Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, December 13, 2017.

The sky was mostly clear with some light to moderate air turbulence making the seeing and transparency average at the time these images were taken.

Solar activity remains at very low levels over the past 24 hours. The lone visible sunspot group AR2691 has decayed further in structure; almost invisible in white-light imagery. Being tiny and relatively stable in magnetic configuration, it did not produce any solar flares throughout the period. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 10. Several impressive eruptive prominences at the limbs and a large filament at the eastern limb were clearly captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain at very low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares ranging up to B or C-class intensity. The extent of the frequency and intensity of the Sun’s activity will highly depend on the magnetic flux fluctuations happening in the visible ARs in the coming days. Close monitoring is being conducted by numerous space weather agencies for any significant development.

*Technical reports courtesy of Solar Influence Data Center (SIDC), NOAA-Space Weather Prediction Center (NOAA-SWPC)