Sunspots twist, merge, and split, and this project will track millions of them to find out which motions trigger the solar flares that can knock out power grids and satellites. Solar eruptions blast energy and radiation toward Earth, disrupting communications, navigation, and space-based technologies. Scientists know the energy comes from magnetic fields in the Sun’s atmosphere, but they do not understand exactly how sunspot movements inject that energy. This project will create the largest-ever catalogue of tracked sunspots—spanning different phases of the solar cycle—using an automated algorithm developed at the University of Central Lancashire. By measuring motions such as rotation, shear, and merging, and comparing them with observed solar activity, the team will identify which dynamics correlate with flares and coronal mass ejections. If successful, this work could improve space weather forecasting, giving operators of satellites, power grids, and aviation systems more warning before an eruption hits. The research is fundamental science—it asks how the Sun works—but better predictions of solar storms have direct practical value for protecting the technology modern society depends on.
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Eruptions from the Sun, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, lead to the propagation of material and enhanced electromagnetic radiation into the solar system that contribute to space weather and can affect communication and space- and ground-based technologies at the Earth. In order to understand the wider effects of these eruptions. it is important to understand how they occur. There are many different aspects to understanding the occurrence of solar eruptions, and this project looks at how such eruptions are powered. A large eruption can expel a large amount of energy which has been stored within the magnetic field in the solar atmosphere. A critical question is how this energy is injected into the magnetic field. Energy on the Sun is generated in the solar interior and is transferred through to the solar atmosphere through motions of the foot points of the magnetic field – such as the motions of sunspots. This project will investigate the different types of motions that are manifested by sunspots (such as mergers, splitting, rotation, and shear) and compare them with the resultant solar activity to determine what type of motions are linked with eruptive events. This will be achieved by creating the largest statistical sample of sunspot dynamics to date, in both size and scope, from different periods during the solar cycle to identify common processes and dynamics that can provide sufficient energy transfer to the atmospheric magnetic field. To obtain this sample, we will employ an automated sunspot identification and tracking algorithm that we have developed at the University of Central Lancashire to analyse long periods of solar observations produced by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Once this catalogue of tracked sunspots has been generated, analysis codes (some of which have been written and others which will be developed as part of this project) will determine and measure the different dynamics exhibited by the sunspots. These will be compared to exhibited solar activity to determine which motions correlate to solar activity and energy calculations will be carried out to determine whether these motions can provide the energy emitted by the solar activity. Understanding of the underlying sunspot dynamics that lead to large solar flares and coronal mass ejections will greatly improve our understanding of the origins of solar eruptions and have the potential to enhance our ability to forecast space weather.
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