Solar and Geomagnetic Activity Data Format

Copyright WDC C1 for STP at RAL.

Solar and Geo-Magnetic Activity Data (SMA Data Format)

A description of the basic data follows.

  Name             Dim  Type   Width  Dec  NullValues   Units
  ------------  ------  ----  ------  ---  ----------  ------
  Date               3  S          4    -          -1       -
  Rotno              1  S          4    -           0       -
  CDay               1  B          2    -           0       -
  Kp                 8  B          2    -           0       -
  SumKp              1  S          3    -           0       -
  Ap                 8  S          3    -           0       -
  MeanAp             1  S          3    -           0       -
  Cp                 1  R          3    1     0.00000       -
  C9                 1  B          1    -           0       -
  SSN                1  S          3    -           0       -
  10cmFlux           1  R          5    1     0.00000       -
  Code               1  B          1    -           0       -

Field Description

  Field Name    Field Type  Description of Field
  ------------  ----------  ---------------------------------------
  Year          byte        Number of Year (2 digits)
  Month         byte        Number of Month of Year
  Day           byte        Number of Day of Month
  Rotno         small int   Bartels solar rotation number (not Carrington)
  CDay          byte        Bartels day number within solar rotation
  Kp            8 * byte    Kp values for eight 3-hour intervals of UT
  SumKp         small int   Sum of Kp values for the day
  Ap            8 * byte    Ap values for eight 3-hour intervals of UT
  MeanAp        small int   Mean value of Ap for the day
  Cp            real        Value of Cp for the day
  C9            byte        Value of C9 for the day
  SSN           small int   Sunspot Number Ri (Rz before 1981 January 1)
  10cmFlux      real        Solar 10.7cm flux SA (S before 1964 January 1)
  Code          byte        Code for solar flux measurement - see notes

Field Notes

1. Kp Codes

   The Kp number has been multiplied by 10 and 3 added or subtracted according to the sign of the suffix. For example, 2+ becomes 23.

2. Solar Flux Codes
   
   0 = normal values
   1 = values adjusted for burst
   2 = burst in progress
   3 = no value reported

Field Types

     C        CHARACTER                            1 byte
     P        DOUBLE PRECISION REAL                8 bytes
     R        REAL                                 4 bytes
     I        INTEGER                              4 bytes
     S        SMALL INTEGER                        2 bytes
     B        BYTE (unsigned integer 0-255)        1 byte