Connecting Solar Physics Past to Its Machine Learning Future

数百年来，人们一直在研究太阳，并绘制他们所看到的地图，最早的可以追溯到近900年前。这些手绘的太阳表面地图对于现代物理学家理解太阳几十年来的变化是非常宝贵的。在1964年至2009年间，帕特里克·麦金托什博士精心绘制了自己的太阳地图，记录了许多有趣的太阳特征和磁场。然而，自从2009年制作最后一张地图以来，麦金托什的档案一直萎靡不振，没有更新过。这个为期3年的项目的目的是使用最新的太阳空间和地面图像来复制麦金托什的技术，更新档案直到今天，并为当前的机器学习算法开发工具来生成这些未来的地图。所有的太阳磁场基本上都是由内部发电机驱动的。为了研究这种无处不在的磁场，科学家们依赖于对表面可见等离子体特征的间接测量，这些特征是由不断演变的磁场产生的。大尺度的大气特征，如细丝、活动区、太阳黑子、极性边界和日冕洞，是不断变化的发电机的明显特征。这些可见的特征是帕特里克·麦金托什博士从1964年到2009年在手绘的太阳地图上捕捉到的。这个为期3年的项目旨在保存几十年积累的太阳专业知识，从而通过利用数字工具复制麦金托什的技术，将麦金托什确定的太阳特征与现代太阳图像联系起来，从而为太阳周期研究开辟新的途径。这一努力的结果是建立了一个新的太阳地图档案，有效地扩展了现有的目录，以涵盖第24个太阳周期。该目录将向公众开放下载，并有良好的文件记录，供有监督的机器学习工具利用这一独特的标记数据，代表超过55年的太阳测量。该项目的研究和EPO议程支持AGS部门在发现、学习、多样性和跨学科研究方面的战略目标。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

People have been studying the Sun for hundreds of years and drawing maps of what they see, the earliest dating back almost 900 years. These hand-drawn maps of the solar surface have been invaluable for modern-day physicists to understand how the Sun changes over the decades. Between 1964 and 2009, Dr. Patrick McIntosh made his own carefully constructed maps of the Sun, documenting many interesting solar features and magnetic fields. However, since the last maps were made in 2009, McIntosh’s archive has languished and has not been updated. The purpose of this 3-year project is to use the latest space- and ground-based images of the Sun to reproduce the McIntosh’s techniques, update the archive through today, and develop tools for current machine learning algorithms to produce these maps going into the future.All solar magnetic fields are fundamentally driven by an internal dynamo. To study this pervasive magnetic field, scientists rely on indirect measurements of visible plasma features at the surface that are produced by the evolving magnetic field. Large-scale atmospheric features, such as filaments, active regions, sunspots, polarity boundaries, and coronal holes are distinct signatures of the ever-changing dynamo. These visible features were captured by Dr. Patrick McIntosh from 1964 through 2009 in hand-drawn maps of the Sun. This 3-year project aims to preserve multiple decades of accumulated specialized knowledge of the Sun, thus opening up new avenues for studies of the solar cycle by linking the McIntosh-identified solar features to modern images of the Sun through reproducing his techniques with digital tools. The result of this effort is a new archive of solar maps to effectively extend the existing catalogue to cover solar cycle 24. The catalogue will be open for public download and well documented for supervised machine learning tools to take advantage of this unique labeled data representing over 55 years of solar measurements. The research and EPO agenda of this project supports the Strategic Goals of the AGS Division in discovery, learning, diversity, and interdisciplinary research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.