SUNSPOT MONITORING – NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, November 18, 2020.

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

The new active region which rotated into Earth-view at the southwestern limb yesterday was designated as AR2783; possessing a relatively simple magnetic configuration (Hsx/alpha). No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 11. The Sun exhibited few huge eruptive and small quiescent prominences at the limbs, as well the well-0defined scattered plages of AR2783 and former AR2782, and a receding mound filament near the northeastern limb, 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 B-class intensity, mainly from AR2783. 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 QHYCCD290III 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, November 18, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 29.03°C

Average Humidity: 48.0%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 17.2 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 1004.4 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 80.33 W/m^2

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