Conveners
SWR1 – Magnetic Sources of Space Weather Across Solar Atmospheric Layers: Orals - Part 1
- Paolo Pagano (Università degli Studi di Palermo)
- Hanna Strecker (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía)
- Ioannis Kontogiannis (ETH Zurich and IRSOL Locarno)
- Clementina Sasso (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Italy)
SWR1 – Magnetic Sources of Space Weather Across Solar Atmospheric Layers: orals - part 2
- Ioannis Kontogiannis (ETH Zurich and IRSOL Locarno)
- Paolo Pagano (Università degli Studi di Palermo)
- Hanna Strecker (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía)
- Clementina Sasso (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Italy)
SWR1 – Magnetic Sources of Space Weather Across Solar Atmospheric Layers: orals - part 3
- Ioannis Kontogiannis (ETH Zurich and IRSOL Locarno)
- Hanna Strecker (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía)
- Paolo Pagano (Università degli Studi di Palermo)
- Clementina Sasso (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Italy)
Description
Space weather is largely driven by the drastic and sudden evolution of magnetic structures in the Sun. Sometimes such transients lead to the sudden release of magnetic energy in the form of radiation or mass ejections. In other cases, newly formed or emerging structures alter the equilibrium of a magnetic complex, triggering eruptions. While the study of the magnetic field in the solar atmosphere remains a significant challenge for observations and models, understanding these mechanisms is essential to improve our space weather prediction capabilities. Magnetic structures, such as flux ropes, filaments/prominences and coronal loops form as part of active regions and along polar inversion lines. These structures evolve dynamically across the layers of the solar atmosphere, from the photosphere to the corona, and their evolution can culminate in eruptive events. Many theories based on observations (from new instruments such as PHI, EUI, METIS on-board Solar Orbiter) or numerical simulations have been put forward to explain how they trigger space weather events. Moreover, such mechanisms in the solar corona are the only close and observable examples of several plasma processes (e.g. magnetic reconnection or magnetic confinement) that hold the key to a deeper understanding of plasma physics. In this session, we will host contributions that show the current state of the art of observation and modelling of the solar atmosphere that illustrate the role of these magnetic structures and how their evolution affects space weather and how they can be used to help to improve our forecasts.
Magnetic flux ropes are ubiquitous features observed in the low corona and propagating through the solar atmosphere. They are formed by combined action of the magnetic field of the Sun and its internal processes, observed remotely and in situ. Flux ropes are one of the main components of Coronal Mass Ejections, drivers of major geomagnetic storms, and they are therefore of high importance in...
The inference of the photospheric magnetic field has, until recently, been limited to one view point: that from Earth. This is especially important when studying the long term evolution of active regions, where they are only close to disc centre for approximately a week. The Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) on board Solar Orbiter (SO) has made it a reality to extend the coverage of...
Our Sun is a highly dynamic star, exhibiting a broad range of activity from subtle dynamic events to powerful flares and large-scale coronal mass ejections (CMEs). CMEs are vast expulsions of magnetised plasma from the solar corona, while flares are intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation originating in the solar atmosphere. A flare and CME often occur concomitantly; the flare would then...
Solar flares are primary drivers of space weather and play a crucial role in the Sun-Earth connection. The physical mechanisms underlying solar flare initiation remain a topic of intense research. It is widely accepted that flares result from the rapid release of magnetic energy stored in the stressed configurations of ARs. Several competing, and possibly concurrent, mechanisms have been...
Understanding the causative mechanisms behind solar eruptions and solar energetic particle events is crucial for space weather forecasting. However, although numerous models have been proposed regarding the relationship between the magnetic fields of active regions and solar eruptions, the structure and parameters of the magnetic fields that govern these events remain unclear, which still...
In recent decades, diverse catastrophic phenomena, from earthquakes and landslides to structural collapses and myocardial infarctions, have been framed as critical transitions in complex systems, marked by a sudden, irreversible shift from equilibrium to an unstable state. Here, we extend for the first time the Natural Time Analysis (NTA) framework to solar Active Regions (ARs) in order to...
