SUNSPOT MONITORING – JANUARY 29, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, January 29, 2020.

The sky was mostly clear with intermittent light winds which provided good transparency and seeing at the time these images were taken.

Solar activity remains at very low levels over the past 24 hours. AR2757 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Hsx/alpha) decayed further in structure, leaving only its leader spot over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, the enhanced plage at the far southeastern quadrant did not develop further into an active region as it lost its pores. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 12. Some moderately huge quiescent prominences mostly along the southwestern limb were the other highlight solar features, as distinctively captured 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 (possibly up to C-class) intensity, mainly from AR2757. 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 29, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 23°C

Average Humidity: 31.67%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 4.67 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 5%

Average Air Pressure: 1008.53 hpa

Average Solar Radiation: 205 W/m^2

Average UV Radiation: 0 µW/m^2 (low)

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