SUNSPOT MONITORING – MAY 26, 2021

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, May 26, 2021.

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

AR2824 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Cso/beta) exhibited some re-development of small spots on its leader and trailer sections. On the other hand, AR2826 (Cri/beta) has been growing rapidly in structure and increasing magnetic complexity. Only weak B-class and C1.0-class solar flares from both visible sunspot groups were recorded by space weather agencies over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, AR2825 has completely decayed into plage. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 41.

Enhanced plages associated with the upper-mentioned sunspot groups, few faint small quiescent prominences at the limbs, and some short stable elongated filaments within AR2824, as well as few mound ones mostly along the extreme southern hemisphere, were the other noteworthy solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low levels with chances of solar flares of mostly B-class to C-class intensity, mainly from AR2824 and AR2826 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 (5:20 PM – 5:40 PM, May 26, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 41.83°C

Average Humidity: 10.0%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 23.97 kph from N

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 992.67 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 209.33 W/m^2

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