Action Team: Sun-Spacecraft and Sun-Earth Magnetic Connectivity Join The Team

Team ID: S2-05

Team Leads:

Rui Pinto (IRAP, University of Toulouse, France), rui.pinto@irap.omp.eu

Jon Linker (Predictive Science Inc., USA), linkerj@predsci.com

Keywords (Impact):
Electric power systems, GICs, Satellite/debris drag, Navigation and/or Communications, (Aero)space assets functions, Human exploration

Keywords (Activity Type):
Requirements, Modeling, Forecasting, Data Utilization, Information Architecture, Assessment 
 

Introduction:

Establishing magnetic connectivity from the solar surface to any point in the interplanetary space is a key challenge in today's space physics. Solar Orbiter operations require a priori knowledge of the regions of the observed solar disk and corona that will either be connected magnetically to the spacecraft within at least few-days lead time, or be the source of solar wind flows and particles that are likely to be detected in-situ. More generally, relating remote observations to in-situ data from one or more spacecraft (e.g, synergies between Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe) requires tools and methods that establish connectivity systematically. 
A web-based tool (the IRAP's connectivity tool) already provides continuously a set of magnetic field connectivity forecasts (as well as past-event estimations) for different locations. The tool relies on robust observational and modeling methods, and aims at federating/integrating diverse contributions from the community in a common operational framework. This effort, supported by the ESA's Solar Orbiter MADAWG group, serves as a test-bed for space-weather predictive models and will provide deeper insights on the multitude of processes that have an impact on the propagation of solar disturbances across the corona and heliosphere.

Objectives:

The main goals of the action team are to:

  • Evaluate the capabilities of the connectivity methods already implemented, and identify current limitations.
  • Define forecast validation metrics and test-cases.
  • Propose future improvements and/or the integration of new methods (models, datasets).
  • Discuss strategies to relate observations and measurements from multiple sources, and to coordinate future multiple spacecraft campaigns.

Action Topics:

  • Analysis, modeling and prediction of coronal structure and solar wind sources,
  • Definition of metrics and validation for coronal structures,
  • Quantification of uncertainties in mapping to solar wind sources.

Clusters with overlapping topics: 

S1: Long term solar variability, S2: Ambient solar magnetic field, heating and spectral irradiance, H1: Heliospheric magnetic field and solar wind, H2: CME structure, evolution and propagation through heliosphere

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