Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, April 27, 2020.

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

There are two active sunspot groups existing in the Sun today. First is AR2760 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot classification: Bxo/beta) which was seen growing in structure with its sunspots expanded a larger coverage area. Meanwhile, another bipolar sunspot region (undesignated pre-AR2761) has recently emerged past the meridian (encircled). Both sunspot regions were void of any significant flaring activity over the past 24 hours. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 24. Stable plages associated with the upper-mentioned active regions together with few prominence activities, including an eruptive hedgerow prominence at the northeastern limb, were 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 intensity, mainly from these two active 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 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 (5:25 PM – 5:55 PM, April 27, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 38.17°C

Average Humidity: 18%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 17.76 kph from NNE

Average Cloud Cover: 30%

Average Air Pressure: 995.93 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 124.33 W/m^2