Solar Dynamics Observatory Mission Research Articles

Energy Deposition into the Ionosphere during a Solar Flare with Extreme-ultraviolet Late Phase

Solar extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) irradiance is the dominant energy source for ionizing and heating the Earth’s upper atmosphere. It is common to assume that the spectra of different EUV lines have the same trend to fill the solar EUV irradiance gap for modeling purposes due to inadequate EUV irradiance measurements. However, the spectra across the EUV bands may not vary in the same trend. The flare radiation energy release in the EUV (10–120 nm) is about twice as much as X-rays (0.1–10 nm) during flare interval ∼03–06 UT on 2012 October 23. By assimilating the observed nonuniform varying, time-dependent, and high-resolution solar spectrum from the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission into the modeling framework, we provide the first direct evidence of nonuniform varying solar EUV fluxes during the solar flare EUV late phase (ELP) having appreciable effects on the dayside ionosphere. The total EUV radiation energy release (5.838 × 1028 erg) during the flare ELP is larger than that (5.698 × 1028 erg) during the flare main phase. The ELP of an X1.8-class solar flare on 2012 October 23 can increase the dayside ionospheric density at the subsolar point by ∼5 TECU and the ionospheric density enhancements extend from the bottom to the peak of the F2 region at low latitudes with relative changes ranging from ∼20% to ∼100%. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating a realistic, high spectral and temporal resolution solar irradiance spectrum into numerical models to capture the observed time-varying ionospheric response to solar flares.

Partially Erupted Prominence Material as a Diagnostic of Coronal Mass Ejection Trajectory

AbstractCoronal mass ejections (CMEs) are energetic releases of large‐scale magnetic structures from the Sun. CMEs can have impacts on spacecraft and at Earth. This trajectory is typically assumed to be radial, but often the CME moves outward with some spatial offset from the source region where the eruption initially occurred. A CME is frequently accompanied by a prominence eruption, a movement of cool, dense material up into the corona that can be ejected or fall back down. We investigate eruptions in which some portion of the prominence material falls back to the Sun along field lines which have reconfigured in the eruption, rather than draining back to the source or escaping with the CME. Using a method called persistence mapping, 304 Å images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), and coronagraph images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, we measure and compare the offsets in latitude of 20 CMEs and their respective prominences with respect to the source region. The 20 events were chosen to sample over the first 10 years of the SDO mission. We find that the offsets are correlated. We find no difference between eruptions offset toward the equator or the poles, suggesting that the offset is a result of local changes in the eruptive field, rather than of the Sun's global magnetic field structure. These findings help us contextualize individual eruptions and highlight changes in the local magnetic field associated with the prominence eruption.

Extreme-UV quiet Sun brightenings observed by the Solar Orbiter/EUI

Context. The heating of the solar corona by small heating events requires an increasing number of such events at progressively smaller scales, with the bulk of the heating occurring at scales that are currently unresolved. Aims. The goal of this work is to study the smallest brightening events observed in the extreme-UV quiet Sun. Methods. We used commissioning data taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on board the recently launched Solar Orbiter mission. On 30 May 2020, the EUI was situated at 0.556 AU from the Sun. Its High Resolution EUV telescope (HRIEUV, 17.4 nm passband) reached an exceptionally high two-pixel spatial resolution of 400 km. The size and duration of small-scale structures was determined by the HRIEUV data, while their height was estimated from triangulation with simultaneous images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission. This is the first stereoscopy of small-scale brightenings at high resolution. Results. We observed small localised brightenings, also known as ‘campfires’, in a quiet Sun region with length scales between 400 km and 4000 km and durations between 10 s and 200 s. The smallest and weakest of these HRIEUV brightenings have not been previously observed. Simultaneous observations from the EUI High-resolution Lyman-α telescope (HRILya) do not show localised brightening events, but the locations of the HRIEUV events clearly correspond to the chromospheric network. Comparisons with simultaneous AIA images shows that most events can also be identified in the 17.1 nm, 19.3 nm, 21.1 nm, and 30.4 nm pass-bands of AIA, although they appear weaker and blurred. Our differential emission measure analysis indicated coronal temperatures peaking at log T ≈ 6.1 − 6.15. We determined the height for a few of these campfires to be between 1000 and 5000 km above the photosphere. Conclusions. We find that ‘campfires’ are mostly coronal in nature and rooted in the magnetic flux concentrations of the chromospheric network. We interpret these events as a new extension to the flare-microflare-nanoflare family. Given their low height, the EUI ‘campfires’ could stand as a new element of the fine structure of the transition region-low corona, that is, as apexes of small-scale loops that undergo internal heating all the way up to coronal temperatures.

