→ Investigating Solar Cycles a Soho Archive & Ulysses Final Archive Tutorial

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→→ INVESTIGATING SOLAR CYCLES A SOHO ARCHIVE & ULYSSES FINAL ARCHIVE TUTORIAL

SCIENCE ARCHIVES AND VO TEAM Tutorial Written By: Madeleine Finlay, as part of an ESAC Trainee Project 2013 (ESA Student Placement)

Tutorial Design and Layout: Pedro Osuna & Madeleine Finlay

Tutorial Science Support: Deborah Baines

Acknowledgements would like to be given to the whole SAT Team for the implementation of the Ulysses and Soho archives http://archives.esac.esa.int

We would also like to thank;

Benjamín Montesinos, Department of Astrophysics, Centre for Astrobiology (CAB, CSIC-INTA), Madrid, Spain for having reviewed and ratified the scientific concepts in this tutorial.

CONTACT

[email protected] [email protected]

ESAC Science Archives and Virtual Observatory Team European Space Agency European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) Tutorial →→CONTENTS

PART 1 ...... 3

BACKGROUND ...... 4-5

THE EXPERIMENT ...... 6

PART 1 | SECTION 1 ...... 7-8

PART 1 | SECTION 2 ...... 9-11

PART 2 ...... 12

BACKGROUND ...... 13-14

THE EXPERIMENT ...... 15

PART 2 | SECTION 1 ...... 16-17

PART 2 | SECTION 2 ...... 18-19

CONCLUSIONS ...... 20

ADDITIONAL TASKS ...... 20

NUMERICAL ANSWERS ...... 21

PART 1

BACKGROUND mum when the field lines are at their most tangled. maxi a at become; has field magnetic the twisted increased or decreased ‘activity’ depending on how cally and causes ‘Solar Cycles’ –the Sun goes through The twisting of magnetic field lines happens periodi Twisted andTangled the magneticsouthpole andviceversa. the poles swap – the magnetic north pole becomes The twisting eventually becomes so extreme that become twisted so that the structure disappears. they have a general dipolestructure, however they plicated; itis always changing. At ‘solar minimum’ com extremely is field magnetic Sun’s The fields. the focusbe the will behaviour of the magnetic data from all of its instruments. In this case-study Ulysses has provided extensive and indispensible km/hr.56,000 from Earth to the Sun). It had an average speed of and its furthest point was 5.4AU (1AU= distance Its closestseparation fromtheSunwas 1.3AU orbit, ly ellipticalwiththe Sun at the centre. above the the space Sun’s magnetic poles.Ulysseswas in a high of measurement ever first fields magnetic and wind originating from the Sun. It also provided the solar the by affected It studied the heliosphere; the region of space a of measured numberproperties of the Sun. lasted morethan18yearsand which mission, Ulysses wasajoint ESA/NASA deep-space → position, temperature and speed of the particles. strument was used to helpdetermine the com the Sun); the Solar Wind IonCompositionIn wind (a stream of charged particles expelled by Solar Wind Plasma Experiment studied the solar variation respect with to changing latitudes. The their and heliosphere the in fields magnetic the Sun. For example, the Magnetometer measured each sampling different effects produced by the There were 10 instruments aboard Ulysses, → ↑ → ABOUT SOLAR CYCLES ↑ Illustration ofUlysses’ orbit around theSun → ABOUT ULYSSES . ------

s ooa Ms Eetos n slr flares. solar and Ejections such Mass tooccur; Coronal as likely is fields magnetic plex that other solar activity dependent on com surface of the Sun. They also usually indicate tivity and are seen as dark patches on the spots are indicative of intense magnetic ac ered due to changing rates of Sunspots. Sun hundreds of years and was initially discov the phenomena has been known to exist for debate, under still is field magnetic the of tion Although the cause of the periodical varia main particles, charged of flow ly consistingof protons and electrons. a of up extend far into space. A solar wind ismade Ejections; huge blasts of solar winds,which These are often followed by Coronal Mass Solar Flares&CoronalMassEjections this ‘flip’ can take up to seven years tomeans complete! the poles are about to flip -come intense over much of the Sun. This usually although often tremely complex, and whose strength has be ex become has field magnetic Sun’s the that to amaximum inthe solar cycle. Italsoimplies spots goes towards maximum, this corresponds seen in the solar cycles. Asthe number of Sun It isthe cyclical variation of Sunspots which is which has built up in the solar atmosphere. brighten quick caused by a rapid release of magnetic energy asudden, is ing of a part of the Sun’s surface, and is flare solar A → theSun. patches the on surface of Sunspots:Appear as dark → ABOUT SUNSPOTS Can You Spot The Difference? European Space Agency |ESAC Tutorial blasted fromthe Sun. solar and flaresare Coronal Mass Ejections ------

