SUNSPOT MONITORING – JUNE 11, 2021

No sunspot monitoring post was issued yesterday, June 10, 2021, due to indecent seeing conditions (moderate to fresh breeze, blowing dust) which prevented us to acquire clear solar images.

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, June 11, 2021.

The sky was partly cloudy with moderate breeze (from a dissipating thunderstorm cloud with strong upper-level winds) which provided average to poor transparency and seeing at the time these images were taken. 

Solar activity was at very low levels over the past 24 hours. Both AR2829 (Axx/alpha) and AR2832 (Bxo/beta) exhibited further decay of their respective sunspot structures. Only a minor B-class solar enhancement from AR2832 was recorded by space weather agencies throughout the monitoring period. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 23. 

Enhanced plages associated with the upper-mentioned sunspot groups and another undeveloped region near the SE limb, few short stable filaments across the Sun’s disk, and some eruptive prominences at the opposite (NW and SE) limbs, were the other noteworthy solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain at very low levels with chances of solar flares of mostly B-class to possibly isolated C-class intensity 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, June 11, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 36.7°C

Average Humidity: 36.33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 20.73 kph from WNW

Average Cloud Cover: 50%

Average Air Pressure: 987.33 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 196.0 W/m^2

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