63^rd ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE SA INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS

Numerical investigation of solar energetic particle transport between the Sun, Earth, and Mars.

29 Jun 2018, 11:40

20m

Oral Presentation Track D2 - Space Science Space Science

Speaker

Mr Phillip Heita (NWU (CSR))

Description

Solar energetic particles (SEPs), are particles (mostly electrons, protons and alpha particles) that are generated in a solar flare or at a shock driven by a coronal mass ejection (CME), resulting in super-thermal particles with energies from a few keV up to several GeVs. These high energy particle increases pose a danger to astronauts in space, can lead to the degradation of precious satellites and other Earth infrastructure, and even closer to home, they can result in a radiation hazard for airline passengers. With computer advancements, numerical methods such as finite-difference (FD) method have become invaluable tools in approximating various properties of SEPs, primarily focusing at Earth position, noting the accuracy to spacecraft observations. We shall seek to give a brief introduction to FD methods, and their implementation into the development of a Python model that simulates SEP transport. Given the current NASA and SpaceX aspirations of a Mars research base, and eventual colony, we shall provide initial model results at Mars, and perform a comparative study of the initial model solutions to spacecraft observations near both Earth and Mars, noting the limited observational spacecraft data from the MAVEN mission at Mars. keyword(s): Solar energetic particles, Finite-difference methods, Earth, Mars.

Supervisor details<br><b>If not a student, type N/A.</b><br>Student abstract submision<br>requires supervisor permission:<br>please give their name,<br> institution and email address.

Dr R Du Toit Strauss
Senior Lecturer, Subject group Physics
Researcher, Center for Space Research
North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus)
dutoit.strauss@nwu.ac.za
dutoit.strauss@gmail.com