SUNSPOT MONITORING – DECEMBER 9, 2020

Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, December 9, 2020.

The sky was partly cloudy with intermittent moderate breeze which provided average transparency and seeing at the time these images were taken.

Solar activity was at very low levels over the past 24 hours. AR2790 (Hsx/alpha) experienced minuscule to no change on its leader spot and was generally stable. On the other hand, AR2791 (Axx/alpha) has decayed into plage. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 12. The effects of the December 7 C-class flare and CME from AR2790 to geomagnetic activity are expected to occur starting from Dec. 10, causing minor to strong geomagnetic disturbances and aurora activities at the polar regions, based on recent space weather analyses from SIDC and NOAA-SWPC.
Other noteworthy solar features observed were several moderately huge eruptive prominences mostly at the northeastern, southeastern, and southwestern), small enhanced plages from AR2790 and former AR2791, and short elongated eruptive filaments, across the solar disk, 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 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 9, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 23.9°C

Average Humidity: 46.33%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 18.6 kph from WNW

Average Cloud Cover: 65%

Average Air Pressure: 1005.77 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 114.0 W/m^2

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