(An extended version of the introductory text that follows has been published in Gross et al., EOS, V 90, p. 13-14, 13 January 2009.)
The Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM), a Science and Technology Center (STC) funded by the National Science Foundation, has the goal of developing a suite of integrated physics based computer models that describes the space environment from the Sun to the Earth [Hughes and Hudson, 2004]. In support of this mission, along with the research and development of the various models, CISM has adopted the educational goal of training the next generation of space physicists to view the space environment as an integrated system from the Sun to the Earth, rather than a series of separate disciplines. One program that furthers this goal is the CISM Space Weather Summer School.
The Space Weather Summer School is a two-week intensive program targeted at first year graduate students, although advanced undergraduates and space weather professionals also profit from attending. The daily schedule of the summer school consists of a series of three morning lectures from experts in the field and an afternoon laboratory session where students use data and computer simulation results to further explore the topics covered in the morning. An example of a detailed syllabus can be found on the CISM website.
The afternoon labs are a unique aspect of the summer school and are designed for students to explore space physics concepts and space weather forecasting. Since the lab activities use results from CISM models, publicly available data, and visualization software that is either open-source or readily available, the lab activities are easily adaptable for use by ther instructors and so are appropriate for dissemination.
Nine labs have been developed for use during the summer school. The first lab is an introduction to the visualization package, CISM-DX [Wiltberger et. al., 2005. ] that is used by many research groups throughout CISM. Many though, not all of the labs use this visualization package to one extent or another. Versions of this package are available for UNIX and Mac based systems. With the exception of the first lab, all of the labs have some component that does not rely on CISMDX, so contain useful materials even if the package can not be installed.
Presented here are brief desctiptions of each lab along with the activity titles and the goals for each lab. Additionally, the student manuals are presented in pdf format to give instructors a better idea of the materials and activities that are available. For the complete set of lab materials, including simulation results and visualizaton files, contact the CISM Education Corrdinator, Nicholas Gross. If you intend to use any of these lab materials, please contact Dr. Gross.
Lab1: Introduction to Visualizing Results from Space Weather Models
Lab 2: Exploring the Structure of the Solar Magnetic Field Using the MAS Model
Lab 3: Sources of the Solar Wind
Lab 4: Exploring Solar Wind Structure Using the ENLIL Model
Lab 5: Predicting and Modeling the arrival of the May 12th 1997 CME
Lab 6: Exploring Magnetospheric Structure Under Varying IMF Conditions
Lab 7: Particle Motions in the Magnetosphere
Lab 8: Satellite Drag
Lab 9: Exploring the Structure of the Ionosphere using TIE-GCM
In this lab participants interact with simulation results through a visualization package. Students gain experience using the particular visualization package common to most of the other labs and use different visual tools common in space weather such as cut planes and field lines. Results from three different space weather models are used as examples: the MAS model (see lab 2 for details) that simulates the solar corona, the ENLIL (see lab 4 for details) model that simulates the solar wind, and the LFM model (see lab 6 for details) that simulates the magnetosphere. The goal here is not for students to understand the models completely, but rather for them to gain experience with the visualization package and to think about how it might be used to explore these models.
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In the first of the solar labs participants use magnetogram synoptic maps to analyze the structure of the photospheric magnetic field at different solar latitudes, different phases of the solar cycle, and from one cycle to the next. Participants then visualize model results from the Magneto-hydrodynamics Around a Sphere (MAS) model [Linker, et. al., 1999] to explore the 3-D structure of the solar magnetic field in the region of the solar corona, comparing its structure at solar minimum and solar maximum. As a final exercise, students compare images of the white light coronagraphs to the structure of the solar magnetic field predicted by the simulations.
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In the third lab participants study the 2-D synoptic map generated from the Wang-Sheeley-Arge model [Arge, et. al., 2004]that is used in forecasting at the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) at NOAA (http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ws/ ). These maps display the foot points of open magnetic field lines and those points that connect to the sub-earth point on given dates. This representation is compared to a 3-D visualization generated using results from the MAS model which shows the field lines that are connected to the sub-earth points along with the foot points of the all the open field lines. In both simulations the open foot points correspond to the coronal holes derived from each of these models and so the regions on the sun from which the solar wind originates. These can be compared to the coronal holes as shown by EIT synoptic maps generated from spacecraft ultraviolet images.
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In the fourth lab results from the ENLIL solar wind model [Odstrcil, 2003] are viewed using cut planes painted with plasma parameters and field lines. Here participants explore the structure of the solar wind during solar minimum and solar maximum, identifying how the plasma parameters vary as a function of radius and solar latitude. Structures such as the current sheet, co-rotating interaction regions (CIR), and the organization of fast and slow flows are revealed. [Almost all of the activities in this lab use CISMDX to visualize the results of solar wind simulations]
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In the fifth lab, a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is modeled using the CME-Cone model [Odstrcil, 2004]. The evolution of the CME is compared at solar minimum and solar maximum. In addition, participants use coronagraph images to predict the launch speed and arrival time at Earth of an actual CME. The procedure used is similar to that used by SWPC though the specific tools used are different.
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In the sixth lab summer school participants begin to explore features of geo-space using the visualization of results from a magnetospheric model, the Lyon-Fedder-Mobury (LFM) model. Participants identify various structures in the magnetosphere such as the: bow shock, magneto-pause, tail-lobes, reconnection points, the plasma sheet, current systems, etcetera. Participants are also asked to identify dynamic structures such as a plasmoid, and bulk flows in the tail. Comparisons are made under varying solar wind conditions.
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Participants view results from particle dynamics simultions to identify the various motions of particles in the magnetosphere. In the first activity, participants can explore how the speed and pitch angle of the a particle moving in a dipole field affects the motion. The second activity takes advantage of a pre-existing web application that was designed for outreach to the general public. In this activity students explore how particles move in various field configurations to build up their conceptual knowledge of the motion of particles in the magnetosphere. The last activity uses simulation results for particles moving in a realistic, evolving magnetosphere simulation [Elkington, 2004; Kress, 2005].
Kress, B.T., M.K. Hudson, and P.L. Slocum, “Impulsive solar energetic ion trapping in the magnetosphere during geomagnetic storms”,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L06108, doi:10.1029/2005GL022373, 2005
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The eighth lab looks at how satellite drag is affected by space weather. This lab was adopted from one developed at the Air Force Academy by D. Knipp. It has been described in detail in elsewhere (The Physics Teacher, October 2005 ,Volume 43, Issue 7, pp. 452-455). Briefly, this lab uses the Mass Spectrometer and Incoherent Scatter Radar (MSIS) emperical model of the atmosphere to predict the atmospheric density in Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) and its effect on the decay of satellite orbits.
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In the last lab session of the summer school, students use results from the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General-Circulation-Model (TIE-GCM) to look at the altitude and latitude structure of the ionosphere. Students are asked to look for evidence of the auroral ovals, Chapman layers, and electro-jets. Participants compare the ionosphere at solar minimum and solar maximum case. They also look at the evolution of the ionosphere during a geomagnetic storm
- Roble, R. G., E. C. Ridley, A. D. Richmond, R. E. Dickinson, A coupled thermosphere/ionosphere general circulation model, Geophys. Res. Lett., 15, 1325, 1988.
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