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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2014

Investigating Space Weather Events Impacting the Spitzer Space Telescope

Our understanding of the dynamical process in the space environment has increased dramatically. A relatively new field of study called "Space Weather" has emerged in the last few decades. Fundamental to the study of space weather is an understanding of how space weather events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections impact spacecraft in varying orbits and distances around the Sun. Specialized space weather satellite monitoring systems operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) allow scientists to predict space weather events affecting critical systems on and orbiting the Earth. However, the Spitzer Space Telescope is in an orbit far outside the areas covered by those space weather monitoring systems. This poses a challenge for the Spitzer's Mission Operations Team in determining whether space weather events affect Spitzer.

solar flare↗
NASA NTRS2010

A New Tool for Forecasting Solar Drivers of Severe Space Weather

This poster describes a tool that is designed to forecast solar drivers for severe space weather. Since most severe space weather is driven by Solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) - the strongest of these originate in active regions and are driven by the release of coronal free magnetic energy and There is a positive correlation between an active region's free magnetic energy and the likelihood of flare and CME production therefore we can use this positive correlation as the basis of our empirical space weather forecasting tool. The new tool takes a full disk Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) magnetogram, identifies strong magnetic field areas, identifies these with NOAA active regions, and measures a free-magnetic-energy proxy. It uses an empirically derived forecasting function to convert the free-magnetic-energy proxy to an expected event rate. It adds up the expected event rates from all active regions on the disk to forecast the expected rate and probability of each class of events -- X-class flares, X&M class flares, CMEs, fast CMEs, and solar particle events (SPEs).

Adams, J. H.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Factors Affecting the Intensity of Solar Energetic Particle Events

This paper updates the influence of environmental and source factors of shocks driven by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that are likely to influence the solar energetic particle (SEP) events. The intensity variation due to CME interaction reported that is confirmed by expanding the investigation to all the large SEP events of solar cycle 23. The large SEP events are separated into two groups, one associated with CMEs running into other CMEs, and the other with CMEs running into the ambient solar wind. SEP events with CME interaction generally have a higher intensity. New possibilities such as the influence of coronal holes on the SEP intensity are also discussed. For example, the presence of a large coronal hole between a well-connected eruption and the solar disk center may render the shock poorly connected because of the interaction between the CME and the coronal hole. This point is illustrated using the 2004 December 3 SEP event delayed by about 12 hours from the onset of the associated CME. There is no other event at the Sun that can be associated with the SEP onset. This event is consistent with the possibility that the coronal hole interaction influences the connectivity of the CMEs that produce SEPs, and hence the intensity of the SEP event.

Coronal mass ejections↗
NASA NTRS2018

The Probability of False Go/No-Go Determined by GOES Proton Flux: Proposed Launch Constraints for Avoiding Damaging Solar Energetic Particle Events

Most space-bound hardware needs to be designed to withstand space weather events to some degree. Long-term predictability of space weather events, such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections, are still a matter of theory so designers should assume a worst case event for their specific environment. In our analysis, we show preliminary results of the probability of encountering a false/true go/no-go based on a threshold launch and design proton environment. The goal in choosing a threshold launch environment is to avoid the chance of exceeding the design environment during vulnerable parts of the mission. Operationally, this method cannot predict damaging space weather but can aid in avoiding space weather events that are already occurring. The GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) proton flux database is used as a proxy for the heavy ion fluxes, which impart a greater threat because of larger single event upsets and effects. Our use of protons as a proxy for heavy ions is justified on the basis of the correlation between their fluxes shown by a qualitative comparison of GOES proton integral fluxes at greater than 10 megaelectronvolts and ACE/SIS (Advanced Composition Explorer / Solar Isotope Spectrometer) heavy ion integral fluxes.

