From The University of Utah: “Space dust as Earth’s sun shield”

From The University of Utah

2.8.23
Lisa Potter

Simulated stream of dust launched between Earth and the sun. This dust cloud is shown as it crosses the disk of the sun, viewed from Earth. Streams like this one, including those launched from the moon’s surface, can act as a temporary sunshade. Credit: Ben Bromley/University of Utah.

On a cold winter day, the warmth of the sun is welcome. Yet as humanity emits more and more greenhouse gases the Earth’s atmosphere traps more and more of the sun’s energy and steadily increases the Earth’s temperature. One strategy for reversing this trend is to intercept a fraction of sunlight before it reaches our planet. For decades, scientists have considered using screens, objects or dust particles to block just enough of the sun’s radiation—between 1 or 2%—to mitigate the effects of global warming.

A University of Utah-led study explored the potential of using dust to shield sunlight. They analyzed different properties of dust particles, quantities of dust and the orbits that would be best suited for shading Earth. The authors found that launching dust from Earth to a way station at the “Lagrange Point” between Earth and the sun (L1) would be most effective but would require astronomical cost and effort.

LaGrange Points map. NASA.

An alternative is to use moondust. The authors argue that launching lunar dust from the moon instead could be a cheap and effective way to shade the Earth.

The team of astronomers applied a technique used to study planet formation around distant stars, their usual research focus. Planet formation is a messy process that kicks up lots of astronomical dust that can form rings around the host star. These rings intercept light from the central star and re-radiate it in a way that we can detect it on Earth. One way to discover stars that are forming new planets is to look for these dusty rings.

“That was the seed of the idea; if we took a small amount of material and put it on a special orbit between the Earth and the sun and broke it up, we could block out a lot of sunlight with a little amount of mass,” said Ben Bromley, professor of physics and astronomy and lead author of the study.

“It is amazing to contemplate how moon dust—which took over four billion years to generate—might help slow the rise in Earth’s temperature, a problem that took us less than 300 years to produce,” said Scott Kenyon, co-author of the study from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

The paper was published on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023, in the journal PLOS Climate [below].

PLOS Climate
See the science paper for instructive material with images.

See the full article here .

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The University of Utah is a public coeducational space-grant research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. As the state’s flagship university, the university offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and more than 92 graduate degree programs. The university is classified in the highest ranking: “R-1: Doctoral Universities – Highest Research Activity” by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The Carnegie Classification also considers the university as “selective”, which is its second most selective admissions category. Graduate studies include the S.J. Quinney College of Law and the School of Medicine, Utah’s only medical school. As of Fall 2015, there are 23,909 undergraduate students and 7,764 graduate students, for an enrollment total of 31,673.

The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah’s oldest institution of higher education. It received its current name in 1892, four years before Utah attained statehood, and moved to its current location in 1900.

The university ranks among the top 50 U.S. universities by total research expenditures with over $486 million spent in 2014. 22 Rhodes Scholars, three Nobel Prize winners, two Turing Award winners, three MacArthur Fellows, various Pulitzer Prize winners, two astronauts, Gates Cambridge Scholars, and Churchill Scholars have been affiliated with the university as students, researchers, or faculty members in its history. In addition, the university’s Honors College has been reviewed among 50 leading national Honors Colleges in the U.S. The university has also been ranked the 12th most ideologically diverse university in the country.

From “Sky & Telescope” : “What Is the Sun Made Of? New Data Deepens Debate”

From “Sky & Telescope”

12.28.22
Colin Stuart

New data from a laboratory tucked under a mountain has shed light on what’s inside the Sun.

The Sun’s spectrum includes a forest of dark lines, specific wavelengths absorbed by atoms in the Sun. Such information enables astronomers to deduce a star’s temperature and chemical composition.
Credit: M. Bergemann / MPIA / NARVAL@TBL

Physicists working on the Borexino experiment in Italy have used solar neutrinos to measure the abundances of carbon and nitrogen in the Sun’s core for the first time.

INFN/Borexino Solar Neutrino detector, at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, situated below Gran Sasso mountain in Italy.

LABORATORI NAZIONALI del GRAN SASSO, located in the Abruzzo region of central Italy.

Their analysis of almost five years of data deepens a decades-long debate between astronomers about the true composition of the Sun.

The debate hinges on different ways of measuring what’s in the Sun, and the Borexino experiment has the potential to weigh in on the matter based on a tiny subatomic particle: the neutrino.

Around 99% of the Sun’s energy is produced when hydrogen fuses into helium through a series of steps called the proton-proton (pp) chain. The remainder comes from the CNO cycle, which involves the fusion and decay of various isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Both mechanisms produce neutrinos as by-products.

Back in 2020 physicists announced that they’d detected neutrinos from the Sun’s CNO cycle for the first time using Borexino, an underground detector beneath Italy’s Gran Sasso mountain chain. They obtained this new data between January 2017 and October 2021, seeing an average of 4.8 CNO neutrinos a day. Now, the physicists have halved the errors on their measurements compared to 2020, which enables them to measure the abundances of carbon and nitrogen in the Sun’s core. They’ve published the findings in Physical Review Letters [below].

Before these results, astronomers had two ways to measure what the Sun is made of:

Spectroscopy: The field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation.

and

Helioseismology:The study of the structure and dynamics of the Sun through its oscillations. These are principally caused by sound waves that are continuously driven and damped by convection near the Sun’s surface.

Spectroscopists break up the Sun’s light into a spectrum looking for chemical fingerprints called absorption lines, in which various elements have swallowed particular frequencies of light.

Helioseismologists, on the other hand, measure sound waves that have reached the solar surface after bouncing around inside the Sun. The more heavy elements the Sun has, the more they prevent sound waves from reaching the surface. (Astronomers refer to elements heavier than hydrogen and helium as metals; the more metals the Sun contains, the higher its metallicity.)

This cutaway diagram shows the depth to which various pulsations travel within the Sun. Sound waves (“p-modes,” where p is for pressure) reverberate throughout the Sun, while lower-frequency gravity waves (“g-modes”) stay deep inside. Astronomers study such pulsations to understand the solar interior, including its composition. Credit: ESA/NASA.

The two independent methods once agreed with each other. However, new, improved measurements in the 2000s caused them to diverge significantly. Now, the helioseismologists argue for a higher metallicity than what the spectroscopists detect, in what has become known as the solar abundance problem.

In May 2022, a team led by spectroscopist Ekaterina Magg seemed to bring the two camps closer together by finding 26% more metals at the solar surface than previous spectroscopic studies. The new carbon-nitrogen abundances from Borexino neutrino data seem to fit Magg’s result, albeit with a large possible range. The Borexino data result in between 9% to 58% more metals in the interior than previous studies.

“Our measurement agrees very well with the so-called high-metallicity compilations,” the team write in their paper, “while featuring a moderate . . . tension with the low-metallicity ones.”

The carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle in the Sun is one of the rarer ways for fusion to take place, but understanding this cycle can shed light on the amount of heavier elements in the solar interior. Public domain.

Helioseismologist Sarbani Basu (Yale University), who was not involved in the neutrino study, thinks this finding is significant. “I think the Borexino results do favor the helioseismic constraints on metallicities, given that spectroscopic results from Magg and colleagues [also] give a higher metallicity,” she says.

Yet a new paper recently accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics [below] questions this supposed agreement. “If you take into account the effects of the Sun’s rotation and the observed depletion of lithium at the solar surface, even models with high CNO abundances from Magg and colleagues disagree with the Borexino results,” says study lead Gaël Buldgen (University of Geneva).

If Buldgen is correct, that would leave CNO neutrinos and helioseismology making the case for a high metallicity in the solar interior — but with spectroscopy still favoring a lower one at the solar surface.

