This bulletin was delayed by one day due to a delay in getting solar data.
Solar activity is still very low.
We are very close to the solar minimum. The latest projections show the 10.7 cm solar flux reaching minimum around a year from now, during January and February 1997. But similar projections show the sunspot number reaching minimum during April through June of this year, and a big increase starting late in 1997. The sunspot number is derived by counting visible dark spots on the Sun and factoring in their area. Solar flux is derived by measuring 10.7 cm radiation from the Sun, and this seems to correlate with density of ionization in the ionosphere.