Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, April 19, 2021.
The sky was mostly clear with intermittent light to moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
Solar activity has been gradually picking up more from this past week up to the present. Both AR2814 and AR2815 have completely disintegrated while approaching the SW limb.
Meanwhile, AR2816 (Cao/beta) exhibited further spot growth and consolidation, especially at its intermediate and trailer sections. Additionally, a bipolar sunspot region recently designated as AR2817 (Bxo/beta) has emerged near the NW limb and quickly grew in structure over the past 24 hours. Several minor B-class solar enhancements from AR2816 while AR2817 has been dormant. Another unipolar sunspot region (pre-AR2818) is about to rotate into Earth-view from the SE limb. This was the source of a previous non-Earth directed B9.0-class flare and weak CME recorded yesterday, April 18, by both SIDC and NOAA-SWPC. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 38.
Other noteworthy solar features observed were the enhanced plages associated with the upper mentioned sunspot groups, some scattered mound filaments at the extreme northern and southeastern-most sections of the Sun’s disk, and few small quiescent and moderately huge eruptive prominences mainly at the limbs, as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low levels with chances of solar flares of up to B-class (possibly up to isolated C-class) intensity, mainly from the upper-mentioned active sunspot regions. 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 (5:00 PM – 5:30 PM, April 19, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 32.83°C
Average Humidity: 15.67%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 20.17 kph from NNW
Average Cloud Cover: 5%
Average Air Pressure: 999.87 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 234.33 W/m^2