Both camps could be correct. According to a November 2022 study, also published in Astronomy & Astrophysics [below], it’s possible the core metallicity could be 5% higher than on the surface if the Sun gathered material from the proto-solar disk unevenly.

More CNO neutrino observations would certainly help reduce the uncertainty surrounding these tentative measurements, but they won’t be coming from Borexino. The experiment was shut down in October 2021 and there are currently no other facilities that can observe these low-energy neutrinos.

It seems, at least for now, that this long-running debate will continue to rumble on.

Science papers:
Physical Review Letters
Astronomy & Astrophysics
See the above science paper for instructive material with images.
Astronomy & Astrophysics

See the full article here .

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Sky & Telescope, founded in 1941 by Charles A. Federer Jr. and Helen Spence Federer, has the largest, most experienced staff of any astronomy magazine in the world. Its editors are virtually all amateur or professional astronomers, and every one has built a telescope, written a book, done original research, developed a new product, or otherwise distinguished him or herself.

Sky & Telescope magazine, now in its eighth decade, came about because of some happy accidents. Its earliest known ancestor was a four-page bulletin called The Amateur Astronomer, which was begun in 1929 by the Amateur Astronomers Association in New York City. Then, in 1935, the American Museum of Natural History opened its Hayden Planetarium and began to issue a monthly bulletin that became a full-size magazine called The Sky within a year. Under the editorship of Hans Christian Adamson, The Sky featured large illustrations and articles from astronomers all over the globe. It immediately absorbed The Amateur Astronomer.

Despite initial success, by 1939 the planetarium found itself unable to continue financial support of The Sky. Charles A. Federer, who would become the dominant force behind Sky & Telescope, was then working as a lecturer at the planetarium. He was asked to take over publishing The Sky. Federer agreed and started an independent publishing corporation in New York.

“Our first issue came out in January 1940,” he noted. “We dropped from 32 to 24 pages, used cheaper quality paper…but editorially we further defined the departments and tried to squeeze as much information as possible between the covers.” Federer was The Sky’s editor, and his wife, Helen, served as managing editor. In that January 1940 issue, they stated their goal: “We shall try to make the magazine meet the needs of amateur astronomy, so that amateur astronomers will come to regard it as essential to their pursuit, and professionals to consider it a worthwhile medium in which to bring their work before the public.”

From “EarthSky” : “Sun activity – Triple M flares”

From “EarthSky”

12.14.22
C. Alex Young
Raúl Cortés

Triple M flares. Credit: The Watchers

Sun activity December 14: Triple M flares

Today’s top news: The sun surprised us earlier today with a chorus of three M flares from the southwest solar quadrant. All three flares occurred on December 14, 2022. The three blasts occurred within a two-hour period from the first to the third M flare. The first, a M2.4 flare, came from sunspot region AR3165. This was followed by a M1.1 blast from the location of AR3153 just over the limb (edge). AR3165 replied back with a M1.2. Each flare caused a corresponding radio blackout over the South Indian Ocean and South Africa. Both AR3165 in the south and AR3167 in the north show a beta magnetic configuration. This indicates that both have slightly higher magnetic complexity and so have the promise for more activity. AR3165 is closer to the limb (edge) while AR3167 is near the central meridian, meaning it will be on the disk several days longer than AR3165. We continue observing the large coronal hole on the southeast quadrant, which now could add some fun to the sun. Stay tuned!

Last 24 hours: Sun activity is moderate with three M class flares. The largest, a M2.4 from AR3165, occurred at 7:30 UTC followed by a M1.1 from AR3153 at 08:31 UTC, then a M1.2 from AR3156 at 9:27 UTC. There were 17 C flares during the period along with the three M flares. The Earth-facing side of the sun has 10 labeled sunspot regions today.

Next 24 hours: The forecast is for an 85% chance for C flares, a 20% chance for M flares, and a 1% chance for X flares.

Coronal mass ejections – NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center-SDO

Next expected CME: No Earth-directed CMEs registered. The M flares that just occurred are under further analysis by scientists to determine if any component is Earth-bound.
Current geomagnetic activity: Quiet. It will continue quiet through December 15 – 16.

December 14, 2022. R1 Radio blackout after M2.1 flare affected South Indian Sea. Image via NOAA.

Today’s sun activity with the most active regions labeled (1 UTC on December 14, 2022) via NASA SDO.

Courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, with labeling by EarthSky. Today’s sun is posted by Armando Caussade. Why are east and west on the sun reversed?

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Sun activity December 13: A coronal hole is born

December 13, 2022, sun activity. A large coronal hole just appeared on the sun’s southeast quadrant. It might be the next source for auroral displays on Earth. GOES-16 SUVI image via NOAA.

NOAA GOES-16 in space depiction

Flaring activity remained at low C-class to high B-class levels over the past day. SOHO LASCO coronagraph imagery picked up several CMEs, but they happened on the sun’s far side. So, there are no Earth-directed ones. But the sun appears very beautiful now, with many spots! And, in the midst of all this, a large coronal hole was born on the sun’s southeast quadrant. Like sunspots, coronal holes are relatively cool places on the sun’s surface. Our star is so hot that most of the atoms within it are stripped of their electrons. They’re said to be ionized and thereby described as plasma by solar physicists. In coronal holes, this plasma is less dense than elsewhere on the sun. Also, the magnetic field lines within coronal holes are not a closed loop. They extend into interplanetary space. And that’s why coronal holes are able to emit high-speed solar wind, which sometimes strikes Earth and creates auroras. So, this newly born coronal hole on the sun could be the next source of some fun on Earth! We expect it to provoke earthly auroral displays – eventually – once the sun’s rotation carries the hole to a geoeffective position.

Last 24 hours: Sun activity continues at low levels with eight C flares and only one B. The largest flare during the period was a C3.01 from sunspot region AR3166 at 15:09 UTC on December 12, 2022. A new area appeared just east of AR3160 labeled AR3167. There are nine labeled regions today.

Sun activity December 12: A spotty sun day

Sun activity is low, but you would never guess it looking at the sun. Nine, count them, nice sunspot regions cover the solar disk but all of them are moderate to small in size, and all are magnetically stable. This means that none of them carry the potential energy within them to produce any substantial-sized flares, M-class or larger. There are a few filaments, as seen in the community image below (left image). These have the potential to erupt and could produce Earth-directed CMEs but there is nothing at the moment. There are no large coronal holes in position to shower Earth with high-speed solar wind. We wait patiently for what the sun will do next.

Last 24 hours: Sun activity is low. We saw 15 C flares in the past 24 hours. The largest was a C3.5 at 00:06 UTC on December 11 from sunspot region AR3156.

Sun activity December 11: Parker Solar Probe’s 14th perihelion today

NASA Parker Solar Probe Plus named to honor Pioneering Physicist Eugene Parker. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.

NASA Parker Solar Probe Plus named to honor Pioneering Physicist Eugene Parker.The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab annotated.

December 11, 2022. This plot shows the Parker Solar Probe #14 perihelion and its orbit. Image via NASA.

NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe – first-ever mission to touch the sun – reaches its 14th perihelion today. In other words, since the craft’s launch on August 12, 2018, it will have swung closest to the sun for the 14th time as of today. Each time, the craft is exposed to heat and solar radiation as no other human spacecraft before. As of this morning (around 9 UTC on December 11, 2022), the probe is at distance 0.063 astronomical units (0.063 times the Earth-sun distance) from the center of the sun. That’s 5.8 million miles (9.4 million km), and it’s well within the orbit of the sun’s innermost planet, Mercury (average distance 36 million miles, or 58 million km). The closest point will come at 13:16 UTC (8:16 a.m. ET) today, when the craft will be traveling at the amazing speed of around 364,639 mph (586,829 kph). Parker Solar Probe is teaching us a lot about our star! Its mission will continue through 2025, when probe will reach its perihelion #24.

