SUNSPOT MONITORING – JANUARY 2, 2021

No sunspot monitoring was issued yesterday, January 1, 2021, due to mostly cloudy conditions prevailed that time, unable to get any solar images.

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, January 2, 2021.

The sky was generally clear with intermittent moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.

AR2794 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Hsx/alpha) has remained stable and inactive; exhibited very little change in its unipolar sunspot. On the other hand, further structural decay was observed in AR2785 (Bxo/beta). No significant flaring activity was recorded throughout the monitoring period. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 23.

Other noteworthy solar features observed were several small quiescent filaments were seen across the Sun’s disk, small scattered disintegrating plages associated with AR2794 and AR2795, as well as some short stable filaments at the far northern section of the Sun’s disk, as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Both sunspot regions are now approaching the southwestern limb which signifies a further decline in solar activity in the next few days. Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at very low levels with chances of solar flares of up to B-class intensity. Close monitoring is being conducted by numerous space weather agencies for any significant development.

Equipment used are Skywatcher 120mm refractor telescope with Baader filter and unmodified Canon EOS 1D Mark IV DSLR camera for visible imagery. For H-alpha imagery, the equipment used are Lunt 60mm H-alpha solar telescope, and QHYCCD 290III mono camera; all mounted on Skywatcher EQ6 pro mount Pre-processing of visible solar images was performed in PIPP, stacking in Autostakkert, slight wavelet adjustments in Registax 6, and post-processing in Adobe Photoshop CC.

*TECHNICAL REPORTS COURTESY OF SOLAR INFLUENCE DATA CENTER (SIDC), NOAA-SPACE WEATHER PREDICTION CENTER (NOAA-SWPC)

Weather Data (4:30 PM – 5:00 PM, January 2, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 24.6°C

Average Humidity: 33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 21.83 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 1007.9 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 131.0 W/m^2

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Al Sadeem Astronomy is a privately-owned company registered in The Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) that aims to make astronomy accessible to everyone.

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