Adv. in Geosciences: Solar Terrestrial 30, 93-115
Proc. AOGS, 2008
A. Bhardwaj (ed.)
© World Scientific Publ. Co. Forecasting transient heliospheric solar wind parameters at the location of the inner planets B.V. Jackson, P.P. Hick, A. Buffington and J.M. Clover
Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, Univ. of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

M. Tokumaru
Solar-Terrestrial Environment Lab., Nagoya Univ., Nagoya, Japan

Abstract

Remotely-sensed interplanetary scintillation (IPS) from the solar-terrestrial environment laboratory (STELab)system, and Thomson-scattering observations from the U.S. Air Force/NASA Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) allow the determination of solar wind parameters at the locations of the inner planets. We show a 3D analysis technique developed to provide daily-cadence transient solar wind forecasts of velocity and density at Earth and the inner planets. These now include in-situ measurements near Earth available in real time. Where in-situ measurements are available these real-time analyses are compared with the predicted values. Using the global velocity measurements available from IPS analysis and daily updated magnetograms from the National Solar Observatory, we are also able toproject outward solar-surfacemagnetic fields in order to provide reasonable global in-situ magnetic-field component trends from one day to the next. This paper summarizes the analysis available and current progress in using the STELab, Japan real-time data for validating these forecasts. A discussion is also provided as to how we can derive more meaningful future information from these remotely-sensed heliospheric measurements.