→→Background THE EXPERIMENT →→ THE AIM

The aim of Part 1 of tutorial will be to use the Ulysses Final Archive to investigate a given hypothesis about solar cycles. This will involve studying the form of the magnetic field throughout Ulysses’ mission to deduce where the different points in the solar cycle lie. The task will also comprise of retrieving data from the archive for these points in the solar cycle and performing some basic analysis to test the hypothesis. At the end of this part of tutorial it should be understood how to independently use the main functions of the Ulysses Final archive. →→ THE HYPOTHESIS

During a solar maximum, Ulysses will have observed an increase in the average magnetic field magnitude; when The Experiment The →

compared with during a solar minimum. →

GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS →→PART 1 | SECTION 1

The Tools Used

Ulysses Final Archive: This contains all the data from the Ulysses Spacecraft mission. It provides a way to easily interact with the data. ↑↑An illustration of complex magnetic field lines emerging from the Sun during a solar maximum. Sunspots produce Topcat: Topcat is a program which produces ta- magnetic field loops, which can break; sending charged bles of data, with which it is possible to perform particles accelerating into space. a number of methods of analysis on the data. Such as finding out the mean, or creating a plot.

To perform the experiment and test the hypothesis, follow the instructions in the or- der given here. There will be illustrations of what you should see on your screen along the way. Numerical answers required are provided in the back of this booklet. Opening the Archive and Now select ‘R component’ (Radial component Performing the Search of the magnetic field - which is the component Firstly, open the Ulysses Final Archive that faces outward from the Sun’s surface) and homepage: ‘Magnetic Field Magnitude’ by ticking their box- http://archives.esac.esa.int/ufa and click es. Then click ‘OK’. This should close the new on ‘SEARCH’. window. This is the Ulysses Final Archive main search Then, in the ‘Output selection’ box, under interface. Firstly, choose ‘mission’ under ‘Date ‘Trajectory File’ select ‘Radius + Latitude’ selection’. This will give the data from Ulysses in the drop-down menu. This will provide the for the whole mission. position of Ulysses with respect to the Sun.

Under ‘Results output’ choose ‘Plot’ in the drop-down menu. Click on ‘Submit’

Next, under ‘Instrument selection’, choose VHM/FGM (The Ulysses Magnetic Field Investi- gation Vector Helium Magnetometer / Flux Gate Magnetometer). Analysing the Produced Plots Click on ‘Advanced’. This will start There should be two plots - one up a window on the page, once this is with the two magnetic field compo- open, click on ‘Plot Y-Axis Selection’. nents and one with the trajectory data.

Firstly, the distance of Ulysses from the Sun needs to be compared with the magnetic field magnitude. Try clicking on a data label; this should hide the data on the plot.

Therefore, click on the data label ‘Helio- graphic Latitude of SC (deg)’ and ‘B_R (nT)’. These datasets should now be hidden.

European Space Agency | ESAC Tutorial →→The Experiment which sections of the mission you think might have read in the background section, decide you what and this, From haveflipped. to pear a after field the of ‘noisy’ period. The Sun’s magnetic poles ap reversal a is here seen This is not the case pattern. same the repeat to field constant a pect from onepoletowouldex another, we As Ulyssestravelseachtime past theSun Interpreting theData be atsolarmaximum andsolarminimum. tive to positive latitude. tive to positive Ulysses moves from nega from negative to positive as →

