| NSF Org: |
AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | January 25, 2013 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | February 10, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1249150 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Therese Moretto Jorgensen
AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | January 15, 2013 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $439,092.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $439,092.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2014 = $147,003.00 FY 2015 = $148,630.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1608 4TH ST STE 201 BERKELEY CA US 94710-1749 (510)643-3891 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
7 Gauss Way Berkeley CA US 94720-7450 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | SOLAR-TERRESTRIAL |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001415DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001516DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
The Principal Investigator (PI) and her team will study the causes and consequences of flare-associated magnetic changes (FAMCs) on the Sun by using a combination of modeling and data analysis. The team will analyze the output of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) to investigate how magnetic restructuring in the modeled solar corona affects the magnetic field at the base of the simulation domain.
In order to better understand the heliospheric consequences of FAMCs, the PI and her team will investigate correlations of observed FAMCs with the speeds, masses, and momenta of observed CMEs, as well as any correlations of the properties of FAMCs and CMEs in their simulations. To investigate how effectively FAMCs can drive "sunquakes," the team will use different parameterizations derived from satellite observations and their simulations, in order to initialize MHD models of the convecting solar interior and to characterize the Sun's acoustic response to realistic sunquake impulses.
The PI expects that this study of solar magnetic eruptions will help develop the necessary understanding and tools to improve our prediction capability for the strong space weather events that can adversely affect our technology-based society. She will deliver her team's new data sets to the research community, including her observational analysis and MHD simulation data, through her institute's web site. The PI notes that community accessibility to this project's data and modeling results will provide scientists and students additional tools to perform space weather research. Meanwhile, the PI's team will promote teaching, training, and learning while advancing discovery and scientific understanding by serving students at the University of California at Berkeley. The PI's team has experience supervising student researchers, and they plan to attract and recruit highly qualified undergraduate and graduate students from the Physics, Astronomy, and Planetary Science Departments at Berkeley, while enhancing infrastructure for research and education.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The major goals of our project are to understand the magnetic forces at the initiation of CMEs/flares and the relationship of the Lorentz force and CME momenta. We use both observation and simulation means to improve our understanding of the variations of magnetic field and the characteristics and behavior of magnetic forces during CME/flare initiation processes and the association with CME kinematics. Through the analyses of coronagraph images and vector magnetograms, we aim at detailed characteristics of magnetic forces and CME intiation as well as statistically sigficant results. Well observed CME events serve the purpose of in depth analysese for details of the magnetic forces during CME initiations, and larger number of events form the data base for stantistically significant measurements and relationships between magnetic forces and CME momenta. Numerical simulations are performed and modeling results are analyzed to assist the search of the insight of CME initiation process.
Through the analyses of HMI vector magnetograms of CME source regions we derive the magnetic field changes and the related Lorentz force during the initiations of CMEs. Using coronagraph white light imaging data from STEREO SECCHI and/or SOHO LASCO experiments, we calculate the speed and mass of CME ejecta. We have performed MHD simulations of CME initiation and analyses of the resulting numerical data. We have also analyzed simulation data of published CME simulations by other research group. Our analyses of two different MHD simulations of CME eruptions showed that the horizontal magnetic field changes are concentrated along the magnetic region neutral line, and the magnitude of the vertical magnetic field change is much less significant than the horizontal field change. The morphology of spatial distribution of the magnetic field change in the MHD simulation results is similar to observations.
We found that upward Lorentz force impulses (related to horizongtal magnetic field change) during confined flares are weaker than those in eruptive flares. It supports the argument that the upward Lorentz forces should be closely associated with the lift of CME ejecta (Fisher et al. 2012). However, it is also found that the Lorentz forces are much larger than required to gain the CME momenta, while the Lorentz force impulse temporally coincides with CME accelaration peak. The fact that the Lorentz force magnitude has over an order larger excess than the CME momentum is not expected in any existing theory. Our investigation is the first attempt to correlate the Lorentz force with CME momentum, the results are not what we expected, but it is interesting, and tells us that further investigations into this subject are necessary in order to fill the gaps of our knowledge.
The outcome of our investigation may improve our understanding of the CME initiation and kinamatics, and potentially benifit space weather forecasting.
Last Modified: 09/28/2016
Modified by: Yan Li
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