NOAA’s Real Time Solar Wind System

1. CRL Winter CRL RAL England PREPROCESSOR Summer Summer Winter RAL Outside User System CRL Japan Summer Summer Winter SEC Summer Z-axis RAL Ingest/ Queue ACE Instrument Algorithms Physical Units DMS Operations Center NOAA ISRO India RAL England Unpack Winter Internet Winter Possible Coverage CRL Japan Summer Internet Summer SEC Bx, By, Bz 25 Re SEC • 434 bps SELRAS MAG Winter UD ISRO India Winter Summer Summer LANL KRU Y-axis 40 Re SWEPAM n, v, T Possible Coverage BAN USAF SEC 6944 bps or 434 bps APL Low Energy Particles BAN EPAM Real-Time Data Server High Energy Particles NASA SIS Caltech UTC Day UTC Day CRL Japan 434 bps Period: 177 days X-axis: ~235 Re where 1 Re = 6378 km 4 0 4 8 0 8 12 12 16 16 20 0 20 0 USAF NHS NHS VTS VTS GTS GTS Store Real Time Solar Wind Ground System DGS DGS USAF’s SCN USAF’s SCN HTS HTS USAF Spacecraft Control Network NASA’s Deep Space Network Antenna’s NASA’s DSN NASA’s DSN NOAA’s Real Time Solar Wind System R.D. Zwickl, K.A. Doggett, S. Sahm, W.P. Barrett, R.N. Grubb, T.R. Detman, and V.J. Raben NOAA Space Environment Center The NASA ACE satellite was launched in August 1997, with NOAA’a Real Time Solar Wind system becoming operational January 21, 1998. A ground system has been developed with tracking from our partners in Japan, England, France, and India that is complimented with tracking by NASA’a Deep Space Network, the USAF Satellite Control Network, and NOAA’s own station in Boulder. The raw data are broadcast from ACE, collected by the ground stations, and sent to SEC where they are processed and available for operational use within five minutes. The data are now used worldwide in forecast operations, to generate predictive products, and to drive models. Ground Stations and Tracking Instruments, Parameters, and Products Magnetometer - MAG Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware ACE Orbit Ground Station Location Calculated Physical Parameters: Bx, By, Bz, Bt, Time Operational Resolution = 1-min avg. ACE Sun Solar Wind Electron, Proton, & Alpha Monitor - SWEPAM Los Alamos National Laboratory Calculated Physical Parameters: Density, Speed, Temp, Time Operational Resolution = 1-min snapshot Current Tracking Coverage (winter/summer) Future Tracking Coverage (winter/summer) Tracking Performance (day/month%) Electron, Proton, & Alpha Monitor - EPAM Applied Physics Laboratory, John Hopkins University Calculated Physical Parameters: Differential Flux (p/sec/sr/cm2/sec/MeV) Electrons (keV): 38-53 Protons (keV): 47-65 175-315 112-187 310-580 761-1220 1060-1910 Operational Resolution = 5-min avg. Solar Isotope Spectrometer - SIS California Institute of Technology Updated July 2000 Calculated Physical Parameters: Integral Proton Flux (p/sec/sr/cm2) > 10 MeV > 30 MeV Operational Resolution = 5-min avg. Updated July 2000 Updated July 2000 ACE data is received at SEC from our worldwide tracking partners through a variety of ground stations. Tracking coverage is depicted above for each location for winter-time minimum and summer-time maximum conditions. Tracking performance (96% target) shows continued improvement as new stations are added. Real Time System Data Flow Derived Products and Driven Models ACE real-time data is used worldwide to drive space weather models and generate forecast products. SEC uses the data in a variety of ways, including to drive model predictions of a geomagnetic index similar to kp (example at right). A few of the institutions using ACE data for real time operations include: Australian Space Forecast Centre: Representation of solar wind speed and IMF direction Chandra Science Operations Team: Alerts of large low-energy proton events CRL/Hiraiso Solar Terrestrial Research Center, Japan: Predictions of Dst index, and proton distribution in the inner magnetosphere Danish Meteorological Institute/Swedish Institute of Space Physics: Predictions of AE, Dst, and Kp indices Geospace Hydrodynamics Laboratory, Sofia, Bulgaria: 3-D determination of the magnetosheath Ionospheric and Space Physics Group at SRI International: Space weather alert webpage utilizing updates from SWEPAM and EPAM Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto, CA: Dynamic modeling of the Earth's bow shock and magnetopause Nonlinear Dynamics and Space Physics (NDSP) Group at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center: Prediction of Dst, AL, and AU indices Southwest Research Institute: Real time Assimilative Mapping of Ionospheric Electrodynamics (rtAMIE) Space Physics Research Group at U.C. Berkeley: Prediction of Dst index Space Physics Research Laboratory, University of Michigan: Linear Modeling of Ionospheric Electrodynamics (LiMIE) Space Research Institute, Moscow: Geomagnetic storm and substorm warnings University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center: UAF Eulerian Parallel Polar Ionosphere Model This diagram shows the general data flow through the entire real time solar wind system, including data ingest and unpack from the ground stations, calculation of the physical units, and distribution to the primary data destinations. Public access to the real time data is through the SEC Outside User System (www.sec.noaa.gov). © July 2000 NOAA SEC