[syhprum (OP)]

Is there abnormally high solar activity at the moment as the reception of weather satellites on VHF is badly degraded, I trust it is not having any more serious effects.

[Jolly- Joliver]

Is there abnormally high solar activity at the moment as the reception of weather satellites on VHF is badly degraded, I trust it is not having any more serious effects.

I don't know if solar activity is highier than usual but actually I think they only put satalites in orbit arround the sun recently to look at it, so I am not even sure if there is a solar storm/activity record or one that is long/big enough to actually tell us if the sun is being more active at the moment or not.

This site asks members of the public to help idenitify new solar storms, to one day maybe start giving solar weather reports:-
http://www.solarstormwatch.com/why_scientists_need_you

[JP]

In short, yes--it appears there's been a high level of activity on the earth due to geomagnetic storms resulting from solar activity.

One place you can get data on this if from NOAA: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (a US government agency).  In their words, their Space Weather Operations branch (SWO), "continuously monitors, analyzes, and forecasts the environment between the Sun and Earth. The Center receives solar and geophysical data in real time from a large number of ground-based observatories and satellite sensors around the world. SWO forecasters use these data to predict solar and geomagnetic activity and issue worldwide alerts of extreme events."

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/info/SolarEffects.html

If you google for "space weather," you'll get a lot of links to sites which summarize the SWO information on a daily basis.  Here are a couple that turned up near the top of my search and look fairly good:
http://www.spaceweather.com/
http://www.n3kl.org/sun/status.html

[syhprum (OP)]

Thanks for the links, just looking it up did the trick the 15:44 UTC pass was perfect.

[CliffordK]

The Spaceweather site is a good site.

We are just exiting out of a solar minimum (normal cycle that occurs every decade or so), except this one has brought unusually low solar activity for the last 4 or 5 years or so.

A month ago we had our first "X-Class" flare of the solar cycle.  Recently we've had a flurry of weak sunspots, a few coronal holes, and an increasing TSI (Total Solar Irradiance), so it is not surprising that the effects would show up on satellites.

However, overall, we are still relatively early in the solar cycle, and still somewhat weaker than "normal".

[grizelda]

Yeah, last night was the first northern lights I've seen all winter.