Last 24 hours: Sun activity is low. We saw 16 flares in the past 24 hours, 14 C flares and two B flares. The largest was a C5.1 blasted at 16:11 UTC on December 11 by sunspot region AR3163. Also of note is AR3153; it produced 12 flares. Since its appearance yesterday, AR3153 has been the big player of the day. There are eight labeled active regions on the Earth-facing side of our star today.

See the full article here .

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Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. “Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers,” she says.

From “WIRED“: “‘Solar Twins’ Reveal the Consistency of the Universe”

From “WIRED“

12.9.22
Sophia Chen

Physicists study starlight to find whether the fine structure constant-whose value makes our universe possible-really is the same everywhere.

Photograph: NASA.

Sometimes we must look to the heavens to understand our own planet. In the 17th century, Johannes Kepler’s insight that planets move in elliptical orbits around the sun led to a deeper understanding of gravity, the force that determines Earth’s tides. In the 19th century, scientists studied the color of sunlight, whose distinctive properties helped reveal the quantum structure of the atoms that make up the star—and all matter around us. In 2017, the detection of gravitational waves showed that much of the gold and platinum and other heavy elements on our planet are forged in the collisions of neutron stars. 

Gravitational waves. Credit: W.Benger-Zib. MPG Institute for Gravitational Physics (DE)

Merging neutron stars. Image Credit: Mark Garlick, University of Warwick (UK).

Scientists may have detected violent collision between neutron star and a black hole, “All the Gold in the Universe” from The University of California-Santa Cruz 2017.

Michael Murphy studies stars in this tradition. An astrophysicist at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, Murphy analyzes the color of the light emitted by stars similar to the sun in temperature and size and elemental content—”solar twins,” as they are called. He wants to know what their properties reveal about the nature of the electromagnetic force, which attracts protons and electrons to form atoms—which then bind into molecules to form almost everything else. 

In particular, he wants to know if this force behaves consistently across the entire universe—or at least, among these stars. In a recent paper in Science [below], Murphy and his team used starlight to measure what’s known as the fine structure constant, a number that sets the strength of the electromagnetic force. “By comparing the stars to each other, we can learn if their fundamental physics is different,” says Murphy. If it is, that hints that something is wrong with the way we understand cosmology.

Science paper:
Science

See the full article here .

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From Kyushu University [九州大学](JP): “Small solar flares in large laser bodies”

From Kyushu University [九州大学](JP)

12.8.22
Taichi Morita, Assistant Professor
Department of Advanced Energy Science and Engineering
Faculty of Engineering Sciences
Tel: +81-92-583-7587
morita@aees.kyushu-u.ac.jp

Magnetic reconnection Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Using twelve high-powered lasers, researchers recreated small solar flares in order to study the mechanisms behind a fundamental astronomical phenomenon known as a magnetic reconnection.

As recognizable the phrase ‘the vast emptiness of space’ is, the universe is anything but. At first glance, celestial objects are far and few between, but in reality, the universe is teeming with all sorts of substances like charged particles, gases, and cosmic rays.

One such driver of particles and energy through space is a phenomenon called magnetic reconnection. As the name suggests, magnetic reconnection is when two anti-parallel magnetic fields—as in two magnetic fields going in opposite directions—collide, break, and realign. As innocuous as it sounds, it is far from a calm process.

“This phenomenon is seen everywhere in the universe. At home you can see them in solar flares or in Earth’s magnetosphere. When a solar flare builds up and appears to ‘pinch’ out a flare, that is a magnetic reconnection,” explains Taichi Morita, assistant professor at Kyushu University’s Faculty of Engineering Sciences and first author of the study. “In fact, auroras are formed as result of charged particles expelled from the magnetic reconnection in Earth’s magnetic field.”

Nonetheless, despite its common occurrence, many of the mechanisms behind the phenomena are a mystery. Studies are being conducted, such as in NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, where magnetic reconnections are studied in real time by satellites sent into Earth’s magnetosphere.

Depiction of Magnetospheric Multiscale mission spacecraft in space. Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

However, things such as the speed of reconnection or how energy from the magnetic field is converted and distributed to the particles in the plasma remain unexplained.

An alternative to sending satellites into space is to use lasers and artificially generate plasma arcs that produce magnetic reconnections. However, without suitable laser strength, the generated plasma is too small and unstable to study the phenomena accurately.

“One facility that has the required power is Osaka University’s Institute for Laser Engineering and their Gekko XII laser. It’s a massive 12-beam, high-powered laser that can generate plasma stable enough for us to study,” explains Morita. “Studying astrophysical phenomena using high-energy lasers is called ‘laser astrophysics experiments,’ and it has been a developing methodology in recent years.”

In their experiments, reported in Physical Review E [below], the high-power lasers were used to generate two plasma fields with anti-parallel magnetic fields. The team then focused a low-energy laser into the center of the plasma where the magnetic fields would meet and where magnetic reconnection would theoretically occur.

“We are essentially recreating the dynamics and conditions of a solar flare. Nonetheless, by analyzing how the light from that low-energy laser scatters, we can measure all sorts of parameters from plasma temperature, velocity, ion valence, current, and plasma flow velocity,” continues Morita.

One of their key findings was recording the appearance and disappearance of electrical currents where the magnetic fields met, indicating magnetic reconnection. Additionally, they were able to collect data on the acceleration and heating of the plasma.

The team plans on continuing their analysis and hopes that these types of ‘laser astrophysics experiments’ will be more readily used as an alternative or complementary way to investigate astrophysical phenomena.

“This method can be used to study all sorts of things like astrophysical shockwaves, cosmic-ray acceleration, and magnetic turbulence. Many of these phenomena can damage and disrupt electrical devices and the human body,” concludes Morita. “So, if we ever want to be a spacefaring race, we must work to understand these common cosmic events.”

Science paper:
Physical Review E

See the full article here.

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Kyushu University [九州大学](JP) is a Japanese national university located in Fukuoka, in the island of Kyushu.

It was the 4th Imperial Universities in Japan, ranked as 4th in 2020 Times Higher Education Japan University Rankings, and selected as a Top Type university of Top Global University Project by the Japanese government. Kyudai is considered as one of the most prestigious research-oriented universities in Japan and is a member of the Alliance of Asian Liberal Arts Universities along with the University of Tokyo[(東京大学;](JP), Waseda University [早稲田大学](JP), Beijing University [北京大学](CN) and others.

The history of Kyushu University can be traced back to the medical schools of the Fukuoka Domain (福岡藩 Fukuoka han) established in 1867. The school was reorganized to Fukuoka Medical College of Kyoto Imperial University in 1903 and became independent as Kyushu Imperial University in 1911. Albert Einstein visited the university on December 25, 1922.

There are 2,089 foreign students (As of 2016) enrolled in the University. It was chosen for the Global 30 university program, and has been selected to the top 13 global university project.

From The MPG Institute for Solar System Research [MPG Institut für Sonnensystemforschung](DE): “Catching the dynamic Coronal Web”

From The MPG Institute for Solar System Research [MPG Institut für Sonnensystemforschung](DE)

11.24.22
Contacts:
Dr. Birgit Krummheuer
Media and Public Relations
MPG Institute for Solar System Research,
Göttingen
+49 173 3958625
Krummheuer@mps.mpg.de

Dr. Lakshmi P. Chitta
Scientist
MPG Institute for Solar System Research,
Göttingen
+49 551 384979-406
Chitta@mps.mpg.de

Researchers discover an important clue as to what mechanism drives the solar wind.

