Re: Flare drought

Dave Mullenix (djmullen@facstaff.wisc.edu)
Fri, 20 Feb 1998 01:19:02 -0600

ROB MATSON wrote:
> It would be interesting to see a global map of all bright flare tracks
> on a month-by-month basis. Perhaps a large fraction of the constellation
> is going through an eclipse season right now... --Rob

I can't give you that, but I did use IRIDFLAR to calculate flares for
Madison, Wisconsin (-89.3819 +43.073) for 365 days starting January 1,
1998.  Here's a table of the results.  This is for minimum flare
elevation of 10 degrees above the horizon, sun 6 degrees below the
horizon or better and flares of magnitude +1 or higher.

Month Total   AM   PM MaxMag

Jan    13     10    3  -8
Feb     9      7    2  -7
Mar     5      1    4  -3
Apr    12      5    7  -9
May    39     28   11  -8
Jun    17     12    5  -8
Jul    24     15    9  -8
Aug    27     23    4  -6
Sep     7      4    3  -8
Oct     7      3    3  -8
Nov    16      9    7  -8
Dec     7      4    3  -8

Note the wide variations in flares per month.  There are also variations
in intensity.  There are more flares in summer even though the summer
nights are shorter.  Also note the preponderance of morning flares.  I
had felt something like this was going on, but I wasn't sure until I ran
the numbers. 

Dave Mullenix