Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, December 24, 2017.

The sky was mostly covered with high cirrus clouds with light to moderate air turbulence making the seeing and transparency poor at the time these images were taken.

Generally, very low sunspot activity was observed over the past 24 hours. The lone visible sunspot group AR2692 continues to grow in structure as more spots have emerged but was found to be relatively stable in magnetic configuration (currently beta/bipolar) and inactive with only a single weak X-flux recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 21. Numerous small filaments on this disk and prominences at the limbs were distinctively 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-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)