The ERC-AdG project Open SESAME (project No 101141362) aims to develop a time-evolving model for the entire solar atmosphere, including the chromosphere and transition region, based on a multifluid description. Currently, models are primarily steady, rely on a single-fluid description and include only the corona due to computational challenges. We plan to use time-evolving ion-neutral and...
Solar eruptions are ubiquitous in the sun and play a significant role in space weather. With the advent of multi-view observations, we can gain a better understanding of the three-dimensional structure of these eruptive events and identify the various energetic processes involved. To fully grasp the physics behind these phenomena, it is essential to develop innovative simulations that...
Studying magnetic flux ropes is crucial for understanding the origin and evolution of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), as these twisted magnetic structures often serve as the core configuration driving CMEs from the solar corona. On November 9, 2021, the Metis coronagraph (Antonucci et al. 2020) on-board ESA Solar Orbiter mission, observed a slow erupting flux rope, when the spacecraft was at...
We present a comprehensive statistical study between type II radio bursts from the metric (m) to the dekameric–hectometric (DH) domain and their association with different solar and space weather phenomena, namely, solar flares, sunspot configurations, filament eruptions, coronal mass ejections, their interplanetary counterparts and shocks, in situ detected particles and geomagnetic storms. We...
Solar active regions, accumulations of strong magnetic field, play a crucial role in driving space weather. Their evolution can influence the solar wind, and they can trigger eruptive phenomena. Active regions have long been studied from Earth’s vantage point using instruments such as the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). While HMI allows for...
Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are the primary drivers of space weather phenomena.
Once a CME reaches Earth the severity of the geomagnetic response is dependent on CME properties such as speed, dynamic pressure, and the specific magnetic configuration of the CME. CMEs can be modelled with a bright front, dark cavity and core. This core is associated with a flux rope in CME models.
We...
Physics-based modelling of the large-scale dynamics caused by space-weather relevant Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) is conventionally carried out employing either a coronal or heliospheric approach. In the former, the dynamics all the way from the low corona to the heliosphere is modeled, while in the latter the simulation is started at heliocentric distances where the solar wind is...
The solar storms of May 2024 were a series of powerful solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that occurred between 10 and 13 May 2024, followed by a few strong solar flares over the next few days during solar cycle 25. As these eruptions propagated through the corona, they generated multiple solar type II radio bursts, indicating the presence of shock waves.
This study aims to...
Modelling solar eruptions is crucial to understand their triggers and how they might impact Earth's magnetic environment. Thus, magnetic field simulations of the low solar corona are of great relevance for space weather forecasting. In particular, simulations that are driven by the observed magnetic field at the photosphere have proven to be a powerful tool to model the energy build up and...
Solar flares result from the rapid conversion of stored magnetic energy within the Sun's corona. These energy releases are associated with coronal magnetic loops, which are rooted in dense photospheric plasma and are passively transported by surface advection. Their emissions cover a wide range of wavelengths, with soft X-rays being the primary diagnostic for the past fifty years. Despite the...
The METIS Coronagraph onboard Solar Orbiter observes simultaneously in the Visible (VL) band between 580 and 640 nm and the Ultraviolet (UV) band at 121.6 nm. It also observes at a high spatial and temporal resolution, thus allowing a comprehensive characterisation of solar events.
In particular, the Metis team is creating a database of solar eruptive events observed in both the VL and UV...
Solar flares are powerful phenomena with significant implications for space weather. Understanding their characteristics and predicting their behaviour is crucial for mitigating potential risks and ensuring the safety of space-based operations. This research project aims to investigate whether ultraviolet (UV) measurements obtained from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite...
The chromosphere plays a pivotal role by linking the Sun interior to its interplanetary environment. It indeed regulates energy and mass transfer into the corona and solar wind, particularly during small-scale magnetic flux emergence events. The interplay between shock-driven processes and magnetic reconnection is known to be key for the chromospheric heating, however any characterisation of...
Solar energetic events are often "eruptive", sending mass into the corona and often into space as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). We examine a few energetic events using chromospheric imaging spectroscopy from the Mees CCD Imaging Spectrograph (MCIS) and coronal imaging from the Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) and the EUV Imaging Telescope (EIT) to inquire about the mass...
