SUNSPOT MONITORING – DECEMBER 23, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, December 23, 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 umbral growth on its lone sunspot but has remained magnetically simple and currently inactive. Meanwhile, a new bipolar sunspot group has recently emerged from the southeastern limb and was designated as AR2785. Its observed magnetic sunspot configuration is yet to be determined precisely due to its proximity from the SE limb. Some B-class enhancements from this sunspot group were recorded by the SIDC. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 27. 
Other solar features observed were some moderately huge eruptive prominences especially at the opposite (NE and SW) limbs, small scattered enhanced plages associated with AR2794, and the disintegrating plages from former AR2792 and AR2783 (at the southwestern quadrant), some magnetic enhancements in AR2785, as well as some short stable filaments in the far northern and southern sections 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 and AR2785. 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 23, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 24.2°C

Average Humidity: 36.67%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 17.43 kph from WNW

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 1005.43 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 116.67 W/m^2

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