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At least 1,063 records · Page 59
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

EFFECTS OF THE NON-RADIAL MAGNETIC FIELD ON MEASURING MAGNETIC HELICITY TRANSPORT ACROSS THE SOLAR PHOTOSPHERE

It is generally believed that the evolution of magnetic helicity has a close relationship with solar activity. Before the launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), earlier studies had mostly used Michelson Doppler Imager/SOHO line of sight (LOS) magnetograms and assumed that magnetic fields are radial when calculating the magnetic helicity injection rate from photospheric magnetograms. However, this assumption is not necessarily true. Here we use the vector magnetograms and LOS magnetograms, both taken by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on SDO, to estimate the effects of the non-radial magnetic field on measuring the magnetic helicity injection rate. We find that: (1) the effect of the non-radial magnetic field on estimating tangential velocity is relatively small; (2) when estimating the magnetic helicity injection rate, the effect of the non-radial magnetic field is strong when active regions are observed near the limb and is relatively weak when active regions are close to disk center; and (3) the effect of the non-radial magnetic field becomes minor if the amount of accumulated magnetic helicity is the only concern.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

NEON INSIGHTS FROM OLD SOLAR X-RAYS: A PLASMA TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE OF THE CORONAL NEON CONTENT

An analysis using modern atomic data of fluxes culled from the literature for O VIII and Ne IX lines observed in solar active regions by the P78 and Solar Maximum Mission satellites confirms that the coronal Ne/O abundance ratio varies by a factor of two or more, and finds an increase in Ne/O with increasing active region plasma temperature. The latter is reminiscent of evidence for increasing Ne/O with stellar activity in low-activity coronae that reaches a 'neon saturation' in moderately active stars at approximately twice the historically accepted solar value of about 0.15 by number. We argue that neon saturation represents the underlying stellar photospheric compositions, and that low-activity coronae, including that of the Sun, are generally depleted in neon. The implication would be that the solar Ne/O abundance ratio should be revised upward by a factor of about two to n(Ne)/n(O) {approx} 0.3. Diverse observations of neon in the local cosmos provide some support for such a revision. Neon would still be of some relevance for reconciling helioseismology with solar models computed using recently advocated chemical mixtures with lower metal content.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2010

SEISMIC AND DYNAMICAL SOLAR MODELS. I. THE IMPACT OF THE SOLAR ROTATION HISTORY ON NEUTRINOS AND SEISMIC INDICATORS

Solar activity and helioseismology show the limitation of the standard solar model and call for the inclusion of dynamical processes in both convective and radiative zones. In this paper, we concentrate on the radiative zone. We first recall the sensitivity of boron neutrinos to the microscopic physics included in solar standard and seismic models. We confront the neutrino predictions of the seismic model with all the detected neutrino fluxes. Then, we compute new models of the Sun including a detailed transport of angular momentum and chemicals due to internal rotation that includes meridional circulation and shear-induced turbulence. We use two stellar evolution codes: CESAM and STAREVOL to estimate the different terms. We follow three temporal evolutions of the internal rotation which differ by their initial conditions: very slow, moderate, and fast rotation, with magnetic braking at the arrival on the main sequence for the last two. We find that the meridional velocities in the present solar radiative zone are extremely small in comparison with those of the convective zone (smaller than 10{sup -6} cm s{sup -1} instead of m s{sup -1}). All models lead to a radial differential rotation profile in the radiative zone but with a significantly different contrast. We compare these profiles to the presumed solar internal rotation and show that if meridional circulation and shear turbulence were the only mechanisms transporting angular momentum within the Sun, a rather slow rotation in the young Sun is favored. We confirm the small influence of the transport by rotation on the sound speed profile but its potential impact on the chemicals in the transition region between radiation and convective zones. These models are physically more representative of the real Sun than the standard or seismic solar models but a high initial rotation, as has been considered previously, increases the disagreement with neutrinos and the sound speed in the radiative zone. This present work pushes us to pursue the inclusion of the other dynamical processes to better reproduce the observed solar profile in the whole radiative zone and to better describe the young active Sun. We also need to get a better knowledge of solar gravity mode splittings to use their constraints.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1989

Lower thermosphere (80-100 km) dynamics response to solar and geomagnetic activity: Overview

The variations of solar and geomagnetic activity may affect the thermosphere circulation via plasma heating and electric fields, especially at high latitudes. The possibility exists that the energy involved in auroral and magnetic storms can produce significant changes of mesosphere and lower thermosphere wind systems. A study of global radar measurements of winds at 80 to 100 km region revealed the short term effects (correlation between wind field and geomagnetic storms) and long term variations over a solar cycle. It seems likely that the correlation results from a modification of planetary waves and tides propagated from below, thus altering the dynamical regime of the thermosphere. Sometimes the long term behavior points rather to a climatic variation with the internal atmospheric cause than to a direct solar control.

