Space Weather Community Spectro-Polarimetric
Analysis Center – CSAC:
Tools & expertise to understand
the Sun’s magnetic atmosphere
& impacts
Summer 2015
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I. Description
Space weather has the capacity to wreak havoc on Earth. Impacts range from
taking down the nation’s electrical grid, to interfering with satellite positioning
and communications, to adversely affecting the health of astronauts in space
and airline passengers and crews on the polar flight paths that save time and
energy. These realities make a strong case for improving our ability to predict
solar disruptions, space weather, and their impacts on Earth.
The chromosphere, a vibrant layer of the Sun's atmosphere where most of the
Sun's volatile activity occurs, is a poorly observed and little understood physical
interface between the Sun’s interior and the rest of the solar system (the
heliosphere). It is here that the solar wind originates and magnetism begins to
dominate the solar system’s dynamics. In this first layer of the Sun’s outer
atmosphere, space-weather events (flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are
detectable. Observations and models of solar activity and space weather are
vital to expand understanding of interactions among the Sun, chromosphere,
and heliosphere. Observations refine scientists' understanding of solar behavior
and validate model output, while models test the understanding initiated by
observations.
An essential linkage between observations and model development is CSAC –
the Community Spectro-Polarimetric Analysis Center. CSAC offers scientists the
observational tools and expertise required to push critical understanding of the
chromosphere forward, thereby driving improvements in space weather
forecasting and prediction.
II. Stage of Research
Researchers hope to capitalize on the growing quality and comprehensiveness
of chromospheric observations by developing models that more accurately
interpret observations before, during, and after eruptive events. By better
mapping this magneto-thermodynamic environment, NCAR scientists expect to
improve space weather models and predictions. CSAC offers a crucial pathway
toward this end, providing a vital interpretative element to measurements
coming from DKIST (the National Solar Observatory’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar
Telescope) and from NCAR’s CoMP and ChroMag instruments at the Mauna Loa
Solar Observatory.
III. Advantages
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CSAC provides an essential link to improving space-weather prediction. With
expertise in observations and observational tools, CSAC offers the science
community what it needs to improve analysis of observed solar dynamics.
CSAC translates observations of polarized light coming from the Sun into
physical measurements of the Sun’s three-dimensional magnetic field and
thermodynamic environment that can be input into models to generate
more realistic representations of the Sun’s physical environment and the
impacts of solar activity on Earth.
Using its tools and observations for model validation, CSAC helps advance
model improvements that will allow researchers to generate considerably
more accurate projections of solar storm directionality and strength.
Few experts in the interpretation of polarized radiation exist in the world;
scientists in NCAR’s High Altitude Observatory, where CSAC resides,
conceived the field, built the first instruments to illustrate the principle, and
lead construction of next-generation observation/interpretation capabilities
via the NCAR Mauna Loa Solar Observatory and CSAC.
IV. Applications
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During periods of high solar activity, innovative new models may be able to
better predict how, for example, the Sun’s magnetic fields will affect space
weather effects on Earth in the near (hours to days) future.
CSAC capabilities provide the critical linkage that researchers need to
generate the space-weather equivalent of a weather forecast model that is
able to predict the effects that a solar flare or CME might have on Earth.
CSAC may provide a base from which to develop operational space
weather models.
V. Funding and IP Status
Primary: National Science Foundation (core funding).
Seeking additional support for software development; advanced radiative
transfer and magneto-hydrodynamic model development; development of
data assimilation techniques to incorporate real-time solar measurements into
space-weather forecast models.
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Contact Scott Rayder, Senior Advisor to the UCAR President
+1 303-497-1673 | [email protected] | president.ucar.edu/development