The following charts show the relationship of solar flux to signal strength and to the length of time for an opening for propagation along a circuit.
Color coding provides an indication of the variation due to season as seen in the previous section.
For both summer and winter seasons I see a weak but real inverse relationship of decreasing average signal strength with increasing solar flux. It has often been stated that propagation improves during times of high solar activity, this data suggests otherwise. Increased ionization levels increase the signal absorbtion as well. Also, times of high solar activity bring instabilities in the earth's geomagnetic field. Both of these effects have an important impact on signal strength.