SUNSPOT MONITORING – MAY 26, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, May 26, 2020.

The sky was partly cloudy with intermittent moderate winds which provided average transparency and seeing at the time these images were taken.

The Sun remained spotless and generally inactive over the past 3 days, extending to its 24th consecutive day. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 0.  H-alpha imagery revealed the Sun exhibiting numerous distinct solar features, including a huge eruptive prominence at the northwestern limb (measured about 125,000 km high), as well as the disintegrating remnant plage of a former active region also at the northwest.

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 (5:20 PM – 5:45 PM, May 26, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 38.8°C

Average Humidity: 30%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 24.7 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 35%

Average Air Pressure: 997.13 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 184 W/m^2

Recent Post