Coronal Mass Ejections And Solar Particle Events In Solar Cycle 23

Second edition graduate level textbook giving an up-to-date treatment of our understanding of the solar corona.

A major objective of the International Space Station is learning how to cope with the inherent risks of human spaceflightâ€"how to live and work in space for extended periods. The construction of the station itself provides the first opportunity for doing so. Prominent among the challenges associated with ISS construction is the large amount of time that astronauts will be spending doing extravehicular activity (EVA), or "space walks." EVAs from the space shuttle have been extraordinarily successful, most notably the on-orbit repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. But the number of hours of EVA for ISS construction exceeds that of the Hubble repair mission by orders of magnitude. Furthermore, the ISS orbit has nearly twice the inclination to Earth's equator as Hubble's orbit, so it spends part of every 90-minute circumnavigation at high latitudes, where Earth's magnetic field is less effective at shielding impinging radiation. This means that astronauts sweeping through these regions will be considerably more vulnerable to dangerous doses of energetic particles from a sudden solar eruption. Radiation and the International Space Station estimates that the likelihood of having a potentially dangerous solar event during an EVA is indeed very high. This report recommends steps that can be taken immediately, and over the next several years, to provide adequate warning so that the astronauts can be directed to take protective cover inside the ISS or shuttle. The near-term actions include programmatic and operational ways to take advantage of the multiagency assets that currently monitor and forecast space weather, and ways to improve the in situ measurements and the predictive power of current models.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 165. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are the most energetic events in the heliosphere. During solar cycle 23, the close connection between CMEs and solar energetic particles (SEPs) was studied in much greater detail than was previously possible, including effects on space weather. This book reviews extensive observations of solar eruptions and SEPs from orbiting and ground-based systems. From SOHO and ACE to RHESSI and TRACE, we now have measurements of unprecedented sensitivity by which to test assumptions and refine models. Discussion and analysis of: Coronal mass ejections and energetic particles over one solar cycle Implications of solar eruptions for space weather and human space exploration The elemental, isotopic, and ionic charge state composition of accelerated particles Complex interconnections among CMEs, flares, shocks, and energetic particles will make this book an indispensable resource for scientists working on the Sun-Earth connection, including space physicists, magnetospheric physicists, atmospheric physicists, astrophysicists, and aeronomists.

This concise primer introduces the non-specialist reader to the physics of solar energetic particles (SEP) and systematically reviews the evidence for the two main mechanisms which lead to the so-called impulsive and gradual SEP events. More specifically, the timing of the onsets, the longitude distributions, the high-energy spectral shapes, the correlations with other solar phenomena (e.g. coronal mass ejections), as well as the all-important elemental and isotopic abundances of SEPs are investigated. Impulsive SEP events are related to magnetic reconnection in solar flares and jets. The concept of shock acceleration by scattering on self-amplified Alfvén waves is introduced, as is the evidence of reacceleration of impulsive-SEP material in the seed population accessed by the shocks in gradual events. The text then develops processes of transport of ions out to an observer. Finally, a new technique to determine the source plasma temperature in both impulsive and gradual events is demonstrated. Last but not least the role of SEP events as a radiation hazard in space is mentioned and a short discussion of the nature of the main particle telescope designs that have contributed to most of the SEP measurements is given.

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun constitute one of the primary causes of geomagnetic storms. CMEs also drive shocks, which in turn accelerate solar energetic particles (SEPs) that pose radiation hazards for technological systems in space. With support from AFOSR, researchers from the Catholic University developed an empirical CME arrival (ECA) model that takes as input the CME speed from coronagraph observations and outputs the arrival time of CMEs at 1 AU. This model has recently been extended to predict the arrival time of shocks. This empirical shock arrival model (ESA) predicts the arrival time of interplanetary shocks on Earth based on the remote-sensing observations of CMEs by coronagraphs such as the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite. The input to the model is the sky plane speed measured from coronagraph images of CMEs. An important step in the model is to show that the interplanetary shocks behave like gas-dynamic shocks for a large number of shocks of solar cycle 23. This means the shock arrival can be predicted from CME arrival because there is a definite relation between a CME and its shock. Once the CME speed is measured, the shock travel time from Sun to Earth can be obtained from a table. The ESA model is capable of providing 1-3 day advance warning of the impending arrival of CME-driven shocks on Earth. This is a very useful lead-time for space weather applications. As a result of this study, a complete catalog of all the CMEs observed by the SOHO mission has been created and provided online to the scientific community (http://cdaw.gsfc.nasa.gov/CME_list). This study revealed that long-wavelength radio bursts detected by Wind/WAVES experiment are indicative of a special population of CMEs that are wider and faster than regular CMEs. Further correlative studies were used to improve the empirical CME arrival model to predict the arrival of CMEs at 1 AU.

In three lectures on magnetohydrodynamics, on kinetic plasma physics and on particle acceleration, leading experts describe the physical basis of their subjects and extend the discussion to several applications in modern problems of astrophysics. The themes developed in this book will be helpful in understanding many processes in the universe from the solar corona to active galaxies.

This volume is dedicated to the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which was launched 11 February 2010. The articles focus on the spacecraft and its instruments: the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE), and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). Articles within also describe calibration results and data processing pipelines that are critical to understanding the data and products, concluding with a description of the successful Education and Public Outreach activities. This book is geared towards anyone interested in using the unprecedented data from SDO, whether for fundamental heliophysics research, space weather modeling and forecasting, or educational purposes. Previously published in Solar Physics journal, Vol. 275/1-2, 2012. Selected articles in this book are published open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license at link.springer.com. For further details, please see the license information in the chapters.

This book demonstrates that the method, based on the ground polar cap magnetic observations is a reliable diagnosis of the solar wind energy coming into the magnetosphere Method for the uninterruptive monitoring of the magnetosphere state (i.e. space weather). It shows that the solar wind energy pumping power, can be described by the PC growth rate, thus, the magnetospheric substorms features are predetermined by the PC dynamics. Furthermore, it goes on to show that the beginning and ending of magnetic storms is predictable. The magnetic storm start only if the solar energy input into the magnetosphere exceeds a certain level and stops when the energy input turns out to be below this level.