SUNSPOT MONITORING – APRIL 21, 2019

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, April 21, 2019.

The sky was mostly clear with intermittent light to moderate winds which provided average seeing and transparency at the time these images were taken.

The lone visible sunspot group AR2739 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Bxo/alpha) continues on its gradual structure decay and it was generally quiet as it nears the western limb. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 11. Few prominences activity, including a huge eruptive one at the northeastern limb, and tiny filaments across the Sun’s disk including the one associated with AR2739 were distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain at very low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares ranging 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 and Lunt H-alpha solar telescope and ZWO120MM CMOS 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 (8:45 AM – 9:10 AM, April 21, 2019):

Average Temperature: 33.5°C

Average Humidity: 22%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 25 kph from variable directions

Average Cloud Cover: 10%

Average Air Pressure: 997.45 hpa

Average Solar Radiation: 725.61 W/m^2

Average UV Radiation: 1400 µW/m^2 (low)

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