A Curated Image Parameter Data Set from the Solar Dynamics Observatory Mission

Abstract We provide a large image parameter data set extracted from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument, for the period of 2011 January through the current date, with the cadence of 6 minutes, for nine wavelength channels. The volume of the data set for each year is just short of 1 TiB. Toward achieving better results in the region classification of active regions and coronal holes, we improve on the performance of a set of 10 image parameters, through an in-depth evaluation of various assumptions that are necessary for calculation of these image parameters. Then, where possible, a method for finding an appropriate setting for the parameter calculations was devised, as well as a validation task to show our improved results. In addition, we include comparisons of JP2 and FITS image formats using supervised classification models, by tuning the parameters specific to the format of the images from which they are extracted and specific to each wavelength. The results of these comparisons show that utilizing JP2 images, which are significantly smaller files, is not detrimental to the region classification task that these parameters were originally intended for. Finally, we compute the tuned parameters on the AIA images and provide a public API (see http://dmlab.cs.gsu.edu/dmlabapi/) to access the data set. This data set can be used in a range of studies on AIA images, such as content-based image retrieval or tracking of solar events, where dimensionality reduction on the images is necessary for feasibility of the tasks.

A Machine-learning Data Set Prepared from the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory Mission

Abstract In this paper, we present a curated data set from the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission in a format suitable for machine-learning research. Beginning from level 1 scientific products we have processed various instrumental corrections, down-sampled to manageable spatial and temporal resolutions, and synchronized observations spatially and temporally. We illustrate the use of this data set with two example applications: forecasting future extreme ultraviolet (EUV) Variability Experiment (EVE) irradiance from present EVE irradiance and translating Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager observations into Atmospheric Imaging Assembly observations. For each application, we provide metrics and baselines for future model comparison. We anticipate this curated data set will facilitate machine-learning research in heliophysics and the physical sciences generally, increasing the scientific return of the SDO mission. This work is a direct result of the 2018 NASA Frontier Development Laboratory Program. Please see the Appendix for access to the data set, totaling 6.5TBs.

Tracking Solar Phenomena from the SDO

Abstract This paper focuses on the problem of tracking solar phenomena by creating spatiotemporal trajectories from solar event detection reports. Though tracking of multiple objects in video sequences has seen much research and improvement in recent years, there has been relatively little focus on the domain of tracking solar phenomena (events). In this work, we improve on our previous endeavors by eliminating offline model training requirements and utilizing crowd-sourced human labels to evaluate our performance. We apply our method to the metadata of two solar event types spanning 4 yr of detection reports from the automated detection modules for the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission. We compare our results with those produced by the detection module for active regions and coronal holes by using a crowd-sourced trajectory database as the ground truth. We show that our results are as good as or better than the event-specific detection module for these two event types. This is especially promising because our tracking algorithm is a generalized module for all solar events, and not specific to a single event type, allowing it to be applied to other solar event types reported to the Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase that do not contain tracking information.

Energy Input Flux in the Global Quiet-Sun Corona

Abstract We present first results of a novel technique that provides, for the first time, constraints on the energy input flux at the coronal base (r ∼ 1.025 R ⊙) of the quiet Sun at a global scale. By combining differential emission measure tomography of EUV images, with global models of the coronal magnetic field, we estimate the energy input flux at the coronal base that is required to maintain thermodynamically stable structures. The technique is described in detail and first applied to data provided by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager instrument, on board the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory mission, and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument, on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission, for two solar rotations with different levels of activity. Our analysis indicates that the typical energy input flux at the coronal base of magnetic loops in the quiet Sun is in the range ∼0.5–2.0 × 105 (erg s−1 cm−2), depending on the structure size and level of activity. A large fraction of this energy input, or even its totality, could be accounted for by Alfvén waves, as shown by recent independent observational estimates derived from determinations of the non-thermal broadening of spectral lines in the coronal base of quiet-Sun regions. This new tomography product will be useful for the validation of coronal heating models in magnetohydrodinamic simulations of the global corona.

GLOBAL ENERGETICS OF SOLAR FLARES. III. NONTHERMAL ENERGIES

ABSTRACT This study entails the third part of a global flare energetics project, in which Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) data of 191 M and X-class flare events from the first 3.5 years of the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission are analyzed. We fit a thermal and a nonthermal component to RHESSI spectra, yielding the temperature of the differential emission measure (DEM) tail, the nonthermal power-law slope and flux, and the thermal/nonthermal cross-over energy e co. From these parameters, we calculate the total nonthermal energy E nt in electrons with two different methods: (1) using the observed cross-over energy e co as low-energy cutoff, and (2) using the low-energy cutoff e wt predicted by the warm thick-target bremsstrahlung model of Kontar et al. Based on a mean temperature of T e = 8.6 MK in active regions, we find low-energy cutoff energies of for the warm-target model, which is significantly lower than the cross-over energies . Comparing with the statistics of magnetically dissipated energies E mag and thermal energies E th from the two previous studies, we find the following mean (logarithmic) energy ratios with the warm-target model: , , and . The total dissipated magnetic energy exceeds the thermal energy in 95% and the nonthermal energy in 71% of the flare events, which confirms that magnetic reconnection processes are sufficient to explain flare energies. The nonthermal energy exceeds the thermal energy in 85% of the events, which largely confirms the warm thick-target model.

