ISWI Newsletter - Vol.9 No.04
26 March 2017

Dear ISWI Participant:

At the very bottom is the explanation for how to subscribe to this newsletter, which is free of charge.

If you know someone who is interested in international space weather news, please encourage that person to subscribe.

Also, I always welcome your news for distribution to this community.

George Maeda
Editor of ISWI Newsletter

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

[1] CALLISTO status report/newsletter #66 (read it)

[2] CALLISTO Installation at National Space Agency (ANGKASA) of Malaysia, by Asnor Nadirah Ishak of Malaysia (read it)

[3] The Birkeland Space Weather Symposium (read it)

[4] FINAL REPORT of the Training-Workshop on "A Data Analysis Workshop on Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar Radio Bursts: Coronal and Interplanetary Shocks" (read it)

[5] Polar Interlopers in the Aurora (read it)

[6] AAAS Meeting (Boston) examined space weather (article in The Economist, 25 Feb 2017) (read it)

[7] CALLISTO status report/newsletter #67 (read it)

[1] CALLISTO status report/newsletter #66
New Callisto installed at Mekelle University, Ethiopia

Last week we had a 5-day workshop with the title "Coronal and Interplanetary Shocks: Data Analysis from SOHO, Wind, and e-CALLISTO Data". During the weekend we assembled and installed all hardware and associated software to get a working solar-radio-spectrograph. The installation and commissioning phase was strongly supported by our Indian colleagues from Gandhinagar University.

Read it :  link to document

(Sent in by Christian Monstein)

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[2] CALLISTO Installation at National Space Agency (ANGKASA) of Malaysia
Asnor Nadirah Ishak, Christian Monstein, Zulia Kurnia Dewi Nurlisman, Zahira Mohd Radzi
asnor[at]angkasa.gov.my, monstein[at]astro.phys.ethz.ch, zulia[at]angkasa.gov.my, zahira[at]angkasa.gov.my

We have successfully installed the CALLISTO system at National Space Agency (ANGKASA), Banting, Selangor, Malaysia located 2°78’00N and 101°51’00E with cooperation National University of Malaysia (UKM). This is one of the candidate sites for radio astronomical purpose in Malaysia. The antenna is mounted outside and the CALLISTO spectrometer system (spectrometer, control computer, power supplies and preamplifier) is located inside the cabin.

See the full report:  link to document

(Sent in by Christian Monstein)

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[3] The Birkeland Space Weather Symposium 13÷16 June 2017, Oslo, Norway

Dear Space Weather colleagues,

In 2017, the legacy of the physicist Kristian Birkeland still stands solid 150 years after his birth and 100 years after his death. <http://www.mn.uio.no/english/about/news-and-events/events/birkeland-jubilee/>

In connection with the 150 anniversary of Kristian Birkeland in Oslo we arrange a Birkeland Space Weather Symposium

On June 15, we have many interesting invited talks. June 16, we invite you to give a contributed talk. The main focus will be on the end user for space weather service products.

Spread information within your organization and relevant partners.

Mark the event in your calendar!

Information on registration coming later on the first mentioned webpage above. The Symposium will be a free event (no registration fee) and you are also welcomed to attend the event on June 14. This will be a celebration of Birkeland’s industrial adventures.

Sincerely,
Pal Brekke and Joran Moen

Dr. Pal Brekke (paal.brekke[at]spacecentre.no)
Seniorradgiver - Romforskning // Senior Advisor - Space Science
Norsk Romsenter // Norwegian Space Centre
Drammensvn 165, P.O. Box 113 Skoyen, N-0212 Oslo, Norway
Tel +47 22511800 (Direct: 827) Fax +47 22511801
Cell Phone: +47 9087 1961
http://www.romsenter.no ++ http://www.spacecentre.no

(Sent in by Pal Brekke)

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[4] FINAL REPORT of the Training-Workshop on "A Data Analysis Workshop on CME and Solar Radio Bursts: Coronal and Interplanetary Shocks" Feb 19÷25, 2017 , Mekelle, Ethiopia

Introduction

Shock waves represent a universal process from the solar corona to the heliospheric termination shock and supernova shocks to shocks in the intergalactic medium. Super Alfvenic Coronal Mass Ejections drive shock which can in turn produce type II bursts. These type II bursts can help us to remotely probe CMEs for better for better modeling of CMEs as CMEs play major role in space weather. Spacecraft such as the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), Wind, and the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) missions routinely pass through shocks driven by these CMEs in the interplanetary medium and thus provide excellent details on the shock properties and the energetic particles contained in them.