Using observational data from the U.S. weather satellites GOES, a team of researchers led by the MPG Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany has taken an important step toward unlocking one of the Sun’s most persevering secrets: How does our star launch the particles constituting the solar wind into space?

NOAA GOES-18 spacecraft

The data provide a unique view of a key region in the solar corona to which researchers have had little access so far. There, the team has for the first time captured a dynamic web-like network of elongated, interwoven plasma structures. Together with data from other space probes and extensive computer simulations, a clear picture emerges: where the elongated coronal web structures interact, magnetic energy is discharged – and particles escape into space.

The Sun`s atmosphere: Computer simulation of the architecture of the magnetic field in the middle corona on August 17, 2018. The ray-like features in this snapshot are the underlying magnetic architecture of the observed coronal web. In the middle corona the predominantly closed magnetic field lines close to the Sun give way to the predominantly open field lines of the outer corona.
© Chitta et al./Nature Astronomy.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have traditionally concerned themselves with other things than the Sun. Since 1974, the system has been orbiting our planet at an altitude of about 36000 kilometers and continuously providing Earth-related data for example for weather and storm forecasting. Over the years, the original configuration has been expanded to include newer satellites. The three most recent ones currently operating are additionally equipped with instruments that look at the Sun for space weather forecasting. They can image ultraviolet radiation from our star’s corona.

An exploratory observing campaign to image the extended solar corona took place in August and September 2018. For more than a month, GOES’s Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) not only looked directly at the Sun as it usually does, but also captured images to either side of it. “We had the rare opportunity to use an instrument in an unusual way to observe a region that has not really been explored,” said Dr. Dan Seaton of SwRI, who served as chief scientist for SUVI during the observation campaign. “We didn’t even know if it would work, but we knew if it did, we’d make important discoveries.” By combining the images from the different viewing angles, the instrument’s field of view could be significantly enlarged and thus, for the first time, the entire middle corona, a layer of the solar atmosphere from 350 thousand kilometers above the Sun’s visible surface, could be imaged in ultraviolet light.

Other spacecrafts that study the Sun and collect data from the corona, such as NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) as well as NASA’s and ESA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), look into deeper or higher layers.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solar Dynamics Observatory.

European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganization]((EU)/National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite. Launched in 1995.

“In the middle corona, solar research has had something of a blind spot. The GOES data now provides a significant improvement,” said Dr. Pradeep Chitta of MPS, lead author of the new study. In the middle corona, researchers suspect processes that drive and modulate the solar wind.

Traveling through space at supersonic speeds

The solar wind is one of our star’s most wide-reaching features. The stream of charged particles that the Sun hurls into space travels all the way to the edge of our Solar System, creating the heliosphere, a bubble of rarefied plasma that marks the Sun’s sphere of influence.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Heliosphere-heliopause showing positions of two Voyager spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Depending on its speed, solar wind is divided into fast and slow components. The so-called fast solar wind, which reaches speeds of more than 500 kilometers per second, originates from interiors of coronal holes, regions that appear dark in coronal ultraviolet radiation. The source regions of slow solar wind are less certain though. But even the particles of the slow solar wind race through space at supersonic speeds of 300 to 500 kilometers per second.

This slower component of the solar wind still raises many questions. Hot coronal plasma over one million degrees needs to escape the Sun to form the slow solar wind. What mechanism is at work here? Moreover, the slow solar wind is not homogeneous, but reveals, at least in part, a ray-like structure of clearly distinguishable streamers. Where and how do they originate? These are the questions addressed in the new study.

The origin of the solar wind: This is a mosaic of images taken by the GOES instrument SUVI and the SOHO coronagraph LASCO on August 17, 2018. Outside the white marked circle, LASCO’s field of view shows the streams of the slow solar wind. These connect seamlessly to the structures of the coronal web network in the mid-corona, which can be seen inside the white-marked circle. Where the long filaments of the coronal web interact, the slow solar wind begins its journey into space. © Chitta et al./Nature Astronomy; GOES/SUVI / SOHO/LASCO.

In the GOES data, a region near the equator can be seen that aroused the researchers’ particular interest: two coronal holes, where the solar wind streams away from the Sun unimpeded, in close proximity to a region with high magnetic field strength. Interactions between systems like these are considered to be possible starting points of the slow solar wind. Above this region, the GOES data show elongated plasma structures in the middle corona pointing radially outward. The team of authors refers to this phenomenon, which has now been directly imaged for the first time, as a coronal web. The web is constantly in motion: its structures interact and regroup.

Researchers have long known the solar plasma of the outer corona to exhibit a similar architecture. For decades, the coronagraph LASCO (Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph) on board the SOHO spacecraft, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, has been providing images from this region in visible light. Scientists interpret the jet-like streams in the outer corona as the structure of the slow solar wind that begins its journey into space there. As the new study now impressively shows, this structure already prevails in the middle corona.

Influence of the solar magnetic field

To better understand the phenomenon, the researchers also analyzed data from other space probes: NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) provided a simultaneous view of the Sun’s surface; the STEREO-A spacecraft, which has been preceding Earth on its orbit around the Sun since 2006, offered a perspective from the side.

Using modern computational techniques that incorporate remote sensing observations of the Sun, researchers can use supercomputers to build realistic 3D models of the elusive magnetic field in the solar corona. In this study, the team used an advanced magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model to simulate the magnetic field and plasma state of the corona for this time period. “This helped us connect the fascinating dynamics that we observed in the middle corona to the prevailing theories of solar wind formation,” said Dr. Cooper Downs of Predictive Science Inc., who performed the computer simulations.

As the calculations show, the structures of the coronal web follow the magnetic field lines. “Our analysis suggests that the architecture of the magnetic field in the middle corona is imprinted on the slow solar wind and plays an important role in accelerating the particles into space”, said Chitta. According to the team’s new results, the hot solar plasma in the middle corona flows along the open magnetic field lines of the coronal web. Where the field lines cross and interact, energy is released.

There is much to suggest that the researchers are on to a fundamental phenomenon. “During periods of high solar activity, coronal holes often occur near the equator in close proximity to areas of high magnetic field strength,” said Chitta. “The coronal network we observed is therefore unlikely to be an isolated case,” he adds.

The team hopes to gain further and more detailed insights from future solar missions. Some of them, such as ESA’s Proba-3 mission planned for 2024, are equipped with instruments that specifically target the middle corona.

ESA Proba-3 double spacecraft depiction.

The MPS is involved in processing and analyzing the data of this mission. Together with observational data from currently operating probes such as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and ESA’s Solar Orbiter, which leave the Earth-Sun-line, this will enable a better understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the coronal web.

NASA Parker Solar Probe Plus named to honor Pioneering Physicist Eugene Parker. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.

NASA Parker Solar Probe schematic The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab annotated.

European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea][Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganization](EU)/National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationSolar Orbiter.

The European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganization](EU)/The National Aeronautics and Space Agency Solar Orbiter Instruments.

European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea][Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganization](EU)/National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solar Orbiter annotated.

Science paper:
Nature Astronomy
See the science paper for instructive material with images.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

MPG Institute for Solar System Research

The MPG Institute for Solar System Research [MPG Institut für Sonnensystemforschung] (DE) has had an eventful history – with several moves, changes of name, and structural developments. The first prototype of the current institute was founded in 1934 in Mecklenburg; it moved to Katlenburg-Lindau in 1946. Not just the location of the buildings changed – the topic of research also moved, from Earth to outer space. In the first decades the focus of research was the stratosphere and ionosphere of the Earth, but since 1997 the institute exclusively researches the physics of planets and the Sun. In January 2014 the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research has relocated to it’s new home: a new building in Göttingen close to the Northern Campus of the University of Göttingen [Georg-August-Universität Göttingen] (DE).

