Eruptions on the Sun resemble a grinning Halloween pumpkin

Two astronauts work on the Hubble telescope. One grips onto the telescope and the other is standing on the robotic arm.

CLEAR

The Center for All-Clear Solar Energetic Particle Forecasts (CLEAR), led by principal investigator Dr. Lulu Zhao at the University of Michigan, is building a comprehensive prediction framework for solar energetic particles. This will help scientists to identify low radiation periods, or an "all-clear forecast," as well as the occurrence and characteristics of elevated periods. This center’s research goals are pivotal in better protecting our astronauts and instrumentation from harmful solar radiation.

CLEAR will accomplish their goals by integrating various prediction models using physics-based, machine learning, and empirical techniques. By providing better forecasting of these events, CLEAR can help NASA protect astronauts and instruments in space from solar eruptions that release damaging, high-energy particles.

Location

University of Michigan

Program Focus

Solar Energetic Particle Forecasting

Principal Investigator

Dr. Lulu Zhao

Project Manager

Dr. Tamas Gombosi

A visualization shows the Sun at center with four magnetic field lines swirling away from it like a pinwheel. Earth appears to the upper right of the Sun along one of the field lines. A spray of yellow particles extends from the Sun to Earth and beyond. Above but detached from the Sun, a curved reddish cloud of gas represents a coronal mass ejection traveling outward into space.

A solar eruption can generate solar energetic particles, with speeds nearly reaching the speed of light, that follow the spiral shape of the solar wind’s magnetic fields into interplanetary space.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

CLEAR Collaborators and Partners

The institutions of the CLEAR center include: University of Michigan, California Institute of Technology, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Catholic University of America, Space Science Institute, Lockheed Martin, University of Arizona, NASA’s Community Coordinated Modeling Center, NASA’s Space Radiation Analysis Group, Northwest Research Institute, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NASA Headquarters.