SUNSPOT MONITORING – DECEMBER 4, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, December 4, 2020.

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

Solar activity was at low levels over the past 24 hours. AR2785 (Hhx/alpha) is about to depart from Earth-view, approaching the southwestern limb. On the other hand, minuscule structural change was observed in unipolar sunspot groups AR2786 (Hax/alpha). Additionalyslight intermediate spot disintegration in AR2790 (Cao/beta), though it produced a minor C1.4 solar flare over the past 24 hours as recorded by the NOAA-SWPC and SIDC.  Meanwhile, some tiny pores were seen emerging from a small enhanced plage which recently rotated into Earth-view from the southeastern limb (encircled).
The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 38.
Other noteworthy solar features observed were several small quiescent and few moderately huge prominences mostly at the limbs, some weak magnetic enhancement/solar flaring activities in AR2786, AR2790, and few stable elongated filaments across the solar surface, mostly within AR2786 and former AR2787, as 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 4, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 28.03°C

Average Humidity: 53.33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 21.83 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 1004.2 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 101.33 W/m^2

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