SH23B-2445
Using the MAVEN EUV Monitor to Validate Far-Side and Over-The-Limb Solar Activity Predictions
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Francis Gerard Eparvier, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, Edward Thiemann, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, Phillip C Chamberlin, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States and Thomas N Woods, Univ Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States
Abstract:
The Extreme Ultraviolet Monitor (EUVM) on the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission measures the solar irradiance from the vantage point of Mars in three broad wavelength bands (0-7 nm, 17-22 nm, and 121-122 nm) at a cadence of 1-sec. Normal operations at Mars began in mid-November, 2014 and continue to the present. In November, 2014 the sub-Mars point on the Sun was approximately on the east limb of the solar disk as seen from Earth. Through the mission so far, the MAVEN EUVM has been measuring the EUV irradiance from a solar disk that has been decreasingly less observable from Earth. In June 2015, Mars and MAVEN were in conjunction from Earth, observing irradiance from a solar disk completely unviewable from Earth. The EUVM observations during this period show variability from active regions rotating and from flares. At many other times through the MAVEN mission, the EUVM has observed flares not visible from Earth. The MAVEN solar observations provide a unique opportunity to study the solar variability from multiple vantage points at both daily and sub-daily time scales. MAVEN EUVM observations of far side solar activity will be compared with predictions based on interpolation from Earth and from various far side imaging techniques such as helioseismic and H Ly-alpha backscatter imaging.