→ Radial (outward) field goes . In fact, what can be - dominated by ‘noise’ → → Theradial is field - - over allthelatitudes. variability field magnetic of lots and structure 2001) is a solar maximum; there is no clear (around change second The field. magnetic dial minimum; there is a clear structure to the ra (around changes latitude 1995 and 2008 respectively) represent a solar third and first The (nT) Next, hide the data ‘ Now unhidethedata by re-clickingon the labels. ’ and ‘ Heliocentric Radius AU (AU) Heliocentric Radius Magnetic field Magnitude

closer to theSun. detects itmovesas Ulysses that nitude magnetic field mag lustratesthe changing → plot shownhere. the secondin seen This hidden. can be data theplot on is the corresponding Byclicking label,on a over-layed. wherethe data was tially produced plots → from theseplots? you infer can of Ulysses. and the latitude field magnetic the radial component of only be showing the → latitude. from negative to positive tive Ulyssesas moves from positive to nega → → → The second plot il You have should ini → → The plots should Radial component goes

What - - - - ’. - →→ PART 1 | SECTION 2 DATA ANALYSIS In this section, will we consider the magnetic fields. Howev- er it should be noted that these cause the Coronal Mass Ejec- Using the Ulysses Final Archive to tions and solar winds that Ulysses detected. Both of these Produce Tables effects are made up of charged particles flowing through The Experiment The →

Go back to the main search in- space, and mainly consist of electrons and protons. Charged → terface, by clicking on ‘Back to particles from the Sun can easily reach Earth, and often do! Search’ in the left-hand corner.

Change ‘Data Selection’ on the drop-down box to ‘Arbitrary’. Using this it is possible to designate specific dates. By ‘Start Time’ dates, click on the calendar icon. The double arrows change the year, where- as the single arrow edits the month.

↑↑An artists impression of Ulysses flying through space.

Firstly the data for the solar minimum will Interacting with the Tables be analysed. It was noted in the previous section that this was around 1995. You should now be under the blue tab It will be necessary to choose similar latitude ‘Result #2’, and grey tab ‘VHM/FGM’. This is the interactive table interface. points for both the minimum and maximum, as well as the same length of time. In this tu- To analyse the data, it is necessary to open torial 01/01/95 – 01/01/96 (minimum) the data in Topcat (interactive graphical viewer and 14/03/01 – 14/03/02 (maximum) and editor for tabular data). For more infor- will be used. If you aren’t sure about these mation about this, click on the circular ‘i’ icon. dates, click on ‘Go to Results’ to go back to Click on the ‘Send To’ and then on the plot of the whole mission to re-examine the Topcat link. the plot. This will open a Therefore, under ‘Start Time’ select 01/01/95 new window on and under ‘Stop Time’ choose 01/01/96. the interface. Firstly, a window will open called ‘Jsampweb- Next, in ‘Instrument selection’ click on the hub.Jnlp’. Make sure ‘Open with’ is selected ‘Advanced’ link for the VHM/FGM instrument. and selet ‘OK’ A new window on the search interface should Next, a window will open called ‘SAMP Hub Se- open. curity’ – to authorise the connection and con- Now click on the blue tab which reads ‘Ta- tinue sending the data to Topcat, click on ‘Yes’. ble Column Selection’. Then, click on After, another window should pop-up called ‘Clear’, which should deselect all the checked ‘Opening topcat-full.jnlp’ – to open Top- cat with the data select ‘Open with’ and ‘OK’. boxes. Choose ‘Start Time’, ‘R component’ and ‘Magnetic Field Magnitude’. Click ‘OK’.

Change the ‘Results output’ to ‘Table’. Click on ‘Submit’.

European Space Agency | ESAC Tutorial Using Topcat Topcat should now be open. The data will be labelled ‘UFA Table’; the trajectory data will not have been sent. The Experiment The To check whether this → is the correct data, → double click on ‘UFA Table’ in the box ‘Table List’ and compare it to the data in the interactive table. To do this it will be necessary to click ‘Close’ on the window that is currently open in the Ulysses Final Archive. This won’t close anything in Topcat. →→An example of a coronal mass ejection, captured by SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory). The shad- Go back to the Topcat window. Click on the ed disc at the centre of the image is a mask in the in- statistics button. A new table window should strument that blots out direct sunlight. The white cir- open. Read off the ‘Mean’ value for the mag- cle in the disc shows the size and position of the Sun. netic field magnitude (B) and its standard It can be seen how big the Coronal Mass Ejections are! deviation (SD), and write it down in the ta- →→OPTIONAL ble provided below. The standard deviation illustrates how much the data varies with re- Try plotting the data in Topcat by press- spect to the mean value. ing scatter-plot button and selecting data for the x-axis and y-axis. Try plot- Now repeat this process from Step 1, but ting the date – ‘epoch’ (x-axis) and mag- using the dates 14/03/01 – 14/03/02, netic field magnitude – ‘B’ (y-axis) and so that you are finding the data for the so- comparing it to the plots produced using lar maximum. Finish filling in the above the archive (as was done in Section 1). table. What can you see from this data?