DeStefano, Anthony M.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Magnetogram Forecast: An All-Clear Space Weather Forecasting System

Solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are the drivers of severe space weather. Forecasting the probability of their occurrence is critical in improving space weather forecasts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) currently uses the McIntosh active region category system, in which each active region on the disk is assigned to one of 60 categories, and uses the historical flare rates of that category to make an initial forecast that can then be adjusted by the NOAA forecaster. Flares and CMEs are caused by the sudden release of energy from the coronal magnetic field by magnetic reconnection. It is believed that the rate of flare and CME occurrence in an active region is correlated with the free energy of an active region. While the free energy cannot be measured directly with present observations, proxies of the free energy can instead be used to characterize the relative free energy of an active region. The Magnetogram Forecast (MAG4) (output is available at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center) was conceived and designed to be a databased, all-clear forecasting system to support the operational goals of NASA's Space Radiation Analysis Group. The MAG4 system automatically downloads nearreal- time line-of-sight Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) magnetograms on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite, identifies active regions on the solar disk, measures a free-energy proxy, and then applies forecasting curves to convert the free-energy proxy into predicted event rates for X-class flares, M- and X-class flares, CMEs, fast CMEs, and solar energetic particle events (SPEs). The forecast curves themselves are derived from a sample of 40,000 magnetograms from 1,300 active region samples, observed by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Michelson Doppler Imager. Figure 1 is an example of MAG4 visual output

Barghouty, Nasser↗
NASA NTRS2004

Neutral Middle Atmospheric Influences by the Extremely Large October 2003 Solar Proton Event

The huge coronal mass ejection (CME) on October 28,2003 caused an extremely large solar proton event (SPE) at the Earth, which impacted the middle atmospheric polar cap regions. The highly energetic protons produce ionizations, excitations, dissociations, and dissociative ionizations of the background constituents, which lead to the production of HOx (H, OH, HO2) and NOy (N, NO, NO2, NO3, N2O5, HNO3, HO2NO2, ClONO2, BrONO2). The total production of middle atmospheric NOy molecules by individual SPEs can be used to compare their sizes. Using this scale, the extremely large October 2003 SPE was the fourth largest in the past 40 years and the second largest of solar cycle 23. Only the October 1989, August 1972, and July 2000 SPEs were larger. The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Two-dimensional (2D) Model was used in computing the influence of this gigantic SPE. The NOy amount was increased by over two orders of magnitude in the mesosphere in both the GSFC 2D Model computations and Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) measurements as a result of this noteworthy SPE. The model also calculated polar middle mesospheric ozone decreases of over 70% during the SPE. Other atmospheric impacts from both model predictions and measurements as a result of this major SPE will be discussed in this paper.

Jackman, C. H.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Solar Cycle Variation of CMEs and CIRs

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and high-speed solar wind streams (HSS) are two solar phenomena that produce large-scale structures in the interplanetary (IP) medium. CMEs evolve into interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs) and the HSS result in corotating interaction regions (CIRs) when they interact with preceding slow solar wind. CMEs and CIRs originate from closed (active region and filament region) and open (corona) hole) magnetic field regions on the Sun, respectively. These two types of mass emissions from the Sun are responsible for the largest effects on the heliosphere, particularly on Earth's space environment. This paper discussed how these structures and their solar sources vary with the solar cycle and the consequent changes in the geospace impact.

Gopalswamy, N.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Impact of Geomagnetic Induced Current Neutral Blocking Devices on Distance Relays in Sub-transmission Networks with IBR

Geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) can flow through transmission lines during geomagnetic disturbances, such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections. These currents can cause problems like transformer saturation and equipment damage. The most common method of mitigating GICs involves installing GIC neutral blocking devices (NBDs) in transformer neutrals. However, the wide application of capacitive GIC blocking devices may have unintended adverse effects on other devices, such as distance protection relays. As the number of inverter-based resources being connected to the transmission and sub-transmission systems increases, the likelihood of a sub-transmission line protected by a distance relay connected to a transformer with NBDs is increasing. Therefore, distance relays fed by IBRs and transmission lines with GIC-NBDs must be studied. This paper studies the effect of GIC-NBDs on a 69kV sub-transmission line of various lengths fed by a 25 MVA IBR and synchronous source. This work focused on the behavior of the GIC-NBDs using the measured apparent phase-to-ground and phase-to-phase impedance calculated by the relay and the source impedance ratio (SIR) during various electrical faults.

