Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, March 31, 2020.

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

As it further rotated into Earth-view, we have a clearer view of the small developing active region (yet undesignated, belonging to Solar Cycle 25) at the northeastern quadrant which seems to possess a bipolar magnetic polarity. Its particular magnetic configuration is still under investigation (as per posting date and time).  No major flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 11. Aside from the associated small plage of the developing active region, The Sun also exhibited few huge prominences at the limbs which remained visible as 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 ranging 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 and Lunt H-alpha solar telescope and QHYCCDIII mono camera for H-alpha imagery, mounted on Skywatcher EQ6 Pro. 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 (5:00 PM – 5:20 PM, March 31, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 27.05°C

Average Humidity: 37%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 22.7 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 1003.75 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 271.5 W/m^2