Collaborative Research: SHINE: Study of Long-Term Variability of Solar Chromospheric Activity in Multiple Solar Cycles

This 3-year SHINE project is aimed at building a multi-decadal database of H-alpha images using various sources and studying the long-term variation in the database to understand the cyclic behavior of the solar activity. The three project teams will study the statistical properties of filaments, track differential rotation and meridional flows, and investigate the chirality-hemispheric helicity relation, which is essential for understanding the long-term variation of magnetic fields, interior flows and helicity. The project has a strong education component since all three PI institutions have very active programs in education and outreach; the NJIT and CSUN have highly diverse environment, with many minority students. This SHINE project is multidisciplinary in nature since it requires expertise in computer science, engineering, statistics, and physics. The project will promote strong international collaborations for the benefit of advancing space weather research both in the USA and worldwide.

The research plan of this 3-year SHINE project includes three main tasks. The first task is to study the long-term variation of the statistical properties of filaments that carries important information about the magnetic signature of the solar cycles. The project team will focus the research on the statistical and cycle dependent properties of filaments, in particular polar crown filaments that are related to the interface between the new and the old solar cycles. The second main task is to track plasma flows using features from H-alpha images as proxy for the magnetic features. The most important components include the differential rotation and meridional flows. Both are closely related to the dynamo signature of solar cycles. Since the SOHO and SDO data are limited to solar cycles 23 and 24, which may be atypical in respect to low level of activity, to accomplish this task the project team will utilize their own data, which spans over 9 solar cycles of both high and low amplitudes. The third task is to investigate the distribution of filament chirality and their cycle variations, which reflect the global structure of helicity. The project is directly relevant to the NSF's SHINE program, because it will provide important knowledge about the long-term variation of the global solar activity, which is the major source of high-energy disturbances in the solar, heliospheric, and interplanetary environment. Such knowledge is critical for accurate modeling and prediction of space weather conditions from the solar surface to the Earth and beyond. The research and EPO agenda of this project supports the Strategic Goals of the AGS Division in discovery, learning, diversity, and interdisciplinary research.