Current state and perspectives of Space Weather science in Italy

Plainaki, C.; Antonucci, M.; Бемпорад, А.; Berrilli, F.; Bertucci, B.; Castronuovo, Marco; Michelis, Paola De; Giardino, Marco; Iuppa, R.; Laurenza, M.; Marcucci, M. F.; Messerotti, M.; Narici, L.; Negri, B.; Nozzoli, F.; Orsini, S.; Romano, Vincenzo; Cavallini, Enrico; Polenta, G.; Ippolito, Alessandro

doi:10.1051/swsc/2020003

Cited by 25 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 148 publications

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“…At the present time, uncertainties on the predictions of the energy spectra of rare particles would be higher than their contribution to the observations carried out with the Metis coronagraph. The overall GCR flux shows time, energy, charge, and space modulation in the inner heliosphere (Grimani et al 2020), an aspect of particular importance also in the context of planetary Space Weather and Solar System exploration (Plainaki et al 2016(Plainaki et al , 2020. In particular, the GCR flux shows modulations associated with the 11-year solar cycle and the 22-year polarity reversal of the GSMF.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cosmic-ray flux predictions and observations for and with Metis on board Solar Orbiter

Grimani

Andretta

Chioetto

et al. 2021

A&A

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Context. The Metis coronagraph is one of the remote sensing instruments hosted on board the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission. Metis is devoted to carry out the first simultaneous imaging of the solar corona in both visible light (VL) and ultraviolet (UV). High-energy particles can penetrate spacecraft materials and may limit the performance of the on-board instruments. A study of the galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) tracks observed in the first VL images gathered by Metis during the commissioning phase is presented here. A similar analysis is planned for the UV channel. Aims. We aim to formulate a prediction of the GCR flux up to hundreds of GeV for the first part of the Solar Orbiter mission to study the performance of the Metis coronagraph. Methods. The GCR model predictions are compared to observations gathered on board Solar Orbiter by the High-Energy Telescope in the range between 10 MeV and 100 MeV in the summer of 2020 as well as with the previous measurements. Estimated cosmic-ray fluxes above 70 MeV n−1 have been also parameterized and used for Monte Carlo simulations aimed at reproducing the cosmic-ray track observations in the Metis coronagraph VL images. The same parameterizations can also be used to study the performance of other detectors. Results. By comparing observations of cosmic-ray tracks in the Metis VL images with FLUKA Monte Carlo simulations of cosmic-ray interactions in the VL detector, we find that cosmic rays fire only a fraction, on the order of 10−4, of the whole image pixel sample. We also find that the overall efficiency for cosmic-ray identification in the Metis VL images is approximately equal to the contribution of Z ≥ 2 GCR particles. A similar study will be carried out during the whole of the Solar Orbiter’s mission duration for the purposes of instrument diagnostics and to verify whether the Metis data and Monte Carlo simulations would allow for a long-term monitoring of the GCR proton flux.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cosmic-ray flux predictions and observations for and with Metis on board Solar Orbiter

Grimani

Andretta

Chioetto

et al. 2021

A&A

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“…Recent advances in single-dish solar imaging are provided up to 26 GHz by the INAF radio telescopes in the frame of the SunDish project [10], [42], [43] (see https://sites.google.com/inaf.it/sundish for details). The SunDish system can presently offer solar observations with a relatively coarse resolution (1 arcmin) with respect to typical size of the solar disk features.…”

Section: Science Drivers For the W-band Multibeam Receiver On The Srtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feasibility Study of a W-Band Multibeam Heterodyne Receiver for the Gregorian Focus of the Sardinia Radio Telescope

et al. 2022

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We report on the feasibility study of a W-band multibeam heterodyne receiver for the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT), a general purpose fully steerable 64-m diameter antenna located on the Sardinia island, Italy, managed by INAF ("Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica," Italy). The W-band front-end is placed at the telescope Gregorian focal plane and will detect radio astronomy molecular spectral lines and broadband emission in the 3 mm atmospheric window. The goal specification of the receiver is a 4×4 focal plane array operating in dual-linear polarization with a front-end consisting of feed-horns placed in cascade with waveguide Orthomode Transducers (OMTs) and LNAs (Low Noise Amplifiers) cryogenically cooled at ≈20 K. The instantaneous FoV (Field of View) of the telescope is limited by the shaping of the 64-m primary and 7.9-m secondary mirrors. The cryogenic modules are designed to fit in the usable area of the focal plane and provide high-quality beam patterns with high antenna efficiency across the 70-116 GHz Radio Frequency (RF) band. The FoV covered by the 4×4 array is 2.15×2.15 arcmin 2 , unfilled, with separation between contiguous elements of 43 arcsec. Dual-sideband separation (2SB) down-conversion mixers are placed at the cryostat output and arranged in four four-pixel down-conversion modules with 4-12 GHz Intermediate Frequency (IF) bands (both Upper Side Band and Lower Side Band selectable for any pixel and polarization). The receiver utilizes a mechanical derotator to track the parallactic angle.

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“…At the national level, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) has recently started an effort to coordinate the several Space Weather activities currently running in the universities, research institutes and industries (Plainaki et al, 2020). ASI proposed the development of a national scientific Space Weather data center, the ASI SPace weather InfraStructure (ASPIS), to collect data from the different Italian Space Weather assets and provide the information to the stakeholders.…”

Section: Future Perspectives and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Tor Vergata Synoptic Solar Telescope (TSST): A robotic, compact facility for solar full disk imaging

Giovannelli

Berrilli

Calchetti

et al. 2020

J. Space Weather Space Clim.

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By the continuous multi-line observation of the solar atmosphere, it is possible to infer the magnetic and dynamical status of the Sun. This activity is essential to identify the possible precursors of space weather events, such as flare or coronal mass ejections. We describe the design and assembly of TSST (Tor Vergata Synoptic Solar Telescope), a robotic synoptic telescope currently composed of two main full-disk instruments, a H telescope and a Potassium (KI D1) Magneto-Optical Filter (MOF)-based telescope operating at 769.9 nm. TSST is designed to be later upgraded with a second MOF channel. This paper describes the TSST concepts and presents the first light observation carried out in February 2020. We show that TSST is a low-cost robotic facility able to achieve the necessary data for the study of precursors of space weather events (using the magnetic and velocity maps by the MOF telescope) and fast flare detection (by the H telescope) to support Space Weather investigation and services.

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Current state and perspectives of Space Weather science in Italy

Cited by 25 publications

References 148 publications

Cosmic-ray flux predictions and observations for and with Metis on board Solar Orbiter

Cosmic-ray flux predictions and observations for and with Metis on board Solar Orbiter

Feasibility Study of a W-Band Multibeam Heterodyne Receiver for the Gregorian Focus of the Sardinia Radio Telescope

The Tor Vergata Synoptic Solar Telescope (TSST): A robotic, compact facility for solar full disk imaging

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