SUNSPOT MONITORING – AUGUST 25, 2021

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, August 25, 2021.

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

AR2859 (Hsx/alpha) exhibited further decay of its intermediate and trailer spots, with its leader spot remaining intact. On the other hand, a new bipolar sunspot group emerged at the far SE quadrant and was designated as AR2860 (Cao/beta). Both sunspot groups produced numerous minor B-class and C-class solar flares over the past 24 hours. Some notable eruptions recorded were the plasma ejecta from AR2859 associated with the B8.8 x-ray enhancement and the non-Earth-directed CME associated with a large filament eruption that occurred yesterday. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 29. 

Small enhanced plages associated with AR2859 and AR2860, several short stable filaments across the Sun’s disk, and few tiny quiescent prominences at the NW and SE limbs were the other solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast low solar activity with chances of B-class to C-class solar flares from the upper mentioned sunspot groups in the next few days. 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 25, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 41.47°C

Average Humidity: 24.33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 17.77 kph from N

Average Cloud Cover: 10%

Average Air Pressure: 999.0 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 108.33 W/m^2

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