Research Infrastructure: Mid-scale RI-1 (M1:DA): Design of a Next generation Ground based solar Observing Network (ngGONG-Design)

About This Grant

The Sun is the closest and most important star for life on Earth. Understanding the complex physics behind solar activity and developing realistic predictions of space weather require comprehensive and continuous observations of the full disk over many decades. The current Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) provides the most comprehensive contextual data to model the large- scale state of the Sun’s heliosphere, the vast bubble of ionized particles forming the solar wind that surrounds the solar system. However, GONG is aging rapidly, and progress in modeling solar phenomena and space weather now needs new synoptic observations not currently available from its existing facilities. This award will support the GONG team to design a next generation solar observing network (ngGONG), to be placed at international sites distributed across longitudes and weather patterns to provide nearly continuous observations of the Sun for many years into the future. This design will maximize the use of existing infrastructure and resources. The ngGONG design activities include an innovative post-baccalaureate program expected to provide significant benefit to the future STEM workforce. A second program will help to bridge a critical gap that many first-generation students face between undergraduate and graduate levels. ngGONG has the potential for strong partnerships both domestic and international. ngGONG has the potential for strong partnerships, both domestic, such as with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Defense, and internationally, including with the European Union and Japan. The future ngGONG network will provide a quantitative context for high-resolution solar and in-situ measurements and models, bridging solar and stellar research in the area of stellar activity and its consequences for habitability on our own and other planets. It will be a platform for future instrument development. ngGONG is key to measuring the processes that drive activity from the solar interior through its atmosphere and into the heliosphere, leading to space weather, and will build a multi-decade record of solar variability for use by future generations of scientists, in both predictable and unexpected ways. The ngGONG network addresses the national security and research priorities of the National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan and the Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow Act. But it must be designed first. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.