SUNSPOT MONITORING – OCTOBER 27, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, October 27, 2020.

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

AR2778 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Dai/beta) has further developed and expanded its structure (about 100,000 km across) and it produced some minor B-class to C-class solar flares over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, two other tiny magnetic (pore) regions were seen emerging at the Sun’s opposite hemisphere (encircled, unnumbered) which will be closely monitored on its development in the next 24 hours. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 27. The elongated filament seen at the central meridian section of the Sun’s northern hemisphere yesterday has erupted, as reported by the SIDC early on this day. Other noteworthy solar features observed were mostly small quiescent prominences together with enhanced plages associated with AR2778, and the other two emerging potential sunspot regions mentioned above as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low levels with chances of B-class to C-class solar flare intensity, mainly from AR2778. 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, October 27, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 32.67°C

Average Humidity: 13%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 6.83 kph from generally northerly direction

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 1002.63 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 134.67 W/m^2

 

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