Kazimirovsky, E. S.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Jupiter's Mid-Infrared Aurora: Solar Connection and Minor Constituents

High spectral resolution in the 12 pin region of the polar regions of Jupiter reveal unique information on auroral phenomena and upper stratospheric composition. Polar aurorae in Jupiter's atmosphere radiate; throughout the electromagnetic spectrum from X-ray through mid-infrared (mid-IR, 5 - 20 micron wavelength). Voyager IRIS data and ground-based. spectroscopic measurements of Jupiter's northern mid-IR aurora acquired since 1982, reveal a correlation between auroral brightness and solar activity that has not been observed in Jovian aurora at other wavelengths. Over nearly three solar cycles, Jupiter auroral ethane, emission brightness and solar 10.7-cm radar flux and sunspot number are positively correlated with high confidence. Ethane line emission intensity varies over tenfold between low and high scalar activity periods. Detailed measurements have been made using the GSFC HIPWAC spectrometer at the NASA IRTF since the last solar maximum, following the mid-IR emission through the declining phase toward solar minimum. An even more convincing correlation with solar activity is evident in these data. The spectra measured contain features that cannot be attributed to ethane and are most likely spectra of minor constituents whose molecular bands overlap the v9 band of ethane. Possible candidates are allene, propane, and other higher order hydrocarbons. These features appear to be enhanced in the active polar regions. Laboratory measurements at comparable spectral resolution of spectra of candidate molecules will be used to identify the constituents. Current analyses of these results will be described, including planned measurements on polar ethane line emission scheduled through the rise of the next solar maximum beginning in 2009, with a steep gradient to a maximum in 2012. This work is relevant to the Juno mission and to the development of the NASA/ESA Europa Jupiter System Mission.

Kostiuk, Theodore↗
NASA NTRS1978

Silicon X-ray line emission from solar flares and active regions

New observations of solar flare and active region X-ray spectra obtained with the Columbia University instrument on OSO-8 are presented and discussed. The high sensitivity of the graphite crystal panel has allowed both line and continuum spectra to be served with moderate spectral resolution. Observations with higher spectral resolution have been made with a panel of pentaerythritol crystals. Twenty-nine lines between 1.5 and 7.0 A have been resolved and identified, including several dielectronic recombination satellite lines to Si XIV and Si XIII lines which have been observed for the first time. It has been found that thermal continuum models specified by single values of temperature and emission measure have fitted the data adequately, there being good agreement with the values of these parameters derived from line intensity ratios.

Parkinson, J. H.↗
DOE OSTI2010

QUANTIFYING THE EVOLVING MAGNETIC STRUCTURE OF ACTIVE REGIONS

The topical and controversial issue of parameterizing the magnetic structure of solar active regions has vital implications in the understanding of how these structures form, evolve, produce solar flares, and decay. This interdisciplinary and ill-constrained problem of quantifying complexity is addressed by using a two-dimensional wavelet transform modulus maxima (WTMM) method to study the multifractal properties of active region photospheric magnetic fields. The WTMM method provides an adaptive space-scale partition of a fractal distribution, from which one can extract the multifractal spectra. The use of a novel segmentation procedure allows us to remove the quiet Sun component and reliably study the evolution of active region multifractal parameters. It is shown that prior to the onset of solar flares, the magnetic field undergoes restructuring as Dirac-like features (with a Hoelder exponent, h = -1) coalesce to form step functions (where h = 0). The resulting configuration has a higher concentration of gradients along neutral line features. We propose that when sufficient flux is present in an active region for a period of time, it must be structured with a fractal dimension greater than 1.2, and a Hoelder exponent greater than -0.7, in order to produce M- and X-class flares. This result has immediate applications in the study of the underlying physics of active region evolution and space weather forecasting.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1991

Geomagnetic activity associated with earth passage of interplanetary shock disturbances and coronal mass ejections

Coronal mass ejection events (CMEs) are important occasional sources of plasma and magnetic field in the solar wind at 1 AU, accounting for approximately 10 percent of all solar wind measurements in the ecliptic plane during the last solar activity maximum. Using a recently appreciated capability for distinguishing CMEs in solar wind data in the form of counterstreaming solar wind electron events, this paper explores the overall effectiveness of shock wave disturbances and CMFs in general in stimulating geomagnetic activity. The study is confined to the interval from mid-August 1978 through mid-October 1982, spanning the last solar activity maximum, when ISEE 3 was in orbit about the L1 Lagrange point 220 Re upstream from earth. It is found that all but one of the 37 largest geomagnetic storms in that era were associated with earth passage of CMEs and/or shock disturbances, with the large majority of these storms (27 out of 37) being associated with interplanetary events where earth encountered both a shock and the CME driving the shock (shock/CME events). Although CMEs and/or shock disturbances were increasingly the cause of geomagnetic activity as the level of geomagnetic activity increased, many smaller geomagnetic disturbances were unrelated to these events.

