The Hamptons Observatory is partnering with Suffolk County Community College to present a free virtual lecture by Dr. Madhulika “Lika” Guhathakurta, NASA senior advisor for new initiatives.
Sean Tvelia, academic chair of Physical Sciences at Suffolk County Community College and a founding board member of Hamptons Observatory, will serve as moderator of the event.
Guhathakurta will discuss heliophysics, also known as “space weather,” and how the “Living With a Star” program targets specific aspects of the sun-earth system that affect life and society.
Practitioners of disciplines like solar physics, geophysics, atmospheric physics, cosmic ray physics and magnetohydrodynamics have collaborated in recent decades and helped to create a new discipline known as heliophysics.
According to a press release, a single strong solar flare could bring civilization to its knees. Modern society has come to depend on technologies sensitive to solar radiation and geomagnetic storms. Particularly vulnerable are intercontinental power grids, interplanetary robotic and human exploration, satellite operations and communications, and GPS navigation.
These technologies are woven into the fabric of daily life, from health care and finance to basic utilities. Both short- and long-term forecasting models are urgently needed to mitigate the effects of solar storms and to anticipate their collective impact on aviation, astronaut safety, terrestrial climate and more.
As human activity expands into the solar system, the need for accurate space weather and space climate forecasting is expanding, too. Space probes are now orbiting or en route for flybys of Mercury, Venus, Earth and the moon, Mars, Vesta, Ceres, Saturn and Pluto.
Agencies around the world are preparing to send robotic spacecraft into interplanetary space. Each of these missions, plus others on the drawing board, has a unique need to know when a solar storm will pass through its corner of space or how the subsequent solar cycle will behave.
By monitoring the sun from widely different angles simultaneously, they provide early warnings of explosive events on the sun as they develop on the solar far side. These explosive events may pose threatening conditions for both earthbound commerce and national security, as well as orbiting satellites and probes, both robotic and human-tended.
Even during a relatively weak solar maximum, the potential consequences that such events can have on society are too important to ignore. The challenges associated with space weather affect all developed and developing countries.
It is basic research with a high public purpose, and the stated goal of the “Living With a Star” program is to achieve the sun-earth, sun-planet system understanding.
The virtual presentation will begin at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 12. Although the virtual lecture is free, donations help support the Hamptons Observatory.
To reserve and find more information, go to hamptonsobservatory.org.
Staff Writer on Oct 28, 2024