This is the statistics button.

This button opens a window where the user can create scatter-plots. This is the data sent; to open it in Topcat, double click the label here.

MAGNETIC FIELD MAGNITUDE TABLE

POINT IN SOLAR CYCLE MEAN VALUE STANDARD DEVIATION

SOLAR MINIMUM

SOLAR MAXIMUM

The answers can be found in the back of this tutorial booklet. →→The Experiment → from whathasbeenfoundinthistutorialwillbemade. Another hypothesis concerning solarcyclesbe made and willtested. Finally, some conclusions vatory) archive be will utilisedto examine a Coronal Mass Ejection, along with Ulysses data. some background information be will given. Then the SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Obser The second part of this tutoriallookat will solar winds and Coronal Mass Ejections. Firstly, Have agoatguessingwhatstageofthesolarcycle wearecurrentlyin. to returnitsoriginalconfiguration. of the ‘22-year cycle’ because this ishow long it takes for the Sun’s polarity go from a solar minimum to the next. Often the solar cycle isknown in terms Ulysses? It should be possible to see that each cycle lasts around 11 years; to Can you tell how long the solar cycle takes, from the graphs you produced in wind. Ejections, whichblastoff charged particles from the Sun, as a massive solar Another effect whose rate increases during a solar maximum is Coronal Mass during thesolarmaximum. from the mean) much higher. This isdue to the increased rate of sunspots the dates for the solar maximum, and the standard deviation (variation away The data you collected for the magnetic field magnitude should be greater for Archive. lar cycle the Sun might currently be in, by using data from the Ulysses Final In this part of the tutorial we have seen how to deduce what part of the so → → What next? → ANALYSIS The European Space Agency |ESAC Tutorial - - PART 2 BACKGROUND →→Background to theEarth about 1.5km millionaway. Sun keep SOHO inthisorbit,and ‘locked’ Earth; the combined gravity of the Earth and the Sun at its centre and moves with the rona and theSOHO’s solarwind. orbithas inside of the Sun, as well the solar co analyse the structure and dynamics of the 12 instruments on board. Its aim was to The mission was launched in 1995 and has core to the solar wind it produces. and NASAto study thefromits Sun, builtbyESA is aspacecraft SOHO → Ultraviolet frequency. Sun in four colours at the extreme end of the ing Telescopes), which produce images of the → structure and dynamics of the Sun’s interior. tists can use to gain information about the motion of the Sun’s surface, which scien ager (MDI). This instrument records the → artificial eclipse. fromlight the Sun’s surface by creating an Sun’s atmosphere) and blocks the direct serves the corona (exterior layer of the trometric Coronograph (LASCO). Thisob → aboard SOHO. tutorial come will from three instruments → → These are EITs (Extreme Ultraviolet Imag → → Finallythere is the Michelson Doppler Im Next, there is the Large Angle and Spec → Thedatabeconsideredinthis that will → ABOUT SOHO

------EJECTIONS → 600 -1800km/s! extremely fast; and often reach speeds of around kg. The protons and electrons are also travelling much less than the mass of the Sun itself, 2 x 10 per event. Although thisseems a lot, itisvery eject vast amounts of material; around 10 CMEs are impressive events to observe. They tive areaofresearch. phenomenon is unknown, and so CMEs are an ac space. The exact explanation of what causes this face of the Sun whichextendsof millions km into field, magnetic corona’s where the corona is the plasma around the sur the in changes with away lots of energy into space. CMEs are linked tity of electromagnetic radiation, which carries This can also be seen as a release of a vast quan electrons andprotons. particles intomainlyconsistingof space, it when blastsgreatamountsofcharged Sun of the are thephenomena Ejections (CMEs) As wasstated previously, Coronal Mass better the scienceunderstand ↑ ↑ SOHO is constantly sothatSOHO theSun, we observing can →

