# Presentation: 153685

## NOAA’s Real Time Solar Wind System

**NOAA’s Real Time Solar Wind System**

**R.D. Zwickl, K.A. Doggett, S. Sahm, W.P. Barrett, R.N. Grubb, T.R. Detman, and V.J. Raben**
- NOAA Space Environment Center

- The NASA ACE satellite was launched in August 1997, with NOAA’a Real Time Solar Wind system becoming operational January 21, 1998.  A ground system has been developed with tracking from our partners in Japan, England, France, and India that is complimented with tracking by NASA’a Deep Space Network, the USAF Satellite Control Network, and NOAA’s own station in Boulder.  The raw data are broadcast from ACE, collected by the ground stations, and sent to SEC where they are processed and available for operational use within five minutes.  The data are now used worldwide in forecast operations, to generate predictive products, and to drive models.

**Instruments, Parameters, and Products**

**Ground Stations and Tracking**

**Magnetometer - MAG**
**Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware**

**Solar Wind Electron, Proton, & Alpha Monitor - SWEPAM**
**Los Alamos National Laboratory**

**Electron, Proton, & Alpha Monitor - EPAM**
**Applied Physics Laboratory, John Hopkins University**

**Solar Isotope Spectrometer - SIS**
**California Institute of Technology**

**Derived Products and Driven Models **

**ACE data is received at SEC from our worldwide tracking partners through a variety of ground stations.  Tracking coverage is depicted above for each location for winter-time minimum and summer-time maximum conditions.  Tracking performance (96% target) shows continued improvement as new stations are added.**

**This diagram shows the general data flow through the entire real time solar wind system, including data ingest and unpack from the ground stations, calculation of the physical units, and distribution to the primary data destinations.  Public access to the real time data is through the SEC Outside User System (www.sec.noaa.gov).**

**Real Time System Data Flow**

**ACE Orbit**

**Ground Station Location**

**Future Tracking Coverage ****(winter/summer)**

**Current Tracking Coverage ****(winter/summer)**

**Tracking Performance ****(day/month%)**

- Updated July 2000

- Updated July 2000

- Updated July 2000

**Calculated Physical Parameters:**
**Bx, By, Bz, Bt, Time**
**Operational Resolution = 1-min avg.**

**Calculated Physical Parameters:**
**Density, Speed, Temp, Time**
**Operational Resolution = 1-min snapshot**

**Calculated Physical Parameters:**
**Differential Flux (p/sec/sr/cm****2****/sec/MeV)**
**	****Electrons (keV):****	****38-53****	****Protons (keV):****	****47-65**
**	****	****175-315****	****	****112-187**
**	****	****	****	****310-580**
**	****	****	****	****761-1220**
**	****	****	****	****1060-1910**
**Operational Resolution = 5-min avg.**

**Calculated Physical Parameters:**
**Integral Proton Flux (p/sec/sr/cm****2****)**
**> 10 MeV**
**> 30 MeV**
**Operational Resolution = 5-min avg.**

**ACE real-time data is used worldwide to drive space weather models and generate forecast products. SEC uses the data in a variety of ways, including to drive model predictions of a geomagnetic index similar to kp (example at right).  A few of the institutions using ACE data for real time operations include:**
**Australian Space Forecast Centre**: Representation of solar wind speed and IMF direction
**Chandra Science Operations Team**: Alerts of large low-energy proton events
**CRL/Hiraiso Solar Terrestrial Research Center, Japan**: Predictions of Dst index, and proton distribution in the inner magnetosphere
**Danish Meteorological Institute/Swedish Institute of Space Physics**: Predictions of AE, Dst, and Kp indices
**Geospace Hydrodynamics Laboratory, Sofia, Bulgaria**: 3-D determination of the magnetosheath
**Ionospheric and Space Physics Group at SRI International**: Space weather alert webpage utilizing updates from SWEPAM and EPAM
**Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto, CA**: Dynamic modeling of the Earth's bow shock and magnetopause
**Nonlinear Dynamics and Space Physics (NDSP) Group at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center**: Prediction of Dst, AL, and AU indices
**Southwest Research Institute**: Real time Assimilative Mapping of Ionospheric Electrodynamics (rtAMIE)
**Space Physics Research Group at U.C. Berkeley**: Prediction of Dst index
**Space Physics Research Laboratory, University of Michigan**: Linear Modeling of Ionospheric Electrodynamics (LiMIE)
**Space Research Institute, Moscow**: Geomagnetic storm and substorm warnings
**University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center**: UAF Eulerian Parallel Polar Ionosphere Model

- © July 2000 NOAA SEC

- Sun

- ACE