SUNSPOT MONITORING – DECEMBER 22, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, December 22, 2020.

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

AR2794 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Hsx/alpha) exhibited slightly penumbral growth on its lone sunspot but has remained magnetically simple and currently inactive. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 11. 
Other solar features observed were some moderately huge eruptive prominences especially at the NW and SW limbs, small enhanced plages associated with AR2794, and the disintegrating plages from former AR2792 and AR2783 (at the southwestern quadrant); as well as some short mound filaments at the southwestern and northeastern quadrants of the Sun’s disk, as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at very low levels with chances of solar flares of B-class (possibly isolated C-class) intensity, mainly from AR2794. 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 22, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 23.5°C

Average Humidity: 42.33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 18.0 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 1007.37 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 131.0 W/m^2

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