Solar and Interplanetary Phenomena

Major holdings in this discipline are sunspot numbers dating from 1610 and the positions, area, and classifications of sunspots; solar radio flux data; regions of solar activity; and solar x-ray, particle and magnetometer data from the SMS/GOES satellites; also, particle data from the NOAA/TIROS and DMSP satellites.

• Regions of Solar Activity -- Sunspots: Positions, Areas, and Classifications
• Sunspot Numbers
• Solar Magnetic Fields, including Sun-As-A-Star measurements
• H-alpha Observations (other than flares)
• Calcium Plages: Positions, Areas, Maximum Intensities
• Combined and Special Optical Observations (Solar Maps, Prominences, Filaments)
• Optical Observations of the Corona
• X-ray Observations of the Corona, including the GOES Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) and theSoft X-ray Telescope on the Japanese Yohkoh satellite)
• Total Radio Flux Measurements
• Total Solar Irradiance Measurements
  • NIMBUS
  • UARS/ACRIM II
  • ERBS
  • NOAA-09
  • NOAA-10
• Radio and Radar Maps of Solar Disk
• Radio East-West Scans of Solar Disk
• Solar X-Ray and UV Background Levels
• Energetic Solar Protons and Solar Electrons
• Solar Wind
• Interplanetary Scintillations
• Sporadic Radio Emissions from Jupiter
• Interplanetary Magnetic Fields
• Interplanetary Electric Fields

For many years much of the solar and interplanetary data have been published in the NGDC Solar-Geophysical Data (SGD). It is often possible to satisfy data requests by sending issues or extracts from issues of SGD at much lower cost than would be involved in making copies of the archival data. Considerable reformatting and combining of data have been done in the preparation of SGD to facilitate its use.

The data center also has the historical solar files from the McMath Hulbert and Lockheed solar observatories and the University of Colorado Jupiter program. Included in these files are H-alpha solar patrol films, microfilmed images of the sun in Calcium K and microfilmed recordings of Jupiter radio emission data. The Japanese satellite Yohkoh soft x-ray telescope images are published monthly in Solar-Geophysical Data or are available in hard copy from the data center.

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