SUNSPOT MONITORING – DECEMBER 7, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, December 7, 2020.

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

Solar activity was at very low levels over the past 24 hours. AR2790 (Hsx/alpha) and AR2791 (Axx/alpha) exhibited decay on its sunspot structures, particularly on its intermediate and trailer spots and shrinkage of leader spotsA minor C1.6 solar flare from AR2790 was recorded by the NOAA-SWPC and SIDC  yesterday, December 6, 2020. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 22.
Other noteworthy solar features observed were few quiescent and moderately huge eruptive prominences mostly at the opposite  (northeastern and southwestern) limbs, some weak magnetic enhancements in AR2790 and AR2791 and few shallow mound filaments across the solar surface, mostly at the southern hemisphere, as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at very low levels with chances of solar flares from B-class up to C-class intensity, mainly from 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 7, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 25.5°C

Average Humidity: 48.67%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 19.1 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 5%

Average Air Pressure: 1006.93 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 75.67 W/m^2

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