The recent sunspot activity that we've been experiencing remains strong. The weekly averages of daily sunspot numbers that we've been reporting over the past six weeks were 1.9, 21.1, 31.4, 21.9, 14.6 -- and now 26.4. Sunspot region 1035 re-emerged as region 1040 on January 7 and has been growing steadily. For January 7-14, the total area of region 1040, as expressed in millionths of a solar hemisphere, was 80, 40, 70, 130, 300, 300, 380 and 290. It passed the 0 degree meridian (the imaginary vertical line on the visible Sun that faces straight toward Earth) and now looks like it has another four days before it crosses the Sun's western horizon; you can see this on the STEREO Web site. A bright area that may be a sunspot is slipping out of the dark area, the approximately 12.8 percent of the Sun unseen by the STEREO craft. This may reach our Sun's eastern horizon just after region 1040 passes over the western horizon.
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