Patel, Trupal R [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL↗
NASA NTRS1989

Force-free magnetic fields - Is there a 'loss of equilibrium'?

This paper examines concept in solar physics that is known as loss of equilibrium in which a sequence of force-free magnetic fields, said to represent a possible quasi-static evolution of solar magnetic fields, reaches a critical configuration beyond which no acceptable solution of the prescribed form exists. This concept is used to explain eruptive phenomena ranging from solar flares to coronal mass ejections. Certain sequences of force-free configurations are discussed that exhibit a loss of equilibrium, and it is argued that the concept is devoid of physical significance since each sequence is defined a way that does not represent an acceptable thought experiment. For example, the sequence may be defined in terms of a global constraint on the boundary conditions, or the evolution of the sequence may require the creation of mgnetic flux that is not connected to the photosphere and is not present in the original configuration. The global constraints typically occur in using the so-called generating function method. An acceptance thought experiment is proposed to specify the field configuration in terms of photospheric boundary conditions comprising the normal component of the field and the field-line connectivity. Consider a magnetic-field sequence that, when described in terms of a generating function, exhibits a loss of equilibrium and show that, when one instead defines the sequence in terms of the corresponding boundary conditions, the sequence is well behaved.

Klimchuk, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS2000

X-Ray, EUV, UV and Optical Emissivities of Astrophysical Plasmas

This grant primarily covered the development of the thermal X-ray emission model code called APEC, which is meant to replace the Raymond and Smith (1977) code. The new code contains far more spectral lines and a great deal of updated atomic data. The code is now available (http://hea-www.harvard.edu/APEC), though new atomic data is still being added, particularly at longer wavelengths. While initial development of the code was funded by this grant, current work is carried on by N. Brickhouse, R. Smith and D. Liedahl under separate funding. Over the last five years, the grant has provided salary support for N. Brickhouse, R. Smith, a summer student (L. McAllister), an SAO predoctoral fellow (A. Vasquez), and visits by T. Kallman, D. Liedahl, P. Ghavamian, J.M. Laming, J. Li, P. Okeke, and M. Martos. In addition to the code development, the grant supported investigations into X-ray and UV spectral diagnostics as applied to shock waves in the ISM, accreting black holes and white dwarfs, and stellar coronae. Many of these efforts are continuing. Closely related work on the shock waves and coronal mass ejections in the solar corona has grown out of the efforts supported by the grant.

Raymond, John C.↗
NASA NTRS2007

A Scanning Hartmann Focus Test for the EUVI Telescopes aboard STEREO

The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO), the third mission in NASA s Solar Terrestrial Probes program, was launched in 2006 on a two year mission to study solar phenomena like coronal mass ejections. STEREO consists of two nearly identical satellites, each carrying a suite of instruments that provide, among other data, simultaneous images of the Sun. One of these telescopes is the Extreme Ultraviolet Instrument (EUVI). There are two EUVI telescopes, one on each STEREO satellite (EUVI-A and EUVI-B). EUVI is a normal incidence, 98mm diameter, Ritchey-Chretien telescope designed to obtain wide field of view (approx.1deg) images of the Sun at short wavelengths (approx.20nm) using a CCD detector. The telescope entrance aperture is divided into four quadrants by a mask near the secondary mirror spider veins. A mechanism that rotates another mask allows only one of these sub-apertures to accept light from the Sun during an observation. The EUVI is thus four co-aligned, off-axis telescopes. Each off-axis segment on the primary and secondary mirrors has a different extreme ultraviolet coating stack. Furthermore, the aperture select mechanism is synchronized with a filter wheel mechanism near the CCD detector. The EUVI contains no focus mechanism. Models predict that the difference in on-orbit operating temperature and ambient clean room conditions yield a "best focus" difference between integration and operation of approx. 0.2mm.

