SUNSPOT MONITORING – SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, September 7, 2021.

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

AR2863 (Hsx/alpha) has lost its trailer spots with its huge unipolar leader spot remaining. AR2864 (Eso/beta) and AR2868 (Dso/beta) have both expanded in coverage area due to the scattering of their leader and trailer spots, as well attained slight umbral growth of the leader spot. Despite this, both sunspot groups are relatively inactive. The largest and the most complex among the four AR2866 (Dkc/beta) exhibited further growth of its entire sunspot structure, and produced the most flaring activity by far; produced a C1.1-class solar flare this morning. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 83. 

Other solar features observed were scattered enhanced plages along the trailer section associated with the upper-mentioned sunspot groups and some short stable filaments near the active regions were as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* expect low solar activity to persist with chances of B-class to C-class solar flares 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 (5:00 PM – 5:30 PM, September 7, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 38.28°C

Average Humidity: 41.8%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 19.92 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 30%

Average Air Pressure: 999.4 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 125.6 W/m^2

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