MPG Society for the Advancement of Science [MPG Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.] (DE) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and renamed the Max Planck Society in 1948 in honor of its former president, theoretical physicist Max Planck. The society is funded by the federal and state governments of Germany as well as other sources.

According to its primary goal, the MPG Society supports fundamental research in the natural, life and social sciences, the arts and humanities in its 83 (as of January 2014) MPG Institutes. The society has a total staff of approximately 17,000 permanent employees, including 5,470 scientists, plus around 4,600 non-tenured scientists and guests. Society budget for 2015 was about €1.7 billion.

The MPG Institutes focus on excellence in research. The MPG Society has a world-leading reputation as a science and technology research organization, with 33 Nobel Prizes awarded to their scientists, and is generally regarded as the foremost basic research organization in Europe and the world. In 2013, the Nature Publishing Index placed the MPG institutes fifth worldwide in terms of research published in Nature journals (after Harvard University, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and The National Institutes of Health). In terms of total research volume (unweighted by citations or impact), the Max Planck Society is only outranked by The Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院](CN), The Russian Academy of Sciences [Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к](RU) and Harvard University. The Thomson Reuters-Science Watch website placed the MPG Society as the second leading research organization worldwide following Harvard University, in terms of the impact of the produced research over science fields.

The MPG Society and its predecessor Kaiser Wilhelm Society hosted several renowned scientists in their fields, including Otto Hahn, Werner Heisenberg, and Albert Einstein.

History

The organization was established in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, or Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft (KWG), a non-governmental research organization named for the then German emperor. The KWG was one of the world’s leading research organizations; its board of directors included scientists like Walther Bothe, Peter Debye, Albert Einstein, and Fritz Haber. In 1946, Otto Hahn assumed the position of President of KWG, and in 1948, the society was renamed the Max Planck Society (MPG) after its former President (1930–37) Max Planck, who died in 1947.

The MPG Society has a world-leading reputation as a science and technology research organization. In 2006, the Times Higher Education Supplement rankings of non-university research institutions (based on international peer review by academics) placed the MPG Society as No.1 in the world for science research, and No.3 in technology research (behind AT&T Corporation and The DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.

The domain mpg.de attracted at least 1.7 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.

MPG Institutes and research groups

The MPG Society consists of over 80 research institutes. In addition, the society funds a number of Max Planck Research Groups (MPRG) and International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS). The purpose of establishing independent research groups at various universities is to strengthen the required networking between universities and institutes of the Max Planck Society.
The research units are primarily located across Europe with a few in South Korea and the U.S. In 2007, the Society established its first non-European centre, with an institute on the Jupiter campus of Florida Atlantic University (US) focusing on neuroscience.
The MPG Institutes operate independently from, though in close cooperation with, the universities, and focus on innovative research which does not fit into the university structure due to their interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary nature or which require resources that cannot be met by the state universities.

Internally, MPG Institutes are organized into research departments headed by directors such that each MPI has several directors, a position roughly comparable to anything from full professor to department head at a university. Other core members include Junior and Senior Research Fellows.

In addition, there are several associated institutes:

International Max Planck Research Schools

International Max Planck Research Schools

Together with the Association of Universities and other Education Institutions in Germany, the Max Planck Society established numerous International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS) to promote junior scientists:

• Cologne Graduate School of Ageing Research, Cologne
• International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems, at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems located in Tübingen and Stuttgart
• International Max Planck Research School on Adapting Behavior in a Fundamentally Uncertain World (Uncertainty School), at the Max Planck Institutes for Economics, for Human Development, and/or Research on Collective Goods
• International Max Planck Research School for Analysis, Design and Optimization in Chemical and Biochemical Process Engineering, Magdeburg
• International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy and Cosmic Physics, Heidelberg at the MPI for Astronomy
• International Max Planck Research School for Astrophysics, Garching at the MPI for Astrophysics
• International Max Planck Research School for Complex Surfaces in Material Sciences, Berlin
• International Max Planck Research School for Computer Science, Saarbrücken
• International Max Planck Research School for Earth System Modeling, Hamburg
• International Max Planck Research School for Elementary Particle Physics, Munich, at the MPI for Physics
• International Max Planck Research School for Environmental, Cellular and Molecular Microbiology, Marburg at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
• International Max Planck Research School for Evolutionary Biology, Plön at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
• International Max Planck Research School “From Molecules to Organisms”, Tübingen at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology
• International Max Planck Research School for Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Jena at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
• International Max Planck Research School on Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Hannover and Potsdam MPI for Gravitational Physics
• International Max Planck Research School for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
• International Max Planck Research School for Infectious Diseases and Immunity, Berlin at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology
• International Max Planck Research School for Language Sciences, Nijmegen
• International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences, Göttingen
• International Max Planck Research School for Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience, Tübingen
• International Max Planck Research School for Marine Microbiology (MarMic), joint program of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, the University of Bremen, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, and the Jacobs University Bremen
• International Max Planck Research School for Maritime Affairs, Hamburg
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Biology, Freiburg
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences, Munich
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology, Göttingen
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Cell Biology and Bioengineering, Dresden
• International Max Planck Research School Molecular Biomedicine, program combined with the ‘Graduate Programm Cell Dynamics And Disease’ at the University of Münster and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine
• International Max Planck Research School on Multiscale Bio-Systems, Potsdam
• International Max Planck Research School for Organismal Biology, at the University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology
• International Max Planck Research School on Reactive Structure Analysis for Chemical Reactions (IMPRS RECHARGE), Mülheim an der Ruhr, at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion
• International Max Planck Research School for Science and Technology of Nano-Systems, Halle at Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics
• International Max Planck Research School for Solar System Science at the University of Göttingen hosted by MPI for Solar System Research
• International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Bonn, at the MPI for Radio Astronomy (formerly the International Max Planck Research School for Radio and Infrared Astronomy)
• International Max Planck Research School for the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy, Cologne
• International Max Planck Research School for Surface and Interface Engineering in Advanced Materials, Düsseldorf at Max Planck Institute for Iron Research GmbH
• International Max Planck Research School for Ultrafast Imaging and Structural Dynamics, Hamburg

Max Planck Schools

• Max Planck School of Cognition
• Max Planck School Matter to Life
• Max Planck School of Photonics

Max Planck Center

• The Max Planck Centre for Attosecond Science (MPC-AS), POSTECH Pohang
• The Max Planck POSTECH Center for Complex Phase Materials, POSTECH Pohang

Max Planck Institutes

Among others:
• Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior – caesar, Bonn
• Max Planck Institute for Aeronomics in Katlenburg-Lindau was renamed to Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in 2004;
• Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen was closed in 2005;
• Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology in Ladenburg b. Heidelberg was closed in 2003;
• Max Planck Institute for Economics in Jena was renamed to the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in 2014;
• Max Planck Institute for Ionospheric Research in Katlenburg-Lindau was renamed to Max Planck Institute for Aeronomics in 1958;
• Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, Stuttgart
• Max Planck Institute of Oceanic Biology in Wilhelmshaven was renamed to Max Planck Institute of Cell Biology in 1968 and moved to Ladenburg 1977;
• Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Munich merged into the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in 2004;
• Max Planck Institute for Protein and Leather Research in Regensburg moved to Munich 1957 and was united with the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in 1977;
• Max Planck Institute for Virus Research in Tübingen was renamed as Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in 1985;
• Max Planck Institute for the Study of the Scientific-Technical World in Starnberg (from 1970 until 1981 (closed)) directed by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and Jürgen Habermas.
• Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology
• Max Planck Institute of Experimental Endocrinology
• Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Social Law
• Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics
• Max Planck Research Unit for Enzymology of Protein Folding

From The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Via “phys.org” : “Secrets of sunspots and solar magnetic fields investigated in NASA supercomputing simulations”

From The National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Via

“phys.org”

11.22.22
Frank Tavares | The National Aeronautics and Space Agency

Sun. Kelvinsong

The Sun is much more than just a source of light for Earth—it’s a dynamic and complex star, with storms, flares, and movement causing it to change constantly. Magnetic fields govern most of the solar activity we can observe but how they do this is still poorly understood. New results based on simulations out of NASA’s Advanced Supercomputing facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley are painting a more complete picture of one of the most prominent magnetically-driven solar features—a cycle of sunspot formation known as a “torsional oscillation.”

