THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF THE SOLAR CORONA UNDERGOES CONTINUAL EVOLUTION DUE TO THE DYNAMICS OF THE UNDERLYING CHROMOSPHERIC AND PHOTOSPHERIC MAGNETIC FIELD. THIS EVOLUTION IS OBSERVED TO TAKE MANY FORMS RANGING FROM SLOW GRADUAL ADJUSTMENTS TO MORE DYNAMIC SHIFTS EMBODIED BY FILAMENT ERUPTIONS FLARES AND CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS. BECAUSE THE MORPHOLOGIES OF THESE MORE ENERGETIC EVENTS ARE MOST LIKELY INFLUENCED BY THE MAGNETIC ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH SUCH ACTIVITY IS EMBEDDED IT IS USEFUL TO STUDY THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TOPOLOGY OF THE LARGE-SCALE CORONAL MAGNETIC FIELD AND THE OCCURRENCE AND NON-OCCURRENCE OF ERUPTIVE EVENTS. INVESTIGATING THESE RELATIONSHIPS IS EXPECTED TO LEAD TO A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THE CORONA EVOLVES AND THE CAPABILITY TO BETTER PREDICT THESE EVENTS. THE LOCATIONS OF TOPOLOGICAL NULL POINTS (WHERE ALL COMPONENTS OF THE MAGNETIC FIELD VANISH) AND SEPARATOR FIELD LINES THAT CONNECT THESE NULL POINTS ARE OF PARTICULAR INTEREST AS THEY ARE THEORIZED TO BE PREFERENTIAL LOCATIONS FOR THE RECONNECTION NEEDED FOR AN ERUPTION TO OCCUR. ADDITIONALLY THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOLAR WIND APPEAR TO BE DETERMINED (AT LEAST IN PART) BY THE LARGE-SCALE TOPOLOGY OF THE CORONAL MAGNETIC FIELD. INDEED THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN CLOSED FLUX AND FLUX THAT IS OPEN TO THE HELIOSPHERE IS A TOPOLOGICAL SEPARATRIX SURFACE. MAPPING SOLAR WIND STREAMS BACK TO THE PHOTOSPHERE WITH THE AIM OF UNDERSTANDING FOR EXAMPLE IN SITU MEASUREMENTS OF WIND SPEED (I.E. SLOW AND FAST WIND STREAMS) FIELD STRENGTH AND COMPOSITION IS A COMMON ACTIVITY. WE ARE THUS PROPOSING HERE TO CREATE AND PUT ONLINE THE FIRST SEARCHABLE DATABASE OF TOPOLOGICAL FEATURES TO ENABLE SUCH RESEARCH AND TO MAKE THIS DATABASE AVAILABLE TO THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY VIA THE SOLAR DATA ANALYSIS CENTER (SDAC) AT NASA THE VIRTUAL SOLAR OBSERVATORY (VSO) AND THE HELIOPHYSICS EVENTS KNOWLEDGEBASE (HEK). THESE FEATURES ARE DERIVED FROM LONG-RUNNING TIME SERIES OF BOTH POTENTIAL FIELD SOURCE SURFACE (PFSS) AND MAGNETOFRICTIONAL (MF) MODELS SPANNING THE PAST 20 YEARS. AS PART OF THIS PROJECT WE ADDITIONALLY PROPOSE TO ENABLE THE ONLINE VISUALIZATION OF TOPOLOGICAL FEATURES BY MAKING ENHANCEMENTS TO AN EXISTING TOOL THAT IS CURRENTLY USED FOR CORONAL FIELD-LINE VISUALIZATION. THE ONLINE TOOL PROPOSED HERE WOULD ALLOW USERS TO INTERACTIVELY ROTATE PAN AND ZOOM THE VIEW OF THE RENDERED OBJECTS IN A WEB BROWSER.
$138,478FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Gaithersburg