Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, February 18, 2021.
The sky was partly cloudy with intermittent moderate breeze which provided average transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.Â
A new small bipolar sunspot group (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Bxo/beta) has emerged at the Sun’s northwestern quadrant (encircled) and has recently designated AR2802 or SIDC Catania 72. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 12.
Other noteworthy solar features featured were some small quiescent prominences at the limbs, few elongated filaments at the Sun’s southeastern and southwestern quadrants, and tiny enhanced plages associated with AR2802 and another one disintegrating near the NE limb distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at very low levels with chances of solar flares of up to B-class intensity, mainly from AR2802. 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 (4:30 PM – 5:00 PM, February 18, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 32.43°C
Average Humidity: 8.67%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 7.57kph from WSW
Average Cloud Cover: 65%
Average Air Pressure: 1004.167 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 251.0 W/m^2
