The perihelion of PSP Encounter 29 will be occurring on September 4, at 14:53 UT. This will be a deep farside perihelion, close to the extension of the Sun-Earth line. Footpoints will be clustered on the West limb until September 3 and then traverse the entire farside between September 3 — 6. Footpoints will cross the West limb on September 6 and will remain on the disk in near co-rotation with solar features until September 11. Daily updates will be provided on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 1 and 2, respectively, and then on Sunday and Monday, September 6 and 7, respectively.
Daily predictions of projected PSP footpoints spanning the campaign time period:
Go to Target Information Page to access consensus target latitude/longitudes in CSV/PDF data files.
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figures above show one footpoint per day plotted on the solar disk and in Carrington coordinates. (click on figures to zoom and see caption).
TODAY'S TARGET WRITE-UP: Encounter 29 Prediction Update 2/4: 2026/09/02
------------------------------------------------
This is the second of four footpoint predictions issued for Parker Solar Probe Encounter 29, the missions eighth to reach a perihelion distance of 9.86 Rs (which will be reached on Sept 4, 14:53 UT). The perihelion location and most of the encounter will be on the far side of the Sun, however the inbound phase yesterday and today down to 15 Rs will be connected on the west limb, and the outbound phase above 20 solar radii will be connected near the east limb. Therefore predictions are being issued around these two events as a pair yesterday and today (Sept 1 & 2, West limb targets), and then again on Sunday Sept 6 and Monday Sept 7 (East limb targets).
Magnetic Connectivity
---------------------
The faint coronal hole EUV feature from yesterday is still just visible at the west limb, between ARs 14518 amd 14515. We predict that Parker's instantaneous connection to this source will persist until approximately 2026/09/02 1900UTC and as the most recent connection prior to perihelion, may remain an interesting target for observers tomorrow.
After west limb passage, while the footpoints are on the far side, the consensus source remains clear with all footpoints targeting a positive polarity coronal hole which was visible on disk, extending over a broad range of southern latitudes, and was at disk center about 1 week ago.
Looking ahead to East limb passage, the footpoints are also largely converged to a negative polarity near equatorial coronal hole at mid-southern latitudes. This source was seen at disk center on August 16. Predictions suggest the footpoints will co-rotate on disk with this source starting from Sunday (9/6) at 19:00 UT.
Flare Likelihood (CCMC Flare Scoreboard)
----------------------------------------
As of 2026/09/02 at 12:00 UT, CCMC / ISWA Flare Scoreboard reported 24-hour average cumulative probabilities amounting to 82%, 12% and 1% for GOES C and above, M and above and X-class flares, respectively, slightly elevated since yesterday’s update. The strongest flare reported over the past 24 hours was a GOES C5.7 event peaking at 2026/090/01 at 21:10 UT and coming from the eastern limb (N12E88). NOAA active regions visible on the disk continue to include ARs 14515 and 14518 — 14523. Of them, only NOAA ARs 14521 and 14523 are located at eastern longitudes while all the rest are in the western solar hemisphere. Only NOAA ARs 14515, 14520 are located at southern latitudes, with every other active region in the north. There are no major changes in the corona since yesterday, with the reported coronal hole moving closer to the central meridian. Western longitudes where Parker footpoints are projected continue to be covered mostly by closed and active region magnetic fields.
From the CCMC CME Scoreboard, there does not seem to be an active Earth-directed CME at this time.
------------------
*** Please note that the "arrival time" and "emission time" and associated Tx/Ty coordinates for both are reported in the consensus CSV file. The attached plots show the "arrival time" (location of source at time that plasma will arrive at PSP). See Parker Footpoint Predictions - Meaning and Terminology for some discussion on these***.
Realtime information about satellite positions, the Sun, and solar features. See the Max Millenium active region/flare targeting pages for information about solar activity.
Latest AIA 171 Å image (from The Sun Today, hosting current images of the Sun
