Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, March 22, 2021.
The sky was mostly clear with intermittent moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
AR2810 has completely disintegrated into plage over the past 48 hours. Meanwhile, two new sunspot groups have rotated into Earth-view from the NE limb and have been designated as AR2811 (Bxo/beta) and AR2812 (Axx/alpha). The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 23. Few weak B-class solar flares from both former AR2810 and AR2811 were recorded by SIDC and NOAA-SWPC over the past 48 hours.
Other solar features observed were mostly small faint quiescent prominences at the limbs and the small enhanced plages associated with former AR2810, AR2811, and AR2812, as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at very low levels with chances of solar flares of up to B-class intensity mainly from the upper-mentioned sunspot groups. 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 (4:30 PM – 5:00 PM, March 22, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 32.17°C
Average Humidity: 16.0%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 20.0 kph from WNW
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 1001.267 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 330.33 W/m^2