In October 2022, during the Solar Orbiter's perihelion passage, the Metis coronagraph captured an exceptionally large coronal mass ejection (CME). This observation was part of a dedicated program that provided high temporal (20 s cadence) and spatial resolution (4400 km per pixel) images, with a field of view extending from 1.7 to 3 solar radii, at a distance of 0.3 AU from the Sun.
The...
Solar flares are large eruptions of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun that can affect Earth's atmosphere and our technologies (e.g., radio communications). Flares are identified by the arrival of their energetic photons at Earth, meaning that their space-weather effects occur at the same time we become aware that a flare is in progress - this makes it essential for us to forecast them in...
Solar eruptions are classified as sympathetic when they are triggered nearly synchronously but originate from distinct regions on the solar surface, likely due to physical interactions between them. Since the initial investigation of this phenomenon by Richardson et al. (1951), various studies have sought to systematically identify these sympathetic flares from a statistical perspective, but...
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are the main drivers of particle acceleration in the heliosphere, leading to geoeffective events in the Earth's environment.
Observations showing the buildup of CMEs reveal that the start of CME is the existence of a flux rope with a cool filament or not near the solar surface. Instability like torus or kink instability leads to the rise of the flux rope in the...
We performed full Stokes spectropolarimetric observations of loop footpoints in the active region NOAA 13363 during a C-class flare with the GREGOR Infrared Spectrograph (GRIS) on 2023 July 16. The observed spectral region included the photospheric Si I 10 827 A and Ca I 10 839 A lines and the chromospheric He I 10 830 A triplet. Simultaneously, high-cadence and high-resolution imaging...
On 24th December 2024, the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) achieved its closest approach to the Sun, reaching a radial distance of only 9.86 solar radii, where no spacecraft has ever been before. In this study we investigate both the global and local structure and the dynamical evolution of the coronal magnetic field during PSP’s passage to closest at distances below 20 solar radii, i.e. basically...
In order to investigate the sources and the physical mechanisms for the propagation of the Slow Solar Wind (SSW), it is essential to analyze and modeling solar data in the middle corona which determines the large scale structure and also the origin of the SSW (from 1.5 up to 6 solar radii).
We have analyzed high temporal frequency visible light observations acquired by Metis coronagraph on...
The association between solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) plays a critical role in understanding solar eruptive phenomena and their impact on space weather. This work presents a comprehensive statistical analysis of 49 solar radio bursts detected by the POEMAS (POlarization Emission of Millimeter Activity at the Sun) instrument, which operates at 45 and 90 GHz at the CASLEO...
We present an end-to-end, physics-based forward model for type-IV solar radio bursts that links coronal dynamics, particle transport, and radio emission in one pipeline. We first use the 3D coronal MHD model COCONUT to produce a realistic background and drive a CME as an unstable, modified Titov–Démoulin magnetic-flux-rope. We then inject energetic electrons and evolve their distributions with...
Unaccounted solar storms travelling towards Earth can disrupt orbiting satellites and ground-based infrastructure. These threats motivate the development of computational models of plasma activity from the Sun to Earth; such models often rely on empirical coronal inputs to predict events well in advance and mitigate their impact. In this work, we use COCONUT (COolfluid COronal uNstrUcTured),...
Between April and August 2024, the Solar Orbiter mission monitored a
significant portion of the Sun's far side, enabling near-continuous tracking of one of the most complex active regions ever recorded—from emergence to decay. We combined full-disk line-of-sight magnetograms from SO/PHI and SDO/HMI to construct a 94-day time series of deprojected maps of the line-of-sight magnetic field of...
The structure and dynamics of the solar atmosphere are a manifestation of the magnetic field, and it is from this field that all phenomena observed in this region are guided. Although its direct measurement in the solar corona faces limitations, its configuration can be calculated from data from the photosphere. This study proposes the use of Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) to model...
We at NICT currently forecast the maximum expected magnitude of solar flares for the next 24 hours. However, providing early warnings for major solar flares remains a significant challenge. To address this limitation, we are developing an alert system capable of predicting and issuing warnings for large flares at least several hours before their onset.
We recently implemented a...
High radio frequencies observations with the Italian network of large single-dish radio telescopes resulted in over 500 solar images between 2018 and 2025 in K-band frequency range (18–26 GHz). Solar radio mapping at these frequencies allows the probing of the Active Regions (ARs) chromospheric magnetic field close to the Transition Region, where strong flares and coronal mass ejection events...