MORE ON

CORONAL MASS 30 kg 30 - - - THE EXPERIMENT

→→ THE AIM

The aim of Part 2 of the tutorial will be to use the SOHO archive to investigate some properties of the Sun during solar maxima and minima, in particular Coronal Mass Ejec- tions. Following on from this the Ulysses Final Archive will be used to analyse a given hypothesis about Coronal Mass Ejections and the Sun’s solar cycles. At the end of Part 2 of the tutorial, it should be understood how to independently use both of the archives, as well as having a basic under- standing of some of the Sun’s properties during different parts of the solar cycle. →→The Experiment finding themean,orcreatingaplot. make it easily to anaylse the data, such as the ular data. It has a number of features which Topcat Analysing SOHO Data Produce Animations Using theSOHOArchiveTo The SOHO archive should nowbe open. images fromtheSun. data, as well as making time animations from far. Usingthisitispossible toeasilysearch for all the data from the SOHO space-mission so archive SOHO Tools Used SOHO archive. on ‘ A open new will called window interface link whichreads ‘ chive/index_ssa.html ing to Open the SOHO archive. This isdone by go To dothisthe a solar maximum than a solar minimum. yourself that there aremoreCMEsduring Firstly, it will be important to convince interactive tablesandgraphs. the Ulysses space-mission and can make both Ulysses FinalArchive to increasean Coronal in Mass Ejections. protonsand measured by Ulysses, due increase an the in density of electrons During a solar maximum there will be → → → → THE HYPOTHESIS PART 2|SECTION 1 Open with Open : Topcat is a program which creates tab http://soho.esac.esa.int/data/ar ’. ’ and then click ‘OK’ to open the : The SOHO archive contains SOHO archive Click here to start the user : Thishas the data from and on clicking the willbeused. ssa.jnlp ; click - - - may be around 900 images being loaded. ing time to create the animations, there worry if itistak green tick icon.Don’t Then click on the ‘ for ‘ ‘ To inputthedates,goto thebox labelled again. mission whole the for field magnetic of the tutorial and consider the graph of the not sure about these dates go back to Part 1 – 28/06/1996 be analysed. Therefore, the dates Initially, the images for the solar minimum will dropdown box. Spaced Images’ to 300 by selecting itinthe Next, change the ‘Max Number of Evenly Date Range key whilst clickingon the instruments. the same time by holdingdownthe ‘ctrl’ um 195 dows Under ‘ en by SOHOand creates a short animation. The time animator takes the images tak open a new tab within the SOHO archive. indicated inthe picture. Or clickon‘ on the Now clicktimeanimator button, as towardsmagnetic theEarthits field. and ↑ ↑ An illustration of a Coronal Mass Ejection pointed Begin ’. It ispossibletoselectallthree at ’ ‘ ’ and then ‘ LASCO C2 LASCO Instrument/Filter ’ and‘ ’ andclickonthecalendaricon End should beentered. If you are Time Animator Search ’ andchoosetherelevant ’ and ‘ ’ button with the MDI Continu ’ select ‘ 01/06/1996 ’. This will Win EIT - - - - Now repeat this for a solar maximum. It Evaluating the Animations is only necessary to change the dates for the search. An animation for each of the instruments should be in the box ‘Time Animator Re- Change the dates to 01/02/2002 The Experiment The – 28/02/2002. Again, click on the → sults’. Watch each of the films by click- → ing on the blue ‘play’ icon under the ti- ‘Search’ button and once the three tle ‘Play Movie’. Write down what you films have been made, watch them notice about each of the animations. by clicking on the blue ‘play’ icon. Write down what you notice about the solar maximum videos. How do they compare to the solar minimum videos. →→WHAT DO YOU SEE?

SOLAR MINIMUM SOLAR MAXIMUM

MDI CONTINUUM

EIT 195

LASCO C2

MDI Continuum – the dark spots you should be able to see are the sunspots mentioned in the first part of the tutorial. It should be noted that there are many more sunspots during the dates inputted for the solar maximum compared to the solar minimum dates.

EIT 195 – the image should have many more luminous patches during the solar maximum, of which most will be solar flares; which were previously defined as a bright- ening of a section of the Sun’s surface usually followed by a Coronal Mass Ejection.