A large-scale dataset of solar event reports from automated feature recognition modules

The massive repository of images of the Sun captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission has ushered in the era of Big Data for Solar Physics. In this work, we investigate the entire public collection of events reported to the Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase (HEK) from automated solar feature recognition modules operated by the SDO Feature Finding Team (FFT). With the SDO mission recently surpassing five years of operations, and over 280,000 event reports for seven types of solar phenomena, we present the broadest and most comprehensive large-scale dataset of the SDO FFT modules to date. We also present numerous statistics on these modules, providing valuable contextual information for better understanding and validating of the individual event reports and the entire dataset as a whole. After extensive data cleaning through exploratory data analysis, we highlight several opportunities for knowledge discovery from data (KDD). Through these important prerequisite analyses presented here, the results of KDD from Solar Big Data will be overall more reliable and better understood. As the SDO mission remains operational over the coming years, these datasets will continue to grow in size and value. Future versions of this dataset will be analyzed in the general framework established in this work and maintained publicly online for easy access by the community.

Regional content-based image retrieval for solar images: Traditional versus modern methods

Abstract This work presents an extensive evaluation between conventional (distance-based) and modern (search-engine) information retrieval techniques in the context of finding similar Solar image regions within the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission image repository. We compare pre-computed image descriptors (image features) extracted from the SDO mission images in two very different ways: (1) similarity retrieval using multiple distance-based metrics and (2) retrieval using Lucene, a general purpose scalable retrieval engine. By transforming image descriptors into histogram-like signatures and into Lucene-compatible text strings, we are able to effectively evaluate the retrieval capabilities of both methodologies. Using the image descriptors alongside a labeled image dataset, we present an extensive evaluation under the criteria of performance, scalability and retrieval precision of experimental retrieval systems in order to determine which implementation would be ideal for a production level system. In our analysis we performed key transformations to our sample datasets to properly evaluate rotation invariance and scalability. At the end of this work we conclude which technique is the most robust and would yield the best performing system after an extensive experimental evaluation, we also point out the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and theorize on potential improvements.

Solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) flare observations and findings from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) EUV Variability Experiment (EVE)

AbstractNew solar soft X-ray (SXR) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) irradiance observations from NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) provide full coverage from 0.1 to 106 nm and continuously at a cadence of 10 seconds for spectra at 0.1 nm resolution. These observations during flares can usually be decomposed into four distinct characteristics: impulsive phase, gradual phase, coronal dimming, and EUV late phase. Over 6000 flares have been observed during the SDO mission; some flares show all four phases, and some only show the gradual phase. The focus is on the newer results about the EUV late phase and coronal dimming and its relationship to coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These EVE flare measurements are based on observing the sun-as-a-star, so these results could exemplify stellar flares. Of particular interest is that new coronal dimming measurements of stars could be used to estimate mass and velocity of stellar CMEs.

Extreme Ultraviolet Late-Phase Flares: Before and During the Solar Dynamics Observatory Mission

The SDO EUV observations have revealed interesting characteristics of warm coronal emissions, which peak soon after the hot coronal X-ray emissions peak during a flare and then sometimes peak for a second time hours after the X-ray flare peak. This flare type, with two warm coronal emission peaks but only one X-ray peak, has been named the EUV late phase. These flares have the distinct properties of i) having a complex magnetic field structure with two initial sets of coronal loops, with one upper set overlaying a lower set, ii) having an eruptive flare initiated in the lower set and disturbing both loop sets, iii) having the hot coronal emissions emitted only from the lower set, and iv) having the first peak of the warm coronal emissions associated with the lower set and its second peak emitted from the upper set much later. The disturbance of the coronal loops by the eruption is at about the same time, but the relaxation and cooling down of the heated coronal loops during the post-flare reconnections have different time scales with the longer, upper loops being significantly delayed from the lower loops. The difference in these cooling time scales is related to the difference between the two peak times of the warm coronal emission and is also apparent in the decay profile of the X-ray emissions having two distinct decays, with the first decay slope being steeper and the delayed decay slope being smaller during the time of the warm coronal emission second peak. The frequency and relationship of the EUV late-phase decay times between the Fe XVI two flare peaks and X-ray decay slopes are examined using three years of SDO/EVE data, and the X-ray dual-decay character is then exploited to estimate the frequency of EUV late-phase flares during the past four solar cycles. This study indicates that the frequency of EUV late-phase flares peaks before and after each solar cycle minimum.

