmd4h

For more information concerning radio propagation, see the ARRL Technical Information Service at http://arrl.org/propagation-of-rf-signals. For an explanation of numbers used in this bulletin, see http://arrl.org/the-sun-the-earth-the-ionosphere.

An archive of past propagation bulletins is at http://arrl.org/w1aw-bulletins-archive-propagation. More good information and tutorials on propagation are at http://k9la.us/.

 Monthly propagation charts between four USA regions and twelve overseas locations are at http://arrl.org/propagation. Instructions for starting or ending email distribution of ARRL bulletins are at http://arrl.org/bulletins.

Sunspot numbers for January 26 through February 1, 2017 were 31, 33, 28, 24, 35, 42, and 28, with a mean of 31.6. 10.7 cm flux was 83.1, 80.3, 78.5, 76.6, 77, 76, and 76, with a mean of 78.2. Estimated planetary A indices were 13, 21, 9, 7, 6, 24, and 29, with a mean of 15.6. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 11, 17, 7, 5, 5, 16, and 19, with a mean of 11.4.