SUNSPOT MONITORING – AUGUST 31, 2021

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, August 31, 2021.

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

Solar activity has been at low levels over the past 24 hours. The largest sunspot group AR2860 (Ekc/beta-gamma) exhibited slight growth and consolidation of its leader and intermediate spots and continue to produce occasional minor C-class solar flares. Meanwhile, the other visible sunspot group AR2859 (Axx/alpha) remained relatively stable and inactive. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 32. 

Small enhanced plages associated with the upper mentioned sunspot groups, few short filaments across the Sun’s disk, and several moderately huge eruptive prominences mostly at the NW, SE, and NE limbs were the other solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast low solar activity to persist with chances of B-class to C-class solar flares mainly from AR2860 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 31, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 41.1°C

Average Humidity: 19.67%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 20.27 kph from N

Average Cloud Cover: 10%

Average Air Pressure: 1000.33 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 100.0 W/m^2

 

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