Brief History of Using GONG for Space Weather Forecasting
Abstract
In 2006 the National Solar Observatory’s (NSO) Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) completed the upgrade of their magnetographs with new polarization modulators permitting, for the first time, proper inter-calibration of the magnetic field data from a global network of six different instruments. This development was ground breaking for at least three reasons. First, it allowed the magnetograms from the different magnetographs to be merged together into global maps of the photospheric magnetic field. Second, it was the first ground based system that could monitor the full-disk solar magnetic field 24/7 at moderate spatial resolution (2 arcsec) and high temporal cadence (60 seconds). Third, techniques for merging magnetic field data from the six (technically identical but practically) different instruments were developed, which can now be applied to future ground based networks. Approximately one year after the GONG upgrade, NOAA/SWPC began routinely using the new GONG maps as input to the Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA) coronal and solar wind model. Since this time, use of GONG data for space weather applications has grown rapidly. For example, GONG photospheric field maps are now the primary data driving the operational WSA+Enlil model at NOAA/SWPC. In addition, GONG magnetograph and helioseismic farside data are beginning to be used as input to the ADAPT flux transport model to generate synchronic maps and forecast F10.7 and EUV. This talk provides a brief history of the use of GONG for practical space weather forecasting purposes.
- Publication:
-
AAS/AGU Triennial Earth-Sun Summit
- Pub Date:
- April 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015TESS....121403A