1. Comprehensive analysis of the Geoeffective Solar Event of June 21, 2015: Effects on the Magnetosphere, Plasmasphere and Ionosphere Systems - part 1.
Francesca Zuccarello (1) et al.
(1)Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania, Italy.
14° European Space Weather Week
November 27 – December : Session 3

2. Summary and Conclusions
Comprehensive analysis of the Geoeffective Solar Event of June 21, 2015: Effects on the Magnetosphere, Plasmasphere and Ionosphere Systems - part 1.
Active Region NOAA 12371
Observations at different λ;
Magnetic configuration;
Fractal analysis;
Flare forecasting
The flare SOL T01:02
Flare evolution;
The associated CME
SEP event
General Features;
The SEP forecast method;
Summary and Conclusions

3. Characteristics of solar active region NOAA 12371
Left: Map of the photospheric continuum of AR NOAA 12371, acquired by SDO/HMI some minutes before SOL T01:02. The region indicated with a solid line shows the FOV used for the analysis of SOT/SP data.
Middle: Simultaneous SDO/HMI magnetogram. The values of the longitudinal field are saturated at ±2000 G (white/black).
Right: Simultaneous SDO/HMI magnetogram. Red (blue) areas indicate positive (negative) polarity. SDO/AIA emission at 304 ̊A passband is superimposed on the magnetogram map.
The AR exhibites a central part with opposite polarities in contact to each other, sharing some penumbral filaments (δ configuration, middle panel).
At chromospheric heights, a sigmoidal-like structure is visible along the polarity inversion line (PIL) present in the region (right panel)

4. Fractal and multi-fractal analysis
Vertical thin-solid (thin-dashed) lines indicate the time of occurrence of M-class (C-class) flares hosted by the AR.
Flares associated with the CME occurred on June 21, 2015 are indicated by thick-solid line.
Error bars show the uncertainty associated with the measured values, details are given in the text. For clarity, the error bars are only shown for the results from unsigned flux data.
Time series of the fractal and multifractal parameters measured on the AR 12371, by considering both unsigned (black circles) and signed (positive and negative, red diamonds and blue crosses, respectively) flux data.
Top: fractal parameters D0 (left) and D8 (right). Bottom: Cdiv (left) and Ddiv (right). Time 0 corresponds to 00:00 UT on June 20, 2015.
While the above measurements point out the eruptive potential of the AR NOAA ahead of the events occurred on June 21, 2015, they also suggest the lack of clear effects of these events in the photospheric magnetic field configuration.

5. Flare forecasting parameters from SDO/HMI magnetograms
The log(R) parameter as a function of time. We report the probability to have a flare > M1 in the next 24 hours. Shaded areas: flares > M1 produced by AR12371, in red the flare investigated in this work.
Rescaled parameters as a function of time. Shaded yellow area: solar longitude > 60◦. Shaded grey and red: flares > M1 produced by AR12371.
Log(R) is a proxy of the photospheric electrical currents introduced in Schrijver (2007) and is a measure of the maximum energy available in the AR.

6. Velocity maps and magnetic field extrapolation
Flows not related to the Evershed flow have been singled out.
They are reminiscent of the velocity field configuration found in δ complexes, which has been attributed to shear accumulation.
Linear force-free field extrapolation of the photospheric magnetic field of the AR NOAA
Potential field extrapolation of the full disk magnetic field on June 21 at 00:04 UT. On the solar surface the longitudinal component of the photospheric magnetic field taken by SDO/HMI is shown
Top: Map of the Doppler velocity of acquired by SDO/HMI some minutes before the flare.
Bottom: Same at the time of flare peak. Doppler velocity is saturated at ∓1.5 km s−1 (blue/red).

7. Characteristics of the flares
GOES X-rays flux curves in the 1-8 A channel (solid line) and in the A channel (dotted line). Vertical line: time of the first detection of the halo CME.
Sequence of AIA 211 A images
showing the evolution of the flare
The M2.0 flare is located along the PIL. SDO/HMI magnetogram at the peak of flare. Red (blue) areas indicate positive (negative) polarity. A composite image of SDO/AIA emission at 94 ̊A and 335 ̊A passbands is superimposed on the magnetogram map.