LASCO C2 – It should have been noted that during the solar maximum there was much more activity from the Sun to observe. Some of ↑↑This is an example of the kind of images you will the large bursts it is possible to see are likely to see in an EIT 195 video. be Coronal Mass Ejections. Therefore it can be assumed that there were many more Coronal Mass Ejections during the solar maximum than From the SOHO data it can be concluded the solar minimum. This was what was expected. that during a solar maximum there is much more activity than during a solar (You may have also noticed that the Sun minimum, including Coronal Mass Ejec- appeared to be turning. This is right; tions. Now we will investigate the mean the Sun actually rotates! It has differ- proton and electron densities during ent rates of rotation at different lati- these times to see if Ulysses observed an tudes, but at the equator the period for one full rotation is around 24 days.) increase; which will test the hypothesis.

European Space Agency | ESAC Tutorial (as wasdoneinpart 1 ofthetutorial). to open. Thedataneeds besentto Topcat pear. Thetab‘ The tabulardata results shouldnowap Sending theTablestoTopcat ly, click‘ In the ‘ dropdown box next to ‘ part of the tutorial, so select ‘ The trajectory data is notnecessary for this ‘OK’, the Advanced shouldclose. window lect ‘Start Time’ and ‘ again tab.and this time se Click ‘Clear’ Now selectthe ‘ density and then select ‘Start Time’ and ‘ ‘Clear’ Click tab. Make sure the ‘ ‘ (Solar Wind Plasma Investigation) and click on the Under ‘ used for SOHO; clicking on the calendar icon. The dates are those relevant dates for ‘Start Time’ and ‘ ‘ Selection Next, select the solar minimum dates in the ‘ http://archives.esac.esa.int/#search search page; To begin, go to the Ulysses archive main Selecting theData Analysing Ulysses Data Advanced Date Selection → → PART 2|SECTION 2 Instrument Selection Instrument Results Output Results ’ (whichistheprotondensity). Submit ’ link. Select the ‘Table Column Selection’ ’ box. To do this,select ‘ ’. ’ dropdown box, then choose the 01/06/1996 01/06/1996 – 28/06/1996 SWOOPS Ions SWOOPS SWOOPS Ions SWOOPS ’ box, select table. Final SWOOPS Electrons SWOOPS Total Density Trajectory File ’ select ‘ Arbitrary ’ shouldbe Stop Time ’ tab is open. Off SWOOPS ’ in the ’. Click ’ in the Date ’ by p+ - - ’. ’. . - ’ ’ A should window open called ‘ cat with the data select ‘Open with’ and ‘OK’. ‘ After, anothershould pop-upcalled window tinue sending the data to Topcat, click on ‘Yes’. curity Next, open a willcalled‘ window with’ isselected and select ‘OK’. webhub.Jnlp ton, and then on the Topcat link. Therefore, click on the ‘ Opening topcat-full.jnlp Opening Topcat again. and the Topcat link. The data should be sent to tab. Oncethistabisopen, on‘ click data, onthe click grey ‘ data has been sent. To send the electron density You should also see that only the proton density close anythingFinal Archive. in Topcat. This won’t the that window is currently open in the Ulysses Tobe dothisitwillnecessary to click‘ pare it tothedata in the interactive table. ‘UFA Table’ in the box ‘ er this is the correct data, double click on be labelled ‘ Topcat should nowbeopen. The data will ’ – to authorise the connection and con Thisis the statisticsbutton ’. Make sure ‘Open UFA Table’ Table List SWOOPS Electrons SWOOPS . To check wheth ’ – to open Top Send To Send SAMP Hub Se SAMP Hub ’ and com Close Jsamp Send To Send ’ but ’ on ------’ ’

