Collaborative Research: Achieving a New Understanding of Solar Flare Termination Shocks

新墨西哥财团、新泽西理工学院、达特茅斯学院和史密森学会天体物理天文台之间的一个合作项目致力于研究太阳耀斑。太阳耀斑是2019年《国家空间天气战略与行动计划》的优先科学领域。当太阳耀斑撞击地球时，它们会影响近地空间辐射环境，并对卫星产生阻力。太阳耀斑包含两部分——光和粒子。明亮的闪光是这些事件中最引人注目的特征，紧随其后的是一束极快的电子和离子。这些粒子可以在光发射后一小时内到达地球，这使得及时预测粒子事件变得特别具有挑战性。这个项目研究了粒子加速到如此高能量的一种潜在机制。它结合了多种状态的模型和来自卫星和地面平台的数据。该研究团队由来自四个合作机构的早期职业教师和学生组成。这个项目研究太阳耀斑中的粒子加速和传输。具体来说，它将解决磁重联驱动的过程在耀斑终止冲击和他们的作用在电子加速和传输，以及非热辐射。建模工作结合了2.5D和3D的大规模细胞内粒子和磁流体动力学（MHD）模拟，以模拟真实的磁场和等离子体演化，以及能量释放、粒子加速和传输。从联合模拟中生成的综合观测结果将与微波、E/UV、x射线成像和光谱数据进行比较，这些数据来自扩展欧文斯谷太阳能阵列、美国宇航局的太阳动力学观测站和日野。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A collaborative project between the New Mexico Consortium, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, and the Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory is dedicated to the study of solar flares. Solar flares are a priority science area for the 2019 National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan. When solar flares impact Earth they effect the near-Earth space radiation environment and contribute to satellite drag. Solar flares contain two parts – light and particles. The bright flaring light, the most popularly noted feature of these events, is followed by a stream of extremely fast electrons and ions. These particles can reach earth within an hour of the light emission, making timely prediction of particle events particularly challenging. This project examines one potential mechanism for the acceleration of particles to such high energies. It combines multiple state of the models and data from satellite and ground-based platforms. The research team is comprised of early-career faculty and students from the four collaborating institutions.This project addresses particle acceleration and transport in solar flares. Specifically, it will address magnetic reconnection driven processes in flare termination shocks and their role in electron acceleration and transport, and non-thermal emission. The modeling effort combines large-scale particle-in-cell and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations in 2.5D and 3D to model realistic magnetic field and plasma evolution along with the energy release, particle acceleration, and transport. Synthetic observations from the combined simulations will be generated to be compared with microwave, E/UV, and X-ray imaging and spectroscopic data from the Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array, the NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, and Hinode.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.