SUNSPOT MONITORING – MAY 29, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, May 29, 2020.

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

The Sun remained spotless over the past 24 hours, extending to its 27th consecutive day. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 0. Space weather agencies reported numerous minor non-Earth directed solar flaring activities (ranging between B-class to M-class intensity) from the far-side active region about to rotate into Earth-view at the northeastern limb (encircled). Its magnetic sunspot configuration is yet to be determined because it is still behind the Sun’s disk but solar scientists speculated that it belongs to Solar Cycle 25 (reverse polarity) due to its high latitude.

Other than that, not much going on significantly with the Sun lately, except for exhibiting a few small quiescent prominences at the limbs, some mound filaments at the far northwestern hemisphere, and the disintegrating remnant plage of a former active region approaching the northwest limb.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain at low levels with low to medium potential of multiple solar flare activities ranging between B-class to C-class (possibly isolated M-class) intensity, mainly from the upper-mentioned active region. Close monitoring is being conducted by numerous space weather agencies for any significant development in the next 2-3 days.

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 (5:25 PM – 5:45 PM, May 29, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature:41.45°C

Average Humidity: 25%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 24.5 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 10%

Average Air Pressure: 991.55 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 181.5 W/m^2

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