Every Datapoint Counts: Atmosphere-aided Flare Studies in the Rubin era

每个数据点都很重要：鲁宾时代的大气辅助耀斑研究

• 批准号: 2308016
• 负责人: Federica Bianco
• 金额: $ 24.87万
• 依托单位: University of Delaware
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2308016&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Every; Datapoint; Counts; Atmosphere; aided

In 1859, the Earth was struck by a solar storm that disrupted telegraph stations and created visible aurorae as far south as Cuba. If the same storm were to happen today, it would cause trillions of dollars in damage to the world’s power grids and communication technology. Just before the event, English astronomer Richard Carrington observed a sudden brightening of the Sun’s surface - the first observation of a solar flare. Flares such as the one Carrington observed are not unique to the Sun, but also occur on other stars, especially those cooler and less massive than the Sun. They vary across a range of energies, temperatures, durations, and brightness. By measuring the properties of flares, we come closer to understanding how they work and how they affect a planet’s ability to sustain life. In particular, measuring the temperature of flares can tell us the extent to which they threaten the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars. The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will observe millions of stellar flares over its 10-year mission. The investigators are developing a technique to use the Earth’s atmosphere to measure the color, and thus the temperature, of the flares. This project will also sponsor a student at Lincoln University to work on “sonification” of Rubin data. This technique is the representation of data through sound, to make the results accessible to Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) persons. The upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory through its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) provides an opportunity to collect a large ensemble of flare measurements from millions of stars across the sky. Because of the short flare duration and the survey cadence, it is unlikely that flares will be detected with more than one data point. This program aims to develop a methodology to enable LSST studies of stellar flares, with a focus on flare temperature and temperature evolution, which remain poorly constrained compared to the photometric morphology of flares. Leveraging the exquisite image quality and sensitivity expected from the Rubin system, Differential Chromatic Refraction can be used to constrain flare temperature from a single-epoch detection. Modeling the refraction effect as a function of the atmospheric column density, photometric filter, and temperature of the flare, flare temperatures at or above 10,000K can be constrained by a single g-band observation at airmass as low as X=1.2, given the minimum specified requirement on single-visit absolute astrometric accuracy of LSST. Nearly 100,000 g-band images are expected to be collected at higher airmass than X=1.2 in the Rubin LSST 10-year survey. This project will develop a pipeline to process LSST data and characterize a large sample of sparsely observed flare temperatures, which will constrain models of the physical processes behind flare emission as well as the relationship between flare parameters (e.g. temperature, duration, energy) and stellar parameters (e.g. spectral type, rotation, magnetic field).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.

1859年，一场太阳风暴袭击了地球，破坏了电报站，并在古巴南部创造了可见的极光。如果同样的风暴发生在今天，它将对世界电网和通信技术造成数万亿美元的损失。就在事件发生前，英国天文学家理查德·卡林顿观察到太阳表面突然变亮-这是第一次观察到太阳耀斑。卡林顿观测到的耀斑并不是太阳所独有的，其他恒星也会发生耀斑，特别是那些比太阳温度低、质量小的恒星。它们在能量、温度、持续时间和亮度的范围内变化。通过测量耀斑的性质，我们更接近于了解它们是如何工作的，以及它们如何影响行星维持生命的能力。特别是，测量耀斑的温度可以告诉我们它们对围绕其他恒星运行的行星大气层的威胁程度。"时空遗产巡天"（LSST）将在其为期10年的使命中观测数百万次恒星耀斑。研究人员正在开发一种技术，利用地球的大气层来测量耀斑的颜色，从而测量耀斑的温度。该项目还将赞助林肯大学的一名学生从事鲁宾数据的"声音化"工作。这种技术是通过声音来表示数据，使盲人和视力受损者能够获得结果。下一篇：Vera C鲁宾天文台通过其遗留的空间和时间调查（LSST）提供了一个机会，收集来自天空中数百万颗恒星的大量耀斑测量数据。由于耀斑持续时间短和调查节奏，不太可能用一个以上的数据点探测到耀斑。该计划旨在开发一种方法，使LSST研究恒星耀斑，重点是耀斑温度和温度演变，这仍然是不好的约束相比，耀斑的光度形态。利用Rubin系统预期的精致图像质量和灵敏度，微分色折射可用于限制耀斑温度的单历元检测。将折射效应模拟为大气柱密度、光度滤波器和耀斑温度的函数，在给定对LSST单次访问绝对天体测量精度的最低规定要求的情况下，耀斑温度在10，000K或以上可以通过在低至X = 1.2的气团处的单次g波段观测来约束。在鲁宾LSST 10年调查中，预计将在高于X = 1.2的气团中收集近100，000张g波段图像。该项目将开发一个管道来处理LSST数据并表征稀疏观测的大样本耀斑温度，这将限制耀斑排放背后的物理过程模型以及耀斑参数之间的关系（例如温度、持续时间、能量）和恒星参数（例如光谱类型，旋转，磁场）该奖项反映了NSF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进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.