SUNSPOT MONITORING – DECEMBER 2, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, December 2, 2020.

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

Solar activity was at low levels over the past 24 hours. AR2785 (Hhx/alpha) experienced no change in its unipolar leader spot and was overall stable. Meanwhile, some decay of trailer spots and slight development of tiny intermediate spots were seen in AR2786 (Cko/beta) and produced a weak C-class solar flare as recorded by the NOAA-SWPC and SIDC. AR2790 (Cao/beta) exhibited only a few minor B-class magnetic enhancements while few small spots emerged on its trailer. A non-Earth filament eruption followed by a minor CME was also recorded yesterday morning by space weather agencies within former AR2787.
The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 43. 
Few moderately huge eruptive prominences mostly at the southeastern and southwestern limbs, some on-going magnetic enhancement/solar flaring activities in AR2786 and AR2790, and few elongated filaments mostly within AR2786 and former AR2787 were distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low levels with chances of solar flares from B-class up to C-class intensity, mainly from AR2786 and AR2790. 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 (4:30 PM – 5:00 PM, December 2, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 30.33°C

Average Humidity: 27.67%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 4.7 kph from a northerly direction

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 1005.63 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 86.67 W/m^2

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