SUNSPOT MONITORING – AUGUST 16, 2021

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, August 16, 2021.

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

Solar activity has been at low levels over the past 28 hours. AR2856 further decayed into plage as well while rotating out of Earth-view (now behind the NW limb). The other regions AR2853 and AR2855 visible previously have decayed into plages. On the other hand, the lone visible sunspot group AR2857 (Dao/beta) grew further in spot size and slightly expanded in coverage area but was inactive. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 13. 

Other solar features observed were mostly some huge eruptive prominences at NE and SE limbs, and enhanced plages of AR2857 as well as the remnant of former sunspot groups AR2853, AR2855, and AR2856 were distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast very low solar activity of only B-class solar flares in the next few days, mainly from the upper-mentioned sunspot groups. 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 (5:30 PM – 6:00 PM, August 16, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 40.8°C

Average Humidity: 48.0%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 24.33 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 5%

Average Air Pressure: 997.0 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 130.0 W/m^2

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