Speaker
Description
Reliable descriptors of solar activity are crucial for Space Weather, especially to capture not only the long-term solar cycle but also the short- and mid-term variability driving energetic events. Traditional indices such as the widely used Sunspot Number (SSN) provide a global measure of solar activity level but cannot specify which phenomena are expected, while the 2800 MHz solar radio flux adds complementary but still global information. To address these limitations, we introduce the Trieste Solar Activity Index (TSAI), a new hybrid index that combines the modified 2800 MHz flux with weighted occurrences of C-, M-, and X-class soft X-ray flares. Preliminary results show that TSAI not only follows the global trend of solar activity but also highlighs periods of impulsive energy release more effectively than traditional indices. This dual sensitivity makes TSI a promising tool for linking solar variability to flare-related processes, improving diagnostic of energetic events and supporting predictive capabilities. Ongoing work focuses on extending the analysis to longer historical datasets and exploring the potential of TSAI for operational forecasting in Space Weather application and for long-term reconstructions of solar variability. By complementing established indices such as SSN and F10.7, TSAI offers a novel contribution to the toolbox of descriptors bridging Space Weather and Space Climate research.