Hough Transform of Special Classes of Curves

The Hough transform is a standard pattern recognition technique introduced between the 1960s and the 1970s for the detection of straight lines, circles, and ellipses. Here we offer a mathematical foundation, based on algebraic-geometry arguments, of an extension of this approach to the automated recognition of rational cubic, quartic, and elliptic curves. The accuracy of this approach is tested against synthetic data and in the case of experimental observations provided by the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory mission.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was launched on 11 February 2010 at 15:23 UT from Kennedy Space Center aboard an Atlas V 401 (AV-021) launch vehicle. A series of apogee-motor firings lifted SDO from an initial geosynchronous transfer orbit into a circular geosynchronous orbit inclined by 28° about the longitude of the SDO-dedicated ground station in New Mexico. SDO began returning science data on 1 May 2010. SDO is the first space-weather mission in NASA’s Living With a Star (LWS) Program. SDO’s main goal is to understand, driving toward a predictive capability, those solar variations that influence life on Earth and humanity’s technological systems. The SDO science investigations will determine how the Sun’s magnetic field is generated and structured, how this stored magnetic energy is released into the heliosphere and geospace as the solar wind, energetic particles, and variations in the solar irradiance. Insights gained from SDO investigations will also lead to an increased understanding of the role that solar variability plays in changes in Earth’s atmospheric chemistry and climate. The SDO mission includes three scientific investigations (the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE), and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI)), a spacecraft bus, and a dedicated ground station to handle the telemetry. The Goddard Space Flight Center built and will operate the spacecraft during its planned five-year mission life; this includes: commanding the spacecraft, receiving the science data, and forwarding that data to the science teams. The science investigations teams at Stanford University, Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), and University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) will process, analyze, distribute, and archive the science data. We will describe the building of SDO and the science that it will provide to NASA.

NEW SOLAR EXTREME-ULTRAVIOLET IRRADIANCE OBSERVATIONS DURING FLARES

New solar extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) irradiance observations from the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) EUV Variability Experiment provide full coverage in the EUV range from 0.1 to 106 nm and continuously at a cadence of 10 s for spectra at 0.1 nm resolution and even faster, 0.25 s, for six EUV bands. These observations can be decomposed into four distinct characteristics during flares. First, the emissions that dominate during the flare's impulsive phase are the transition region emissions, such as the He II 30.4 nm. Second, the hot coronal emissions above 5 MK dominate during the gradual phase and are highly correlated with the GOES X-ray. A third flare characteristic in the EUV is coronal dimming, seen best in the cool corona, such as the Fe IX 17.1 nm. As the post-flare loops reconnect and cool, many of the EUV coronal emissions peak a few minutes after the GOES X-ray peak. One interesting variation of the post-eruptive loop reconnection is that warm coronal emissions (e.g., Fe XVI 33.5 nm) sometimes exhibit a second large peak separated from the primary flare event by many minutes to hours, with EUV emission originating not from the original flare site and its immediate vicinity, but rather from a volume of higher loops. We refer to this second peak as the EUV late phase. The characterization of many flares during the SDO mission is provided, including quantification of the spectral irradiance from the EUV late phase that cannot be inferred from GOES X-ray diagnostics.

Photoelectrons as a tool to evaluate spectral variations in solar EUV irradiance over solar cycle timescales

There is limited information about the relative magnitude of the spectral variations in the ionizing component of solar irradiance on solar cycle timescales. We found that the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics, and Dynamics (TIMED)/Solar Extreme Ultraviolet Experiment (SEE) Version 9 irradiance values predict relatively more ionospheric heating at solar minimum than those from Version 8. These changes have direct impacts on solar cycle timescale variations in ionospheric and thermospheric energy inputs derived from them. Photoelectron observations from the Fast Auroral Snapshot (FAST) satellite obtained from 2002 to 2008 are used with solar irradiance data, photoelectron flux models, and models of solar irradiance to examine the solar cycle variations of irradiance in the 4–27 nm range derived from the XPS sensor in the TIMED/SEE instrument suite. Good (±50%) agreement is found between daily photoelectron observations and model predictions. The largest differences between observed and modeled fluxes are in the 4–10 nm range, where the Fast Auroral Snapshot data show that the SEE Version 9 irradiances are systematically low. Our analysis suggests that variation on solar cycle timescales in the TIMED/SEE Version 9 and Flare Irradiance Spectral Model irradiance derived from them are systematically low in the 18–27 nm region. Because of uncertainties in the absolute value of the observed photoelectron fluxes and solar irradiances, differences between observed and modeled photoelectron fluxes are not sufficient to determine more exactly the magnitude of variation on solar cycle timescales of solar irradiance in the 4–27 nm region. These suggestions can be confirmed by higher spectral resolution observations that will be made on the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission.