Increasing sunspot activity continues. A glance at the image from NASA's STEREO mission shows a string of active regions in the Sun's northern hemisphere, both visible and over the horizon on the far side. The high sunspot number for the week was 71 on February 8; the average for the week was 43.3. We haven't reported a weekly average that high since the week of March 27-April 4 in 2008, when it was 43.6. The daily sunspot number hasn't been as high as 71 since May 28, 2006 when it was 78. The earlier reading that reached that level or more was 105 on April 6, 2006.
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