8. Evolution of the shear angle and of the dip angle
Map of the vertical component of the magnetic field some minutes before the flare. Solid red line: PIL.
Simultaneous map of the shear angle
Map of the shear angle three hours after the flares.
The analysis of the shear angle, of the gradient of the vertical magnetic field and of the electric current indicate that an energy storage mechanism, compatible with shear accumulation, is active before the eruption.
After the flares, the region of the δ complex achieves a more relaxed state.

9. The associated Halo Coronal Mass Ejection
The size of the region involved by the flare is quite large, implying a considerable amount of mass which could be ejected and be later observed as a coronal mass ejection
At 02:36 UT the LASCO* coronagraphs aboard the SOHO satellite first observed the halo CME expanding into the heliosphere.
The CORIMP Catalogue provides a projected speed going up to ∼ 600−1100 km s−1 around ∼ 6 UT and then progressively decreasing down to ∼ 200 − 500 km s−1
difference between the pB image acquired during the halo CME (polarized sequence acquired on June 21 between 02:54 and 03:02 UT) and the last pB image available before the eruption (polarized sequence acquired on June 20 between 21:00 and 21:08 UT). Negative values (black) have been excluded in the polarization ratio analysis to consider only pixels (white) where the CME transit leads to a density increase.
Left: difference between the pB image acquired during the halo CME and the last pB image available before the eruption. White pixels indicate density increase. Right: map of the position along the LOS of the density increases associated with the CME.
The reconstructed cloud of 3D points has a distribution similar to the surface of a cone with vertex located on the CME source region on the Sun and axis parallel to the line of sight.
* No STEREO observations

10. The SEP event of 21 June
Temporal behavior of the proton integral (top) and differential (bottom) flux as recorded in different energy channels by EPAD/GOES and EPAM/ACE, respectively, during the June 21 SEP event.
The cyan, dashed black and solid black lines mark the time of the associated flare maximum, June 19 CME-driven shock and June 21 CME-driven shock at ACE, respectively.

11. Vertical line: maximum time of the M2.6 flare;
Top panel: GOES proton fluxes as a function of time in three energy intervals.
Bottom panel: PAMELA counts per second for three different rigidity channels.
Vertical line: maximum time of the M2.6 flare;
Horizontal line highlights the almost undisturbed ∼ 1500 MV count rate plus the Forbush decrease created by the Halo CME associated to the flare.
The longer data sampling for PAMELA (3 hours) with respect to the GOES one (only 32 seconds) is due to both statistical and orbital limitations. The latter are caused by the magnetic cut-off threshold which blocks the arrival of very low energy particles in specific regions of the Earth.
Time history of the cosmic ray intensity recorded at the Rome NM (SVIRCO Observatory) for June 2015

12. SEP event forecasting
The forecast of the June 21, 2015 SEP event is provided by the ESPERTA model (Laurenza et al., 2009; Alberti et al., 2017a), which allows to give a warning within 10 minutes following the flare maximum.
Inputs of the model:
the flare location,
the 1 − 8 A SXR integrated intensity
∼ 1 MHz Type III time-integrated intensity
Probability contours (solid lines) for SEP forecasting as function of the time-integrated radio intensity at 1 MHz and the time-integrated X-ray flare intensity, for the flare longitude range E40 - W19. If the values of the associated flare parameters are located above the dashed curve, an SEP event is predicted to occur.
The values for the M2.6 flare (having longitude W00) are indicated by the magenta asterisk, i.e., above the probability threshold. Hence, a positive forecast is issued at 02:46 UT (10 minutes after the SXR peak), with a leading time of ∼ 19 hours (the SEP event occurred at 21:35 UT).

13. Conclusions (Part 1)
AR with a complex δ configuration and a sigmoidal-like structure along the PIL
Fractal analysis: eruptive potential of the AR, but lack of clear effects on Bphot
Log(R)  high probability of M-class flare occurrence
Velocity field map  shear accumulation
Shear angle, ∇Bz and ∇I  energy storage (due to shear accumulation)
The M2.0 flare is located along the PIL
After the flares, the δ complex achieves a more relaxed state.
Halo CME: reconstructed cloud of 3D points  surface of a cone with vertex located on the CME source region.

14. Continues …..