SUNSPOT MONITORING – JULY 24, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, July 24, 2020.

The sky was mostly clear but with intermittent moderate breeze (alongside strong upper-level turbulence) which provided good transparency but average to poor seeing at the time these images were taken.

The lone visible sunspot group AR2767 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Hsx/alpha) has experienced minimal to no change in structure; maintaining its relatively simple, stable unipolar spot structure. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 11.  Few small minor prominence activities at the limbs (including a hook-shaped eruptive one at the southwestern limb) and the small enhanced plage beside AR2767 were 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 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. For H-alpha imagery, the equipment used are Lunt 60mm H-alpha solar telescope and QHYCCD290III 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 (5:35 PM – 6:00 PM, July 24, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 41.8°C

Average Humidity: 25%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 10.07 kph from ESE

Average Cloud Cover: 10%

Average Air Pressure: 988.57 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 172 W/m^2

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