SUNSPOT MONITORING – DECEMBER 24, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, December 24, 2020.

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

Solar activity has remained at very low levels over the past 24 hours. AR2794 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Hsx/alpha) exhibited very little to no change in its huge unipolar structure and it is currently inactive. On the other hand, AR2785 (Cao/beta) underwent some consolidation on its trailer spots and few B-class enhancements were recorded by the NOAA-SWPC. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 25. 
Other solar features observed were a huge eruptive prominence at the SW limb, small scattered enhanced plages associated with AR2794 and AR2795, and the disintegrating plages from former AR2792 and AR2783 (approaching the SW limb), 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 24, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 24.57°C

Average Humidity: 33.33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 8.87 kph from NW

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 1003.87 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 116.67 W/m^2

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