NASA SGI Intel Advanced Supercomputing Center Pleiades Supercomputer, housed at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

NASA Discover SGI Supercomputer- NASA’s Center for Climate Simulation Primary Computing Platform.

A computational analysis of data about the Sun’s structure and dynamics from two NASA spacecraft has revealed the strength of these torsional oscillations driven by the magnetic fields in the deep interior of the Sun are continuing to decline. This indicates that the current sunspot cycle may be weaker than the previous one, and the long-term trend of declining magnetic fields of the Sun is likely to continue. Such changes in the Sun’s interior may have impacts on space weather and the Earth’s atmosphere and climate.

The sunspot cycle begins when a sunspot begins to form at about 30 degrees latitude on the Sun’s surface. The formation zone then begins to migrate towards the equator. At its peak intensity, the Sun’s global magnetic field has its polar regions reversed—as if there were a positive and negative end of a magnet at each of the Sun’s poles, and they were switched. These 22-year variations are caused by dynamo processes inside the Sun.

Supercomputing Simulations Investigate Sunspots and Solar Magnetic Fields
This simulation shows the zonal flow patterns inside the Sun. Flow acceleration is shown in red, and deceleration in blue. The inner sphere shows the bottom of the convection zone. The study of these flows in the deep interior of the Sun through analysis of helioseismology data and numerical simulations helps to understand the processes of magnetic field generation and the origin of solar magnetic cycles. Credit: Alexander Kosovichev/New Jersey Institute of Technology; Tim Sandstrom/NASA Ames.

A dynamo process is when rotating, convecting, and electrically conducting fluid or plasma helps maintain a magnetic field. These deep magnetic fields are hidden, and can’t be observed directly, but their effects can be seen in the variations of solar rotation, creating a cyclical pattern of migrating flows across zones—the torsional oscillations. In some areas, this rotation speeds up or slows down, while in others it remains steady.

This analysis used data from two NASA missions, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory and the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganization]((EU)/National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite. Launched in 1995.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solar Dynamics Observatory.

The Joint Science Operations Center at Stanford University processed data from 22 years of observations from both missions—more than five petabytes in total. NASA’s supercomputing facilities handled flow analysis, numerical modeling, and visualization that gave scientists a better look at this complex pattern.

Going forward, improvements to the data’s resolution, data analysis techniques, and simulation models will help merge models of the Sun’s magnetic fields with those of sunspot activity, advancing the understanding of how these processes impact the Sun’s deep interior. What happens with the Sun, including the processes beneath its surface, affects the space weather that impacts the entire solar system, including Earth. The more we know about the star that lights our home, the better we can understand its impacts on our home planet.

Aitken at NASA Ames expands to become NASA’s most powerful supercomputer

A computational analysis of data about the Sun’s structure and dynamics from two NASA spacecraft has revealed the strength of these torsional oscillations driven by the magnetic fields in the deep interior of the Sun are continuing to decline. This indicates that the current sunspot cycle may be weaker than the previous one, and the long-term trend of declining magnetic fields of the Sun is likely to continue. Such changes in the Sun’s interior may have impacts on space weather and the Earth’s atmosphere and climate.

The sunspot cycle begins when a sunspot begins to form at about 30 degrees latitude on the Sun’s surface. The formation zone then begins to migrate towards the equator. At its peak intensity, the Sun’s global magnetic field has its polar regions reversed—as if there were a positive and negative end of a magnet at each of the Sun’s poles, and they were switched. These 22-year variations are caused by dynamo processes inside the Sun.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation’s civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.

Since that time, most U.S. space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program (LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. Most recently, NASA announced a new Space Launch System that it said would take the agency’s astronauts farther into space than ever before and lay the cornerstone for future human space exploration efforts by the U.S.

NASA science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System, advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission Directorate’s Heliophysics Research Program, exploring bodies throughout the Solar System with advanced robotic missions such as New Horizons, and researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang, through the Great Observatories [Hubble, Chandra,
Spitzer and associated programs, and now the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. NASA shares data with various national and international organizations such as from the [JAXA]Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite.

From The University of Queensland (AU) Via “Science Alert (AU)” : “Tree Rings Chronicle a Mysterious Cosmic Storm That Strikes Every Thousand Years”

From The University of Queensland (AU)

Via

“Science Alert (AU)”

10.26.22
Michelle Starr

(The University of Queensland)

The history of Earth’s bombardment with cosmic radiation is written in the trees.

Specifically, when radiation slams into Earth’s atmosphere, it can alter any nitrogen atoms it slams into to produce a form of carbon, which is in turn absorbed by plants. Linking spikes in this carbon isotope with the growth rings in trees can give us a reliable record of radiation storms going back thousands of years.

This record shows us that the most colossal of these events, known as “Miyake events” (after the scientist who discovered them), occur around once every thousand years. However, we don’t know what causes them – and new research suggests that our leading theory, involving giant solar flares, could be off the table.

Without an easy way to predict these potentially devastating events, we’re left with a serious problem.

“We need to know more, because if one of these happened today, it would destroy technology including satellites, internet cables, long-distance power lines and transformers,” says astrophysicist Benjamin Pope of the University of Queensland in Australia.

“The effect on global infrastructure would be unimaginable.”

The history of Earth’s encounters with storms of cosmic radiation is there to decipher if you know how to look. The main clue is a radioactive isotope of carbon called carbon-14, often referred to as radiocarbon. Compared to other naturally occurring isotopes of carbon on Earth, radiocarbon is relatively scarce. It forms only in the upper atmosphere, when cosmic rays collide with nitrogen atoms, triggering a nuclear reaction that creates radiocarbon.

Because cosmic rays are constantly colliding with our atmosphere, we have a constant but very small supply of the stuff raining down on the surface. Some of it gets caught up in tree rings. Since trees add a new growth ring every year, the radiocarbon deposition can be traced back through time, giving a record of radiation activity over tens of millennia.

A large spike in radiocarbon found in trees around the world means an uptick in cosmic radiation. There are several mechanisms that can cause this, and solar flares are a big one. But there are some other possible sources of radiation storms that haven’t been conclusively ruled out. Nor have solar flares been conclusively ruled in.

Because interpreting tree ring data necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the global carbon cycle, a team of researchers led by mathematician Qingyuan Zhang of the University of Queensland set about reconstructing the global carbon cycle, based on every scrap of tree ring radiocarbon data they could get their hands on.

“When radiation strikes the atmosphere it produces radioactive carbon-14, which filters through the air, oceans, plants, and animals, and produces an annual record of radiation in tree rings,” Zhang explains.

“We modeled the global carbon cycle to reconstruct the process over a 10,000-year period, to gain insight into the scale and nature of the Miyake events.”

The results of this modeling gave the team an extremely detailed picture of a number of radiation events – enough to conclude that the timing and profile is inconsistent with solar flares. The spikes in radiocarbon do not correlate with sunspot activity, which is itself linked with flare activity. Some spikes persisted across multiple years.

