Solar and STP science with AstroGrid Silvia Dalla School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Manchester A PPARC funded project

Science questions Solar: energy transfer from magnetic fields to the plasma in the corona (coronal heating) Transient energy release events: solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) STP (=Solar Terrestrial Physics): the Sun's influence on the Earth environment – geomagnetic storms, space weather

AstroGrid and solar/STP Apply processing tool over a large number of events – allows statistical studies, rather than based on a few events. Observe solar features in multiple wavelengths. Allow work involving solar (images), interplanetary, magnetospheric, ionospheric (time series) datasets. Link models with data.

Solar datasets and tools MSSL SURF archive: SOHO/CDS and TRACE Virtual Solar Observatory: SOHO/EIT EGSO: Solar Event Catalogue (SEC) Solar tools: Solar Movie Maker Solar Overlay Generic Movie Maker

Solar Movie Maker Service

New tool: Time Cross Matcher Modification of the 'standard' AstroGrid X-Matcher so that 2 catalogues can be matched on the basis of event time. Example: Catalogue of Soft- X-ray flares (GOES), characterised by start/end times and several other parameters. Time-X-match with catalogue of hard-X-ray flares observed by RHESSI spacecraft. GOES GOES + RHESSI

STP study: Geoeffectiveness of CMEs Investigate the chain of events starting with a CME at the Sun, and leading to a geomagnetic storm and aurora at the Earth. Can we predict if a CME will hit Earth and cause a geomagnetic storm? Space weather. How is this process influenced by conditions in the interplanetary medium ? with Mike Pinnock, Ian McCrea (RAL) et al

STP study – cont’d Query catalogue of halo CMEs Retrieval of interplanetary magnetic field and solar wind data (ACE spacecraft) [t-series] Retrieval of geomagnetic indeces (RAL) [t-series] IDL tool extracting time series parameters (DST < 75? geoeffectiveness = 1) and making a summary plot Summary votable constructed including CME, interplanetary, geomagnetic parameters

Solar study 1: type III productive hard X-ray flares Aim: compare flare emission at radio and hard X-ray wavelength. Test the hypothesis that type III radio emission tends to be associated with hard X-ray flares of hard electron spectral index. with Lyndsay Fletcher (Glasgow) Type III burst

Solar study 1 - contd Access RHESSI fits data. IDL tool calculates spectral ratio for RHESSI flares. Time X-match radio type III and Hard-X-ray votables B. Dennis GSFC

Solar study 2: Are Active Regions emerging near existing ARs more flare-productive? New active regions emerge on the solar disk every day Flare productivity increases with magnetic complexity in an AR. Is an AR emerging on disk near another one, more likely to produce flares than an isolated AR? with Lyndsay Fletcher (Glasgow)

Solar study 2: contd Multiple queries to Active Region catalogue in a workflow loop, to establish ARs emerging on visible disk (rather than rotating into view) Define a region of given radius around newly emerged AR – any other ARs ? Time X-match votable of ARs with flare catalogue -> establish flare productivity

Conclusions and future work AstroGrid workflow environment is a powerful tool for developing solar and STP studies involving a large number of events, and requiring multiple catalogues and datasets. Time X matcher a very useful tool for Solar/STP. In the next few months, expand range of datasets available. First example of STP model running as CEA application: CTIP model developed at UCL. Standardise access to time-based datasets. Provide helper application for display of time series data.