Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, February 27, 2021.
The sky was mostly clear with intermittent moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.Â
Continuous decay in its respective sunspot structures was evident in both AR2804 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Dso/beta) which is approaching the NW limb, and AR2805 (already disintegrated into an enhanced plage). Solar flare activities have reduced throughout the monitoring period, not exceeding weak B-class and all are non-geoeffective. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 16.
Other noteworthy solar features featured were mostly moderately huge eruptive prominences particularly at the NW, SW and SE limbs, short stable filaments mostly near former AR2805, and the enhanced plages associated with the upper-mentioned active regions and former AR2803, as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low levels with chances of solar flares of up to B-class intensity, mainly from AR2804. 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 (4:40 PM – 5:10 PM, February 27, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 22.93°C
Average Humidity: 44.33%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 19.9 kph from NNW
Average Cloud Cover: 5%
Average Air Pressure: 1004.87 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 250.0 W/m^2
