Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, January 20, 2020.

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

Solar activity remains at very low levels over the past 24 hours. No sunspot groups were visible at the Sun indicating its relatively quiet state. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 0. H-alpha imagery reveals a small enhanced plage at the position N22E30 of the Sun’s disk which is being monitored for potential pore development and was the source of a minor B1 flare as recorded by the SIDC and NOAA-SWPC. Several small quiescent prominence activities at the limbs were also existent in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain at very low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares ranging up to B-class intensity. 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 and Lunt H-alpha solar telescope and QHYCCDIII mono camera for H-alpha imagery, mounted on Skywatcher EQ6 Pro. 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 (4:35 PM – 4:55 PM, January 18, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 25°C

Average Humidity: 35.5%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 23.05 kph from WNW

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 1006.2 hpa

Average Solar Radiation: 179 W/m^2

Average UV Radiation: 0 µW/m^2 (low)