Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, April 2, 2020.
The sky was hazy with intermittent light to moderate winds which provided average transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
AR2759 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot magnetic configuration: Hrx/alpha) had some minor structure development, particularly obtaining a primitive penumbra and developed a few more small spots on its leader. No major flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 13. The Sun also exhibited some huge eruptive prominences at the opposite (northwestern & southeastern) limbs as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain at low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares ranging up to B-class (possibly up to C-class) intensity, mainly from AR2759. 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 and Lunt H-alpha solar telescope and QHYCCDIII mono camera for H-alpha imagery, mounted on Skywatcher EQ6 Pro. 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 – 5:25 PM, April 2, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 33.6°C
Average Humidity: 15.67%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 10.43 kph from NNW
Average Cloud Cover: 0% (100% haze)
Average Air Pressure: 1000.367 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 163 W/m^2
