On November 12, 2024 at 7:00 PM, ET, Hamptons Observatory and Suffolk County Community College are honored to present a free, virtual lecture by Dr. Madhulika Guhathakurta, NASA’s Senior Advisor for New Initiatives and the driving force behind its Frontier Development Laboratory. Dr. Guhathakurta will discuss Heliophysics, aka Space Weather, and how the Living With a Star (LWS) program targets specific aspects of the Sun-Earth system that affect life and society.
Years ago, the study of the Sun-Earth connection was edgy stuff; few scientists had the breadth of knowledge to marshal the many disciplines required to gain a full picture. Over recent decades, more and more practitioners of disciplines like solar physics, geophysics, atmospheric physics, cosmic ray physics and magnetohydrodynamics, collaborated and helped to create a synthesis and a new discipline that today is called “Heliophysics,” popularly known as Space Weather.
United States Post Office stamps (issued in 2021) highlighting images of the Sun as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credits: NASA/SDO/USPS.
Today, 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 earth-bound 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.
Dr. Madhulika Guhathakurta
Dr. Guhathakurta has led the development of Heliophysics as an integrated scientific discipline from which fundamental discoveries about our universe provide direct societal benefits. She made possible flagship missions (e.g. the Solar Dynamics Observatory, Van Allen Probes, Solar Orbiter Collaboration and Parker Solar Probe), including STEREO, that would revolutionize our understanding of how the Sun shapes space weather in the solar system. Since 2017, she has been the driving force (at NASA Headquarters and at NASA Ames) behind the growth of Frontier Development Laboratory, both in terms of the breadth of problem areas tackled, as well as in the number of agency and industry partners (e.g. Google, Nvidia, IBM, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Planet). She is currently a Senior Advisor for New Initiatives at Goddard Space Flight Center and Program Scientist at NASA’s Heliophysics Division.
Hamptons Observatory extends its deepest thanks to Dr. Guhathakurta for generously taking the time to share her expertise and to co-host Suffolk County Community College for their kind collaboration.
While this is a free lecture, donations are appreciated to help support our programs.
Hamptons Observatory (HO), a 501(c)(3) NYS nonprofit that relies on public support has served the South Fork since 2005. Hamptons Observatory offers all of its programs free-of-charge so that everyone can enjoy the wonders of their Universe. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help support our work. Thanks!