Ohl, R.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Cross-Scale Coupling in the Solar Atmosphere

For understanding and eventually predicting solar activity, the fundamental question that Solar-C must answer is: How does energy transfer from the large-scales at which it is injected into the solar atmosphere to the small scales at which it is dissipated? We show that this question of cross-scale coupling is fundamental to all activity, ranging from the smallest nanoflares that are postulated to power coronal heating and solar wind acceleration, to the largest coronal mass ejections and eruptive flares. For the solar atmosphere, the most important process that actually dissipates the energy is believed to be magnetic reconnection. We present results on recent calculations of reconnection in a variety of solar contexts and focus on the coupling between kinetic and MHD scales during reconnection. We discuss the implications of our results for present data and for future observations from Solar-C.

Antiochos, Spiro K.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Prompt Acceleration of Magnetospheric Electrons to Ultrarelativistic Energies by the 17 March 2015 Interplanetary Shock

Trapped electrons in Earth's outer Van Allen radiation belt are influenced profoundly by solar phenomena such as high-speed solar wind streams, coronal mass ejections (CME), and interplanetary (IP) shocks. In particular, strong IP shocks compress the magnetosphere suddenly and result in rapid energization of electrons within minutes. It is believed that the electric fields induced by the rapid change in the geomagnetic field are responsible for the energization. During the latter part of March 2015, a CME impact led to the most powerful geomagnetic storm (minimum Dst = −223 nT at 17 March, 23 UT) observed not only during the Van Allen Probe era but also the entire preceding decade. Magnetospheric response in the outer radiation belt eventually resulted in elevated levels of energized electrons. The CME itself was preceded by a strong IP shock whose immediate effects vis-a-vis electron energization were observed by sensors on board the Van Allen Probes. The comprehensive and high-quality data from the Van Allen Probes enable the determination of the location of the electron injection, timescales, and spectral aspects of the energized electrons. The observations clearly show that ultrarelativistic electrons with energies E greater than 6 MeV were injected deep into the magnetosphere at L approximately equals 3 within about 2 min of the shock impact. However, electrons in the energy range of approximately equals 250 keV to approximately equals 900 keV showed no immediate response to the IP shock. Electric and magnetic fields resulting from the shock-driven compression complete the comprehensive set of observations that provide a full description of the near-instantaneous electron energization.

radiation belts↗
NASA NTRS2016

Thermodynamic Spectrum of Solar Flares Based on SDO/EVE Observations: Techniques and First Results

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)/EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) provides rich information on the thermodynamic processes of solar activities, particularly on solar flares. Here, we develop a method to construct thermodynamic spectrum (TDS) charts based on the EVE spectral lines. This tool could potentially be useful for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) astronomy to learn about the eruptive activities on distant astronomical objects. Through several cases, we illustrate what we can learn from the TDS charts. Furthermore, we apply the TDS method to 74 flares equal to or greater than the M5.0 class, and reach the following statistical results. First, EUV peaks are always behind the soft X-ray (SXR) peaks and stronger flares tend to have faster cooling rates. There is a power-law correlation between the peak delay times and the cooling rates, suggesting a coherent cooling process of flares from SXR to EUV emissions. Second, there are two distinct temperature drift patterns, called Type I and Type II. For Type I flares, the enhanced emission drifts from high to low temperature like a quadrilateral, whereas for Type II flares the drift pattern looks like a triangle. Statistical analysis suggests that Type II flares are more impulsive than Type I flares. Third, for late-phase flares, the peak intensity ratio of the late phase to the main phase is roughly correlated with the flare class, and the flares with a strong late phase are all confined. We believe that the re-deposition of the energy carried by a flux rope, which unsuccessfully erupts out, into thermal emissions is responsible for the strong late phase found in a confined flare. Furthermore, we show the signatures of the flare thermodynamic process in the chromosphere and transition region in the TDS charts. These results provide new clues to advance our understanding of the thermodynamic processes of solar flares and associated solar eruptions, e.g., coronal mass ejections.