→→The Experiment Now allthe necessary data has been sent the electron density for the solarmaximum. ty for the solar maximum and the fourth for lar minimum, the third for the proton densi second for the electron density in the so proton density in the solar minimum, the statis first shouldshowthe tics window mean for the The opened. have windows new Do each this withof the labels,sothat four blue, and then click on the statistics button. the box ‘ ‘ first on click Topcat, to same under the ‘ ing on ‘ ‘ proton’ data by making sure that the Once again, as before send ‘SWOOPS mit the previous search, so nowjustclickon‘ The same data should still be selected as in as before, under the ‘ dates; Now editthe dates to the solar maximum on click firstly corner ofthescreen. left-hand data, the ‘ maximum lar To compare this data with the so Finding theMeanValues the Ulyssesarchive tables,andclickon‘Close’. This newdataalsobelabelledunder will ‘UFA Table’, however they benumbered. will Go back to Write the values you find in the ta the in of thistutorial in thebackbooklet find you are given ble below.Theanswers values the Write Comparing theData DENSITY MEAN ELECTRON DENSITY MEAN PROTON SOLAR MINIMUM SOLAR MAXIMUM SWOOPS Ions SWOOPS ’. The new tables should open as before. Back to Search 01/02/2002 –28/02/2002 Send To Send Table List ’ tab is open and click ’ and then Topcat. Do the SWOOPS Electrons SWOOPS ’ so that it isselected in Date Selection ’ linkinthetop UFA Table ’ label in . Do this ’ box. ’ tab. Sub ------. is themean. youThe value found.important for experimentthis → for the solarminimum. dowsthat open. It youproton will theis density → → → Seeif thenumerical valuesmatch with the ones Thisis example ofan oneof the statistics win European Space Agency |ESAC Tutorial -

→→The Experiment →→The Experiment astronauts for radiationdamage of danger the aurora,or as such Sun, the from activity increased of quences conse the of some considered briefly Wealso archive. Ulysses the using investigated be can ties flares. These can be directly observed using data from the SOHO archive, or some of their proper maximum is associatedmore with ‘activity’ such assunspots, Coronal Mass Ejections and solar → space atgreatspeeds. are associated with the Coronal Mass Ejections whichcreate huge solar winds that are sent far into solar maximum there is an increase in the proton and electron densities detected by Ulysses. These data, as well as Ulysses data. The hypothesis was proved correct, which illustrated that during a and one of their properties was investigated. A hypothesis was analysed, using ESA/NASA SOHO → associated withstrongmagneticfields. Sun. One of the reasons given for this isthe increased rate of Sunspots during thistime, which are solar maximum there is an increase in the radial (outwards) component of the magnetic field of the spacecraft Ulysses was made, and proved correct. This showed that in the solar cycle, during the the by detected ESA/NASA field magnetic the A about flares. hypothesis solar and CMEs sunspots, → → whether theybelong to or solarmaximum, a a fromboth of the archives to seeif you can tell → archive. Ulysses tures fromarchive,SOHO the or graphs fromthe activity. You could even tryincluding somepic → [email protected] ArchivesTeam with your conclusions at: you can spot! You can even email theScience solarmaxima minima andsee and what things to see,orlook at data theusing archives for you likely are effects solar research other about you aren’t sure,use searcha to engine do some theSun to test withSOHO orUlysses data. If Try about hypothesis own your with up coming → solar minimum. → → → Therefore, in conclusionwe have seen that the Sun goes through cycles; solar cycles. The solar In Part 2 of the tutorial more in depth information was give about CMEs -Coronal Mass Ejections, In Part 1 of the tutorial information was given about certain characteristics of the Sun; in particular electron density due to the increased rate of CME’s during a solar maximum. that the hypothesis was correct; that Ulysses observed an increased proton and Therefore, from this and the corresponding SOHO data, it ispossibleto see and electron densitiesduringthe solar maximum compared to the solar minimum. You should notice that, as predicted, Ulysses has detected higher mean proton → Conclusions → → Pick some randomPicklookthedatasome dates at and Write your own booklet about its the Sun and → Additional Activites . - lot about the way it works. it way the lot about ↑ ↑ Revealingnew ways to see ourSun can teachus a - - DENSITY MEAN ELECTRON 0.185214 0.803354 DENSITY MEAN PROTON 0.16852 0.640791 PART 2|SECTION 2:PROTON ANDELECTRON DENSITIES POINT IN SOLAR CYCLE PART 1|SECTION 2:MAGNETIC FIELD MAGNITUDE TABLE → The plotsproducedshouldlooksomethinglike this: PART |SECTION 2:OPTIONAL ACITIVITES SOLAR MINIMUM 2.137721.24447 SOLAR MAXIMUM 2.693191.99087 Plots madewithTopcat → Answers to Problems Numerical

SOLAR MINIMUMSOLAR MAXIMUM

MEAN VALUE Plots madewiththeUlyssesFinalArchive European Space Agency |ESAC Tutorial STANDARD DEVIATION

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