Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?
Undergraduate
Project Type
individual
Campus
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Grace Gratton, Junior
Lead Presenter's Name
Grace Gratton
Lead Presenter's College
DB College of Arts and Sciences
Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Samantha Wallace
Abstract
Highly dynamic and structured mesoscale solar wind continually buffets Earth's magnetosphere, the moon, and Mars. These mesoscale structures cause several significant risks to spacecraft and astronauts, including driving radiation belt depletion and amplifying the hazards of CMEs and SIRs through upstream solar wind preconditioning. Characterizing the solar origins and solar wind properties of geoeffective mesoscale structures is essential for eventually forecasting their arrival and space weather impact at various satellites. In this interdisciplinary work, we leverage modeling and data analysis to characterize a series of events observed by the Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses (BARREL) instrument – in which Bremsstrahlung X-rays observed in Earth’s upper atmosphere (generated by relativistic electron precipitation from the radiation belts) exhibit periodicities that match those detected upstream in solar wind density fluctuations. We use the Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA) model, which derives the solar wind’s source at the Sun, to bridge in situ solar wind, magnetosphere, and Earth upper-atmospheric measurements with their source at the Sun. We characterize 148 BARREL events from 2013–2020 based on their solar sources (i.e. active region, quiet Sun, or coronal hole), heliospheric context (spacecraft separation from the HCS and S-web), and in-situ solar wind properties observed at ACE, including composition, a conserved property set in the corona. We also identify 483 all possible events during which a BARREL balloon was active. We find that the BARREL events characteristically originate from the magnetic open-closed boundary where interchange reconnection is driving the release of the solar wind. They also originate near the S-web and super-radially expanded fields near active regions. The solar wind composition shows no strong bias relative to all solar wind observed. The results of this work are a significant step towards developing a space weather forecasting framework for the ambient solar wind.
Did this research project receive funding support (Spark, SURF, Research Abroad, Student Internal Grants, Collaborative, Climbing, or Ignite Grants) from the Office of Undergraduate Research?
No
Included in
Atmospheric Sciences Commons, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons, Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy Commons
Results and Implications for Space Weather Forecasting of Periodic Mesoscale Solar Wind Structures Responsible for Radiation Belt Particle Loss
Highly dynamic and structured mesoscale solar wind continually buffets Earth's magnetosphere, the moon, and Mars. These mesoscale structures cause several significant risks to spacecraft and astronauts, including driving radiation belt depletion and amplifying the hazards of CMEs and SIRs through upstream solar wind preconditioning. Characterizing the solar origins and solar wind properties of geoeffective mesoscale structures is essential for eventually forecasting their arrival and space weather impact at various satellites. In this interdisciplinary work, we leverage modeling and data analysis to characterize a series of events observed by the Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses (BARREL) instrument – in which Bremsstrahlung X-rays observed in Earth’s upper atmosphere (generated by relativistic electron precipitation from the radiation belts) exhibit periodicities that match those detected upstream in solar wind density fluctuations. We use the Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA) model, which derives the solar wind’s source at the Sun, to bridge in situ solar wind, magnetosphere, and Earth upper-atmospheric measurements with their source at the Sun. We characterize 148 BARREL events from 2013–2020 based on their solar sources (i.e. active region, quiet Sun, or coronal hole), heliospheric context (spacecraft separation from the HCS and S-web), and in-situ solar wind properties observed at ACE, including composition, a conserved property set in the corona. We also identify 483 all possible events during which a BARREL balloon was active. We find that the BARREL events characteristically originate from the magnetic open-closed boundary where interchange reconnection is driving the release of the solar wind. They also originate near the S-web and super-radially expanded fields near active regions. The solar wind composition shows no strong bias relative to all solar wind observed. The results of this work are a significant step towards developing a space weather forecasting framework for the ambient solar wind.