Wang, Yuming↗
NASA NTRS2019

Onset of the Magnetic Explosion in On-Disk Solar Coronal Jets

In our recent studies of ~10 quiet region and ~13 coronal hole coronal jets, we found that flux cancelation is the fundamental process in the buildup and triggering of the minifilament eruption that drives the production of the jet. Here, we investigate the onset and growth of the ten on-disk quiet region jets, using EUV images (304, 171, 193, and 94 Å) from SDO/AIA and magnetograms from SDO/HMI. We find that: (i) in all ten events the minifilament starts to rise at or before the onset of the signature of internal or external reconnection; (ii) in two out of ten jets brightening from the external reconnection starts at the same time as the slow rise of the minifilament and (iii) in six out of ten jets brightening from the internal reconnection starts before the start of the brightening from external reconnection. These observations show that the magnetic explosion in coronal jets begins in the same way as the magnetic explosion in filament eruptions that make solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Our results indicate (1) that coronal jets are miniature versions of CME-producing eruptions and flux cancelation is the fundamental process that builds and triggers both the small-scale and the large-scale eruptions, and (2) that, contrary to the view of Moore et al (2018), the current sheet at which the external reconnection occurs in coronal jets usually starts to form at or after the onset of (and as a result of) the slow rise of the minifilament flux-rope eruption, and so is seldom of appreciable size before the onset of the slow rise of the minifilament flux-rope eruption.

Panesar, Navdeep K.↗
NASA NTRS2021

CME Magnetic Structure and IMF Preconditioning Affecting SEP Transport

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar energetic particles (SEPs) are two manifestations of the various solar phenomena that are known to cause severe space weather effects throughout the heliosphere. The evolution of CMEs after eruption, especially in terms of their magnetic structure, and the configuration of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) that influences the transport of SEPs are currently areas of active research. These two aspects are not necessarily independent of each other, especially during solar maximum when multiple eruptive events can occur close in time. Accordingly, we present in this work theanalysis of a CME that erupted from the Sun on 2012 May 11 (SOL2012-05-11) and an SEP event following an eruption that took place on 2012 May 17 (SOL2012-05-17),∼20◦in both latitude and longitude away from the May 11 CME source region. After observing in detailthe eruption and early evolution of the May 11 CME using remote-sensing data from three viewpoints, we evaluate its propagation through interplanetary space using several models.Then, we analyse in-situ measurements from five predicted impact locations (Venus, Earth, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Mars Science Laboratory en route to Mars, and Mars) in the inner heliosphere in order to search for CME signatures. We find that all five in-situlocations detect signatures of an impulsive SEP event, which we trace back to the May 17 eruption. These findings suggest that the May 11 CME, which was crossing the various locations around the time of the May 17 eruption, provided a direct magnetic connectivityfor the efficient transport of SEPs with an impulsive profile. We discuss the space weather implications of CME evolution, regarding in particular its magnetic structure, and CME-driven IMF preconditioning that facilitates SEP transport from a later event. Finally, this work remarks the importance of the availability of data from multiple spacecraft, even those that do not include space weather research as their primary objective.

Erika Palmerio↗
NASA NTRS2022

Analysis of Solar Wind Damage in Genesis Sapphire Sample 61527

The Genesis mission collected samples of the solar wind (SW) by passive implantation into a variety of semiconductor (and other) materials and re-turned them to Earth in 2004. Subsets of these col-lector materials were exposed to either bulk solar wind, high-speed (coronal hole) solar wind, low speed (inter-stream) solar wind, or coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Although of short duration relative to naturally space-weathered materials, these exposures to SW caused structural damage (and related chemical changes) in silicon. Here we explore the structural consequences of bulk SW collection into Genesis single crystal sapphire.

L P Keller↗