Coronal jets are known to be transient phenomena associated with energy release processes, with magnetic reconnection being their most probable origin. However, the precise timing and location of the reconnection events have not been clearly established. Moreover, the pronounced geometric complexity of coronal hole (CH) boundaries — where these jets typically originate — suggests a dynamic...
Observations at radio and millimeter wavelengths provide a unique window into the thermal and magnetic structure of the solar chromosphere and corona, where the solar drivers of space weather are rooted. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has marked a major advance in solar observations by providing unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. These capabilities enable...
The Sun cubE onE (SEE) is a 12U CubeSat mission in LEO that will investigate Gamma and X-ray fluxes and UV solar emission to support studies in Sun-Earth interaction and Space Weather. The mission is developed in the frame of the ALCOR program of the Italian Space Agency by a team composed of Tor Vergata University of Rome, Argotec, INFN, School of Aerospace Engineering, OPTEC, and...
Solar flares rapidly and energetically discharge magnetic energy in the solar atmosphere, accelerating charged particles to high velocities and generating intense bursts of radiation across the whole electromagnetic spectrum. Observing flares with high-resolution spectropolarimetric imaging from ground-based instruments remains challenging due to factors such as unpredictability of flares in...
The Space Weather Follow-On (SWFO) program will provide operational solar-coronal images and in situ solar wind measurements to the science community and to space weather information users. Here we first give status updates on the Compact Coronagraph 1 (CCOR-1) onboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 19 (GOES-19) since its June 25, 2024 launch. The Post-Launch Test (PLT)...
The Astro-rivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero (AGILE) has been a unique and successful space mission of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), with the programmatic and technical contribution of INAF and INFN. During almost 17 years of observations, since the launch on April 23, 2007 to the satellite re-entry on February 14, 2024, AGILE contributed to high-energy astrophysics, terrestrial and solar...
We investigate how CME-driven shock fronts become quasi-global and enable widespread solar energetic particle (SEP) events. Using EUHFORIA with a GONG–ADAPT coronal background, we simulate the 13 March 2023 eruption by inserting two spheromak CMEs and, crucially, injecting a shock directly at 0.1 au via Rankine–Hugoniot conditions. This design lets the shock evolve without being tethered to...
The origin and formation of the solar wind remain an open question in solar physics. One proposed scenario is that some solar wind may arise from coronal hole boundaries via magnetic reconnection, the process that also dominates the evolution of coronal hole boundaries. In this study, we investigate the magnetic field and plasma properties at different parts of the boundary of a large...
The Solar Orbiter Python Working Group, part of the Modelling and Data Analysis Working Group (MADAWG) initiative, specifically supports multi-instrument research using Solar Orbiter observations. Its goal is to address the growing need for coordinated and interoperable Python tools that enables joint analysis across instruments and facilitate connections with broader space weather research. ...
Tremendous progress have been made in computing realistic global simulation of the solar magnetism and its 11 yr cycle. Yet there is still one paradox: none of the published dynamo simulations display sunspots. This is the so-called spotty-dynamo paradox. In this talk we will discuss what we think is missing in current global HPC simulation of the solar dynamo and 11 yr cycle and how new high...
We aim to develop a more coherent understanding of the evolution of the physical properties of solar eruptions as they propagate through interplanetary space. Recent multi-spacecraft observations of single ICME events allow us to systematically trace magnetic field related properties across vast spatial domains. Among these properties, magnetic helicity appears to be especially interesting. As...
Context: On 26 September 2022, a quiescent solar prominence was observed using Hα imaging spectroscopy with the Solar Dynamics
Doppler Imager on the Solar Magnetic Activity Research Telescope. Prior studies identified 4- and 15-min oscillations using a narrow
slit and 1D wavelet methods, limiting spatial coverage. We extend this analysis to the entire prominence using a 3D wavelet...
Using synoptic maps, we analyzed the relationship between active longitudes, the most populated longitudes of energetic flares, the distribution of magnetically complex active regions, and the preferred locations of those that produced the largest flares. We found that solar activity was stronger in the northern hemisphere during the rising phases of both cycles, shifting to the southern...
