SUNSPOT MONITORING – AUGUST 27, 2021

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, August 27, 2021.

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

Solar activity has been gradually increasing over the past 2 days. AR2859 (Cso/beta) re-developed a couple more small spots in its intermediate and trailer sections with slight growth of its leader spot. On the other hand, AR2860 (Dki/beta-gamma) exhibited further rapid growth in sunspot size and attained a more complex magnetic complexity. AR2861 (Bxo/beta) is in a state of decay and remained magnetically stable. Another small bipolar sunspot group has quickly emerged near the SE limb, recently designated as AR2862 (Bxo/beta). The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 61. 

Several minor B-class and C-class solar flares were produced from sunspot groups AR2859, AR2860, and AR2861 over the past 24 hours; with notable ones such as a C3.0-class flare from AR2859, and C3.98-class flare from AR2860.

Small enhanced plages associated with the upper mentioned sunspot groups, several short filaments across the Sun’s disk, and few tiny quiescent prominences at the NW, SW, 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 27, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 41.0°C

Average Humidity: 28.33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 27.23 kph from N

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 996.0 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 101.0 W/m^2

 

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