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SUNSPOT MONITORING – SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, September 14, 2021.

The sky was partly cloudy with moderate to fresh breeze which provided average to poor transparency and seeing at the time these images were taken.

AR2868 has recently departed from Earth-view; now behind the SW limb (as of capture time). Continuous gradual structural decay was observed in sunspot groups AR2866 (Cao/beta) as it also approaches the SW limb. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 12. Some notable solar activities recorded over the past 24 hours were a C1.0-class flare produced by AR2868 this morning and a possible Earth-direct filament eruption followed by a weak CME which will be closely monitored by space weather agencies regarding its trajectory and potential impacts to Earth in the next few days.

Other solar features observed were disintegrating plages associated with AR2866, and few small quiescent prominences mainly at the NE and NW limbs, as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* expect a further decline in solar activity with the likelihood of flaring activities not exceeding C-class levels in the next few days, mainly from the departing sunspot groups AR2866. 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 (5:00 PM – 5:30 PM, September 14, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 40.06°C

Average Humidity: 29.33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 27.6 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 45%

Average Air Pressure: 998.67 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 135.67 W/m^2

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