While these in situ measurements are extremely valuable, more important is the origin of these shocks very close to the Sun - typically only about 350,000 km above the solar surface. Such shocks have to be observed remotely using ground based radio telescopes in the form of type II radio bursts. Early detection of these shocks is also important because they cause particle increase at Earth during their Earth arrival and sudden commencement of geomagnetic storms. One of the simple radio instruments capable of observing solar radio bursts is the Compound Astronomical Low-cost Low-frequency Instrument for Spectroscopy and Transportable Observatory (CALLISTO) deployed worldwide by ETH Zurich.

Read this report as link to document (12 pages)

(Sent in by Nat Gopalswamy)

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[5] Polar Interlopers in the Aurora

A new study suggests that poleward boundary intensifications in the aurora are caused by fast flows of plasma from the poles into the auroral oval. : By Leah Crane 9 March 2017

SOURCE: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 14 Nov 2016
S. Ohtani, A. Yoshikawa The initiation of the poleward boundary intensification of auroral emission by fast polar cap flows: A new interpretation based on ionospheric polarization DOI: 10.1002/2016JA023143

Earth’s aurora appears as a ring of high conductance around each pole, shifting and undulating as the hours go by. The poleward edge of this auroral oval also marks a conductance boundary, often coinciding with the boundary of the polar cap, where the topology of Earth’s magnetic field lines changes from closed loops at lower latitudes to open to the solar wind at higher latitudes.

Many times every day, the edge of the aurora brightens in a poleward boundary intensification (PBI). PBIs have been studied extensively for decades, but researchers have not yet conclusively determined their source. Here Ohtani and Yoshikawa present an explanation of how PBIs may be caused by ionospheric convection, rather than the popular idea that they could be caused by magnetic reconnection far from Earth in the magnetosphere.

Fast polar cap flows, which transport ionospheric plasma from the dayside to nightside auroral oval across the polar cap, are strongly correlated to PBIs: The two occur together about 90% of the time. When these flows make contact with the auroral oval, the polarization of the ionosphere at the edge of the auroral oval causes a field-aligned current (FAC), a current of electrons that stream along Earth’s magnetic field lines. The authors hypothesize that FACs, if directed upward, are accompanied by enhanced electron precipitation, which would cause auroral intensification, in other words, a PBI.

This idea is supported by a number of characteristics of PBIs. For one, PBIs start immediately when a polar cap flow touches the auroral oval and have the same duration as the polar cap flow, which can be explained by the instantaneous nature of ionospheric polarization. For another, PBIs last as long as the polar cap flow is touching the auroral oval, a correlation that is difficult to explain if they are caused by distant reconnection.

PBIs are also wider than polar cap flows: If PBIs were caused by distant reconnection, the reconnection would have to be inexplicably triggered simultaneously inside and outside the flow channel. Finally, PBIs are often followed by the movement toward the equator of the open-close boundary marking the edge of the polar cap, connecting PBIs to the enhanced polar cap convection.

These statistical characteristics, when considered together, suggest that the vast majority of PBIs are caused by ionospheric polarization.

(Sent in by K. Goto )

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[6] AAAS Meeting (Boston) examined space weather (article in The Economist, 25 Feb 2017)

See this file:  link to document

(Sent in by George Maeda)

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[7] CALLISTO status report/newsletter #67

CONTENTS

  1. New CALLISTO commissioned in Montevideo, Uruguay
  2. CALLISTO-Malaysia reloaded
  3. CALLISTO-SWMC, Cairo Egypt reloaded
  4. Progress report CALLISTO University of Cartagena, Spain
  5. CESRA news

Now we have also a Facebook group-account about CALLISTO here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/788389237975335/

Read this report :  link to document

(Sent in by Christian Monstein)

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**************[ End of this issue of the ISWI Newsletter ]******************
Attachments:

(1) CALLISTO status report/newsletter #66 988 KB pdf, 7 pages (click link to document)

(2) CALLISTO status report/newsletter #67 1 331 KB pdf, 8 pages (click link to document)

(3) CALLISTO Installation at National Space Agency of Malaysia 635 KB pdf, 3 pages (click link to document)

(4) Final Report of the Training-Workshop on “A Data Analysis Workshop on Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar Radio Bursts: Coronal and Interplanetary Shocks” 511 KB pdf, 12 pages (click link to document)

(5) The Economist: "Space weather discussed at AAAS meeting" 1 327 KB pdf, 2 pages (click link to document)

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