And there was inconsistency in the radiocarbon profiles between regions for the same event. For one major event, recorded in 774 CE, some trees in some parts of the world showed sharp, sudden rises in radiocarbon for one year, while others showed a slower spike across two to three years.

“Rather than a single instantaneous explosion or flare, what we may be looking at is a kind of astrophysical ‘storm’ or outburst,” Zhang says.

The researchers don’t know, at this point, what might be causing those outbursts, but there are a number of candidates. One of those is supernova events, the radiation from which can blast across space. A supernova possibly did take place in 774 CE, and scientists have made links between radiocarbon spikes and other possible supernova events, but we have known supernovae with no radiocarbon spikes, and spikes with no linked supernovae.

Other potential causes include solar superflares, but a flare powerful enough to produce the 774 CE radiocarbon spike is unlikely to have erupted from our Sun. Perhaps there’s some previously unrecorded solar activity. But the fact is, there’s no simple explanation that neatly explains what causes Miyake events.

And this, according to the researchers, is a worry. The human world has changed dramatically since 774 CE; a Miyake event now could cause what the scientists call an “internet apocalypse” as infrastructure gets damaged, harm the health of air travelers, and even deplete the ozone layer.

“Based on available data, there’s roughly a one percent chance of seeing another one within the next decade,” Pope says.

“But we don’t know how to predict it or what harms it may cause. These odds are quite alarming, and lay the foundation for further research.”

The research has been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences.

See the full article here .

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The University of Queensland (AU) is a public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone universities, an informal designation of the oldest university in each state. The University of Queensland was ranked second nationally by the Australian Research Council in the latest research assessment and equal second in Australia based on the average of four major global university league tables. The University of Queensland is a founding member of edX, Australia’s leading Group of Eight and the international research-intensive Association of Pacific Rim Universities.

The main St Lucia campus occupies much of the riverside inner suburb of St Lucia, southwest of the Brisbane central business district. Other University of Queensland campuses and facilities are located throughout Queensland, the largest of which are the Gatton campus and the Mayne Medical School. University of Queensland’s overseas establishments include University of Queensland North America office in Washington D.C., and the University of Queensland-Ochsner Clinical School in Louisiana, United States.

The university offers associate, bachelor, master, doctoral, and higher doctorate degrees through a college, a graduate school, and six faculties. University of Queensland incorporates over one hundred research institutes and centres offering research programs, such as the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Boeing Research and Technology Australia Centre, the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, and the University of Queensland Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation. Recent notable research of the university include pioneering the invention of the HPV vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, developing a COVID-19 vaccine that was in human trials, and the development of high-performance superconducting MRI magnets for portable scanning of human limbs.

The University of Queensland counts two Nobel laureates (Peter C. Doherty and John Harsanyi), over a hundred Olympians winning numerous gold medals, and 117 Rhodes Scholars among its alumni and former staff. University of Queensland’s alumni also include The University of California-San Francisco,The University of Queensland (AU) Chancellor Sam Hawgood, the first female Governor-General of Australia Dame Quentin Bryce, former President of King’s College London (UK) Ed Byrne, member of United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Council for Science and Technology Max Lu, Oscar and Emmy awards winner Geoffrey Rush, triple Grammy Award winner Tim Munro, the former CEO and Chairman of Dow Chemical, and current Director of DowDuPont Andrew N. Liveris.

Research

The University of Queensland has a strong research focus in science, medicine and technology. The university’s research advancement includes pioneering the development of the cervical cancer vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, by University of Queensland Professor Ian Frazer. In 2009, the Australian Cancer Research Foundation reported that University of Queensland had taken the lead in numerous areas of cancer research.

In the Commonwealth Government’s Excellence in Research for Australia 2012 National Report, University of Queensland’s research is rated above world standard in more broad fields than at any other Australian university (in 22 broad fields), and more University of Queensland researchers are working in research fields that ERA has assessed as above world standard than at any other Australian university. University of Queensland research in biomedical and clinical health sciences, technology, engineering, biological sciences, chemical sciences, environmental sciences, and physical sciences was ranked above world standard (rating 5).

In 2015, University of Queensland is ranked by Nature Index as the research institution with the highest volume of research output in both interdisciplinary journals Nature and Science within the southern hemisphere, with approximately twofold more output than the global average.

In 2020 Clarivate named 34 UQ professors to its list of Highly Cited Researchers.

Aside from disciplinary-focused teaching and research within the academic faculties, the university maintains a number of interdisciplinary research institutes and centres at the national, state and university levels. For example, the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, the University of Queensland Seismology Station, Heron Island Research Station and the Institute of Modern Languages.

With the support from the Queensland Government, the Australian Government and major donor The Atlantic Philanthropies, The University of Queensland dedicates basic, translational and applied research via the following research-focused institutes:

Institute for Molecular Bioscience – within the Queensland Bioscience Precinct which houses scientists from the CSIRO-Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU) and the Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery

Translational Research Institute, which houses The University of Queensland’s Diamantina Institute, School of Medicine and the Mater Medical Research Institute
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Institute for Social Science Research
Sustainable Mineral Institute
Global Change Institute
Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Science
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Queensland Brain Institute
Centre for Advanced Imaging
Boeing Research and Technology Australia Centre
UQ Dow Centre

The University of Queensland plays a key role in Brisbane Diamantina Health Partners, Queensland’s first academic health science system. This partnership currently comprises Children’s Health Queensland, Mater Health Services, Metro North Hospital and Health Service, Metro South Health, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, The Queensland University of Technology (AU), The University of Queensland and the Translational Research Institute.

International partnerships

The University of Queensland has a number of agreements in place with many of her international peers, including: Princeton University, The University of Pennsylvania, The University of California, Washington University in St. Louis, The University of Toronto (CA), McGill University (CA), The University of British Columbia (CA), Imperial College London (UK), University College London (UK), The University of Edinburgh (SCT), Balsillie School of International Affairs (CA), Sciences Po (FR), Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich [Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München](DE), Technical University of Munich [Technische Universität München] (DE), The University of Zürich [Universität Zürich ](CH), The University of Auckland (NZ), The National University of Singapore [universiti kebangsaan singapura] (SG), Nanyang Technological University [Universiti Teknologi Nanyang](SG),Peking University [北京大学](CN), The University of Hong Kong [香港大學] (HKU) (HK), The University of Tokyo[(東京大] (JP), The National Taiwan University [國立臺灣大學](TW), and The Seoul National University [서울대학교](KR).

From The NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory Via “COSMOS (AU)” : “NASA catches Sun releasing an ‘X level’ solar flare”

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solar Dynamics Observatory.

From The NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory

Via

“COSMOS (AU)”

10.5.22
Jacinta Bowler

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the top right – on Oct. 2, 2022. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in orange. Credit: NASA/SDO.

NASA has snapped the most powerful catagory of solar flare on camera while it was on it’s way to Earth.

The flare – which was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory [below]– is classed as an X1. X-class denotes that it’s one of the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

X-flares are the top classification and these are 10 times stronger than the next level down – M flares.

Major solar flares can knock out certain radio frequencies and can make GPS positioning less accurate.

We’re currently heading towards the Solar Maximum – a time when solar flares are at their most frequent, strong, and potentially catastrophic if they hit Earth.

But even before we get there, the last few months have exceeded predictions and occasionally SpaceX satellites fall out of the sky as a result.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy, creating an eruption of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun’s atmosphere. Flares regularly come with coronal mass ejections, or solar radiation storms, which can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

As we become increasingly reliant on technology and satellites which are less protected from solar activity, such events could be even more troubling.

