SUNSPOT MONITORING – JUNE 8, 2021

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, June 8, 2021.

The sky was generally clear with moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken. 

Solar activity is at very low levels over the past 24 hours. AR2827 is now behind the NW limb. AR2829 (Dso/beta) exhibited further consolidation, slight growth, and scattering of its entire sunspot structure; increasing its coverage area. The other two newly designated small sunspot groups AR2830 (Cao/beta) and AR2831 (decayed shortly) are also approaching the western limb. A minor isolated C1.4-class solar flare from AR2831 was recorded by space weather agencies this morning. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 43. 

Enhanced plages associated with the upper-mentioned sunspot groups and others near the eastern limb, few short stable filaments mostly at the extreme southern hemisphere, and some small quiescent prominences especially at the opposite (NW and SW) limbs, were the other noteworthy solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast a further decline in solar activity with chances of solar flares of mostly B-class to C-class intensity in the next few days, mainly from AR2829, as the other sunspot regions rotate away from Earth-view. 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 8, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 39.63°C

Average Humidity: 33.33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 25.47 kph from WNW

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 989.67 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 170.67 W/m^2

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