SUNSPOT MONITORING – NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, November 23, 2020.

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

There are 4 active regions that currently exist in the Sun at this moment.

AR2783 has developed more trailer spots and became bipolar in magnetic structure (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Csi/beta). On the other hand, AR2784 (Bxo/beta) experienced significant decay in its structure. Both sunspot groups were relatively inactive.

Furthermore, the other two sunspot groups AR2785 and AR2786 have recently rotated into Earth-view from the southeastern limb; exhibiting also a relatively simple magnetic configuration (Hsx/alpha) but both obtaining a huge leader spot. Space weather agencies recorded few minor C-class activities associated with these sunspot groups over the past 48 hours.

The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 51. The Sun exhibited few quiescent and moderately huge eruptive prominences at the opposite (northwestern and southeastern) limbs, as well as the well-defined enhanced plages of the upper-mentioned active regions as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast gradual increase in solar activity with chances of solar flares of B-class to C-class (possibly up to isolated M-class) intensity, mainly from the upper-mentioned sunspot groups. 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 23, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 26.8°C

Average Humidity: 49.33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 21.57 kph from NW

Average Cloud Cover: 10%

Average Air Pressure: 1004.9 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 87.0 W/m^2

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