In 1972, a solar flare knocked out long-distance telephone communication across the US while a 1989 solar flare left six million Canadians without power for nine hours. And in 2000 an X5-class solar flare on Bastille Day caused some satellites to short circuit and led to radio blackouts.

A huge silver lining though is that auroras are more common and can be seen further from the poles after a big solar storm.

This rise and fall of solar activity is on an 11 year cycle, and at its most active, called solar maximum, the Sun is freckled with sunspots and its magnetic poles reverse.

During solar minimum, on the other hand, sunspots are few and far between. Often, the Sun is as blank and featureless as an egg yolk.

December 2019 marked the beginning of Solar Cycle 25, and already we’re seeing a huge ramp up of solar activity before the next solar maximum in 2025.

Space.com reported that the X1 solar flare might have disrupted Hurricane Ian disaster response. The radio blackout, classed by NOAA as ‘R3’, likely affected rescue workers using 25 MHz radios to communicate.

The disruption in the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere caused by the flare may also have disrupted some GPS positioning.

See the full article here .

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

The NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory is a NASA mission which has been observing the Sun since 2010. Launched on 11 February 2010, the observatory is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program.

The goal of the LWS program is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to effectively address those aspects of the connected Sun–Earth system directly affecting life and society. The goal of the SDO is to understand the influence of the Sun on the Earth and near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously. SDO has been investigating how the Sun’s magnetic field is generated and structured, how this stored magnetic energy is converted and released into the heliosphere and geospace in the form of solar wind, energetic particles, and variations in the solar irradiance.

The SDO spacecraft was developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and launched on 11 February 2010, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The primary mission lasted five years and three months, with expendables expected to last at least ten years. Some consider SDO to be a follow-on mission to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

The European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU)/National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationSOHO satellite. Launched in 1995.

SDO is a three-axis stabilized spacecraft, with two solar arrays, and two high-gain antennas, in an inclined geosynchronous orbit around Earth.

The spacecraft includes three instruments:

the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) built in partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP),
the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) built in partnership with Stanford University, and
the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) built in partnership with the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL).

Data which is collected by the craft is made available as soon as possible, after it is received.

As of February 2020, SDO is expected to remain operational until 2030.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation’s civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.

Since that time, most U.S. space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program (LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. Most recently, NASA announced a new Space Launch System that it said would take the agency’s astronauts farther into space than ever before and lay the cornerstone for future human space exploration efforts by the U.S.

NASA science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System, advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission Directorate’s Heliophysics Research Program, exploring bodies throughout the Solar System with advanced robotic missions such as New Horizons, and researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang, through the Great Observatories [NASA/ESA Hubble, NASA Chandra, NASA Spitzer, and associated programs.] NASA shares data with various national and international organizations such as from [JAXA]Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite.

From Columbia University: “Where do High-Energy Particles That Endanger Satellites and Astronauts and Airplanes Come From?”

From Columbia University

9.13.22
Christopher D. Shea

NASA Parker Solar Probe Plus named to honor Pioneering Physicist Eugene Parker. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.

NASA Parker Solar Probe schematic The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab annotated.

For decades scientists have been trying to solve a vexing problem about the weather in outer space: At unpredictable times, high-energy particles bombard the earth and objects outside the earth’s atmosphere with radiation that can endanger the lives of astronauts and destroy satellites’ electronic equipment. These flare-ups can even trigger showers of radiation strong enough to reach passengers in airplanes flying over the North Pole. Despite scientists’ best efforts, a clear pattern of how and when flare-ups will occur has remained enduringly difficult to identify.

This week, in a paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters [below], authors Luca Comisso and Lorenzo Sironi of Columbia’s Department of Astronomy and the Astrophysics Laboratory, have for the first time used supercomputers to simulate when and how high-energy particles are born in turbulent environments like that on the atmosphere of the sun. This new research paves the way for more accurate predictions of when dangerous bursts of these particles will occur.

“This exciting new research will allow us to better predict the origin of solar energetic particles and improve forecasting models of space weather events, a key goal of NASA and other space agencies and governments around the globe,” Comisso said. Within the next couple of years, he added, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, the closest spacecraft to the sun, may be able to validate the paper’s findings by directly observing the predicted distribution of high-energy particles that are generated in the sun’s outer atmosphere.

In their paper Comisso and Sironi demonstrate that magnetic fields in the outer atmosphere of the sun can accelerate ions and electrons up to velocities close to the speed of light. The sun and other stars’ outer atmosphere consist of particles in a plasma state, a highly turbulent state distinct from liquid, gas, and solid states. Scientists have long believed that the sun’s plasma generates high-energy particles. But particles in plasma move so erratically and unpredictably that they have until now not been able to fully demonstrate how and when this occurs.

Using supercomputers at Columbia, NASA, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Comisso and Sironi created computer simulations that show the exact movements of electrons and ions in the sun’s plasma. These simulations mimic the atmospheric conditions on the sun, and provide the most extensive data gathered to-date on how and when high-energy particles will form.

The research provides answers to questions that scientists have been investigating for at least 70 years: In 1949, the physicist Enrico Fermi began to investigate magnetic fields in outer space as a potential source of the high-energy particles (which he called cosmic rays) that were observed entering the earth’s atmosphere. Since then, scientists have suspected that the sun’s plasma is a major source of these particles, but definitively proving it has been difficult.

Comisso and Sironi’s research, which was conducted with support from NASA and the National Science Foundation, has implications far beyond our own solar system. The vast majority of the observable matter in the universe is in a plasma state. Understanding how some of the particles that constitute plasma can be accelerated to high-energy levels is an important new research area since energetic particles are routinely observed not just around the sun but also in other environments across the universe, including the surroundings of black holes and neutron stars.

While Comisso and Sironi’s new paper focuses on the sun, further simulations could be run in other contexts to understand how and when distant stars, black holes, and other entities in the universe will generate their own bursts of energy.

“Our results center on the sun but can also be seen as a starting point to better understanding how high-energy particles are produced in more distant stars and around black holes,” Comisso said. “We’ve only scratched the surface of what supercomputer simulations can tell us about how these particles are born across the universe.”

Science paper:
The Astrophysical Journal Letters

See the full article here .

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Columbia University was founded in 1754 as King’s College by royal charter of King George II of England. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York and the fifth oldest in the United States.

University Mission Statement

Columbia University is one of the world’s most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the University to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.

Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League. Columbia is ranked among the top universities in the world by major education publications.

Columbia was established as King’s College by royal charter from King George II of Great Britain in reaction to the founding of Princeton College. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolution, and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved to its current location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University.

Columbia scientists and scholars have played an important role in scientific breakthroughs including brain-computer interface; the laser and maser; nuclear magnetic resonance; the first nuclear pile; the first nuclear fission reaction in the Americas; the first evidence for plate tectonics and continental drift; and much of the initial research and planning for the Manhattan Project during World War II. Columbia is organized into twenty schools, including four undergraduate schools and 15 graduate schools. The university’s research efforts include the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and accelerator laboratories with major technology firms such as IBM. Columbia is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the M.D. degree. With over 14 million volumes, Columbia University Library is the third largest private research library in the United States.

The university’s endowment stands at $11.26 billion in 2020, among the largest of any academic institution. As of October 2020, Columbia’s alumni, faculty, and staff have included: five Founding Fathers of the United States—among them a co-author of the United States Constitution and a co-author of the Declaration of Independence; three U.S. presidents; 29 foreign heads of state; ten justices of the United States Supreme Court, one of whom currently serves; 96 Nobel laureates; five Fields Medalists; 122 National Academy of Sciences members; 53 living billionaires; eleven Olympic medalists; 33 Academy Award winners; and 125 Pulitzer Prize recipients.