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The Heliophysics Great Observatory Current Status and Future Plans Presentation to the Space Weather Workshop. Charles P. Holmes “Director, Heliophysics Great Observatory” Heliophysics Division Science Mission Directorate April 29, 2008. The Heliophysics Great Observatory. SOHO. Geotail.
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The Heliophysics Great ObservatoryCurrent Status and Future PlansPresentation to the Space Weather Workshop Charles P. Holmes “Director, Heliophysics Great Observatory” Heliophysics Division Science Mission Directorate April 29, 2008
The Heliophysics Great Observatory SOHO Geotail RHESSI Wind Hinode ACE Cluster Solar Source Polar Solar Wind Drivers FAST Seed Population TIMED Precipitation And Loss Atmospheric & Ionospheric Coupling Heliospheric Structure
HQ Program Scientists & Mission Responsibilities Eric Christian ACE, Voyager, IBEX, STEREO Barbara Giles Polar, TWINS Chuck Goodrich THEMIS Lika Guhathakurta STEREO Mona Kessel Cluster, Geotail Mary Mellott Geospace SRT and LCAS Alexei Pevtsov SOHO, TRACE, RHESSI, Hinode, SDO Arik Posner Wind, Ulysses, SOHO Aaron Roberts Heliophysics Data Environment Charles Swenson TIMED, FAST, AIM Scientists on detail to NASA HQ
Polar’s Broken Heart • Polar took it's last visible auroral image on April 16. • For many obvious reasons, the Polar team has dubbed this image "The Broken Heart".
Ulysses Location As of 14 April 2008
Present Missions: SOHO • Launch Dec. 2, 1995 • Instruments operating normally (almost) • Providing 12h of RT data per day • Future baseline mission (“BOGART”) includes: -Coronal imager -Solar energetic particles for forecasting -Solar wind data -3-4h/day RT coverage
Present Missions: ACE • Launch Aug. 25, 1997 • Prime Solar Wind information source • Fuel reserves until ~2024 • Almost full RT coverage • RT plasma data limitations
Present Missions: STEREO • Launch Oct. 25, 2006 • Instruments operating normally (almost) • Providing beacon data Beacon (space weather) data – available ‘immediately’ SECCHI: ~7 256 X 256 images every hour IMPACT: 10 sec aves of B, 1 min solar wind moments & selected SEP fluxes PLASTIC: 1 minute resolution selected moments and fluxes SWAVES: 1 minute summaries of alternate frequencies (0.1-16 MHz)
STEREO Orbits 4 yr. 3 yr. Ahead @ +22/year 2 yr. 1 yr. Sun Sun Earth 1yr. Ahead Behind @ -22/year Earth 2yr. Behind 3 yr. 4 yr. Heliocentric Inertial Coordinates (Ecliptic Plane Projection) Geocentric Solar Ecliptic Coordinates Fixed Earth-Sun Line (Ecliptic Plane Projection)
STEREO: Advantage of Perspective – SW Prediction
STEREO: Advantage of Perspective STEREO Behind SOHO (now) SDO (next year) STEREO Ahead
Solar Dynamics Observatory • SDO launch date: December 2008 • Inclined geosynchronous orbit • Continuous 150Mbps downlink -> 24/7 • Dedicated ground station. • SWx data with only 15min delay • Five year prime mission
SDO Space Weather Data • EUV Variability Experiment Space Weather Goals: • Ionospheric disturbance nowcasting (XUV/EUV flare response) • Input for GAIM (Global Assimilative Ionospheric Model) • Input for SOLAR2000 (solar irradiance model), for operational atmospheric, ionospheric, and neutral thermospheric wind models • First-ever near-realtime XUV and EUV flare monitor • Atmospheric Imaging Assembly Space Weather Goals: • Irradiance-calibrated images in 8 EUV/X-ray wavelengths • Quicklook data (1kx1k images, movies of each wavelength covering past hour & day.) • Helioseismic Magnetic Imager Space Weather Goals: • Line of sight magnetograms every 50 sec • Vector magnetograms every 10 min • Essential products to drive models • Far-side images, active region emergence
The HP Roadmap codifiedthe concept ofthe HP Great Observatory “The Heliophysics Great Observatory will continue to evolve as new spacecraft join and older ones retire or change their operating modes. Missions both in their prime phase and in extended phases … provide the variety of observation posts needed to study Sun-Solar System connections, as demonstrated by the 2003 Halloween Storms. A great strength of this fleet is that it is regularly evaluated and reviewed to maximize the return on the agency investments.This Senior Review process determines which spacecraft are most necessary to meet the needs of the Heliophysics program as defined by the community-developed Strategy Roadmap.”
The 2008 Senior Review for the Operating HP Missions • The 6th Senior Review for the operating HP missions was held during the week of April 8. • Mission proposals received February 21. • The review covered the period FY-09 to FY-12. • Convened an external panel to review proposals. • 12 missions participated in the review: • ACE, RHESSI, SOHO, STEREO, Voyager and Wind • AIM, Cluster, FAST, Geotail, THEMIS and TIMED • GIP performance and spacecraft usage by GIs was reviewed. • The review was conducted in the context of the Heliophysics Strategic Goals expressed in the 2007 SMD Science Plan and the 2006 HP Roadmap with the view of that there will be several new missions launched during this period: • SDO, IBEX, TWINS, and CNOFS/CINDI. • The panel’s report will be published in mid-May. • Next SR will be in ~2-3 years and will include Hinode, IBEX, TWINS, CNOFS/CINDI
Conclusions NASA missions and priorities are driven by scientific objectives. NASA missions do and can provide substantial and critical space weather information. With the growing use of assimilative models, ingestion of NASA-provided data streams can create invaluable input into space science and space weather models. Data streams from NASA missions will contribute to science return, and it will provide tangible societal benefits through the provision of otherwise unfeasible space weather capabilities.