Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, July 6, 2021.
The sky was partly cloudy (from an approaching dissipating thunderstorm cloud) with light breeze which provided good seeing but average transparency at the time these images were taken.
The large sunspot group AR2835 (Cko/beta) exhibited minuscule to no change in its leader spot structure while approaching the southwestern limb and has produced mostly weak B-class and C-class solar flares; together with the former AR2836. Meanwhile, AR2839 (Cao/beta) experienced some consolidation of its intermediate spots and expanded slightly in coverage area. On the other hand, some new tiny trailer sunspot development was observed in AR2837 (Bxo/beta). Both AR2837 and AR2839 were quiet and did not produce any significant flaring activities throughout the monitoring period. Additionally, two new small active regions were seen developing first NE of AR2837 (encountered some decay and re-development) and the other is at the Sun’s meridian (encircled; undesignated at this point). The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 47.
Other noteworthy solar features observed were enhanced plages associated with the upper-mentioned sunspot groups, as well as some short quiescent mound filaments mainly at the SW quadrant, and mostly tiny quiescent prominences at the limbs with the exception of a huge eruptive prominence at the NNE limb as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low levels with chances of solar flares of mostly B-class to C-class intensity, mainly from the upper mentioned sunspot groups in the next few days. 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 (5:30 PM – 6:00 PM, July 6, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 44.5°C
Average Humidity:14.33%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 5.9 kph from various directions
Average Cloud Cover: 40%
Average Air Pressure: 988.0 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 177.0 W/m^2
