SUNSPOT MONITORING – JULY 29, 2020

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

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

Having rotated further into Earth-view, AR2768 was found to exhibit a relatively simple unipolar structure (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Axx/alpha) with remnant faculae at its trailer. Meanwhile, the other sunspot group AR2767 (Hsx/alpha) experienced minimal to no change in its unipolar sunspot structure. Meanwhile, the other sunspot group recently designated as AR2768 has appeared into Earth-view from the northeastern limb. Both sunspot groups are stable and inactive with no significant flaring activity recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 22. Several non-Earth directed huge eruptive prominence activities at the limbs, alongside the tiny enhanced plages near AR2767 and AR2768 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 29, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 41.97°C

Average Humidity: 24%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 22.9 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 5%

Average Air Pressure: 988.43 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 164.67 W/m^2

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