Gosling, J. T.↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Active Asteroids Citizen Science Program: Overview and First Results

Abstract We present the Citizen Science program Active Asteroids and describe discoveries stemming from our ongoing project. Our NASA Partner program is hosted on the Zooniverse online platform and launched on 2021 August 31, with the goal of engaging the community in the search for active asteroids—asteroids with comet-like tails or comae. We also set out to identify other unusual active solar system objects, such as active Centaurs, active quasi-Hilda asteroids (QHAs), and Jupiter-family comets (JFCs). Active objects are rare in large part because they are difficult to identify, so we ask volunteers to assist us in searching for active bodies in our collection of millions of images of known minor planets. We produced these cutout images with our project pipeline that makes use of publicly available Dark Energy Camera data. Since the project launch, roughly 8300 volunteers have scrutinized some 430,000 images to great effect, which we describe in this work. In total, we have identified previously unknown activity on 15 asteroids, plus one Centaur, that were thought to be asteroidal (i.e., inactive). Of the asteroids, we classify four as active QHAs, seven as JFCs, and four as active asteroids, consisting of one main-belt comet (MBC) and three MBC candidates. We also include our findings concerning known active objects that our program facilitated, an unanticipated avenue of scientific discovery. These include discovering activity occurring during an orbital epoch for which objects were not known to be active, and the reclassification of objects based on our dynamical analyses.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
NASA NTRS1979

Solar-Terrestrial Predictions Proceedings. Volume 2: Working Group Reports and Reviews

Accurate models are needed to support research in the following areas: spacecraft charging, radiation dosage, transionospheric radio propagation, long and short term solar activity, magnetospheric disturbances, ionospheric interactions, solar weather/climate effects, and geomagnetic applications such as electric power transmission and oil and gas pipeline problems.

Richard F Donnelly↗
NASA NTRS1982

Variations in ion and neutral composition at Venus - Evidence of solar control of the formation of the predawn bulges in H/+/ and He1

A comparison of ion and neutral composition measurements at Venus for periods of greatly different solar activity provides qualitative evidence of solar control of the day-to-night transport of light ion and neutral species. Concentrations of H(+) and He in the predawn bulge near solar maximum in November, 1979, exhibit a depletion signature correlated with a pronounced modulation in the solar F10.7 and EUV fluxes. This perturbation, not observed in the predawn region during an earlier period of relative quiet solar conditions, is interpreted as resulting from pronounced changes in solar heating and photoionization on the dayside, which in turn modulate the transport of ions and neutrals into the bulge region.

Taylor, H. A., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1983

The composition, propagation and acceleration of energetic solar particles - A review of United States research 1979-1982

The present review has the objective to cover major developments in American research related to solar energetic particles, both observational and theoretical, taking into account the period from late 1978 to late 1982. It is pointed out that particular progress has been made in the area of solar energetic particle composition with respect to elemental, isotopic, and the distribution of charge states. This progress is primarily the result of improved instrumentation available at a time of higher solar activity. An important aspect of solar particle studies is to understand the propagation of particles from the vicinity of the sun through interplanetary space to wherever the observing instruments are located. Almost all mathematical models for the transport of solar cosmic rays are derived in some sense from the same general Boltzmann or Vlasov equations. Attention is also given to advances related to an understanding of coronal propagation, and acceleration and injection processes.

Mcguire, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Shuttle high resolution accelerometer package experiment results - Atmospheric density measurements between 60-160 km

Indirect or inferred values of atmospheric density encountered by the Shuttle Orbiter during reentry have been calculated from acceleration measurements made by the High Resolution Accelerometer Package (HiRAP) and the Orbiter Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) liner accelerometers. The atmospheric density data developed from this study represent a significant gain with respect to the body of data collected to date by various techniques in the altitude range of 60 to 160 km. The data are unique in that they cover a very wide horizontal range during each flight and provide insight into the actual density variations encountered along the reentry flight path. The data, which were collected over about 3 years, are also characterized by variations in solar activity, geomagnetic index, and local solar time. Comparison of the flight-derived densities with various atmospheric models have been made, and analyses have attempted to characterize the data and to show correlation with selected physical variables.

Blanchard, R. C.↗