SUNSPOT MONITORING – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, September 1, 2021.

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

Solar activity has been at low levels over the past 24 hours. Slight shrinkage and gradual decay of trailer spots were observed in the huge sunspot group AR2860 (Dai/beta) but continue to produce more minor C-class solar flares, as it approached the SW limb. Meanwhile, the other visible sunspot group AR2859 (Axx/alpha) remained relatively stable and inactive. In addition, 3 enhanced regions were seen emerging out of the Sun’s disk (encircled/currently unnumbered) which will be closely monitored for any development. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 34. 

Small enhanced plages associated with the upper mentioned sunspot groups, few short filaments across the Sun’s disk, and several moderately huge eruptive prominences, especially the ones at the SW and NW limbs were the other solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* expect low solar activity to persist (and declining) with chances of B-class to C-class solar flares mainly from AR2860 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 (5:30 PM – 6:00 PM, September 1, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 42.73°C

Average Humidity: 12.33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 5.63 kph from NNE

Average Cloud Cover: 5%

Average Air Pressure: 1001.0 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 103.33 W/m^2

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