How this space weather man predicts solar storms

DCU’s Dr David Long has a flare for predicting space weather.

Earlier this year, the strongest solar storm in two decades lit up skies around the world, culminating in a great aurora display.

This display was caused by massive solar flares – events that cause waves of charged particles to shoot out from the sun and eventually collide with Earth. These geomagnetic storms, while beautiful, can interfere with satellites, airplanes, GPS and electrical systems.

Solar physicist Dr David Long studies this ‘space weather’ to develop forecasting systems to prepare for future solar storm events.

Long completed a PhD in astrophysics at Trinity College Dublin, with the final year spent at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. He then worked at University College London in the Mullard Space Science Laboratory for more than a decade before taking up a position at Queen’s University Belfast. He now works as an assistant professor in solar physics in the School of Physical Sciences at Dublin City University.

Though he didn’t set out to have a career in astronomy, he developed an interest when undertaking a general science undergraduate degree at Trinity and a final-year project on solar flares sold him on the joy of this research.

“Ultimately, there was never really one thing that made me want to have a career in science,” Long tells SiliconRepublic.com, “instead, I sort of fell into my career and was lucky enough to have support from some incredible mentors and collaborators along the way.

“Having said that, I really do love what I do and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Tell us about your current research.

My research is mostly focused on understanding the origin and evolution of solar eruptive events. Eruptions on the sun are the most energetic events in our solar system, releasing energies equivalent to the global annual energy consumption in a fraction of a second.

These eruptions travel out into the solar system and can then hit the Earth, affecting satellites, communications, ground-based power systems and commercial flights. However, we don’t fully understand what initially causes these eruptions, and why some eruptions are larger and more geo-effective than others.

I use a combination of solar observations from space and the ground to try and get a better understanding of the processes leading up to the eruption, and how it evolves through the solar atmosphere.

For my PhD, I studied one of the consequences of these eruptions; large shock waves that travel across the solar atmosphere, but since then I’ve become more interested in the stages before and during the eruption. I work with scientists from around the world, mainly from the UK, Europe, Japan and the US, with most of my collaborations and networks having grown through interactions at conferences and involvements on different teams set up to answer specific research questions.

In your opinion, why is your research important?

There are a few different answers to this question. From a ‘real-world’ perspective, my research will help us to predict the onset and strength of space weather events. Although Earth has a protective shield around it called the magnetosphere, a direct hit from a space weather event has the potential to seriously affect satellites, power grids, communications and other electronics, so giving advance notice would help mitigate against those effects.

In the sun, we also have our very own local astrophysical plasma laboratory, which we can use to understand physical processes that occur throughout our universe. The sun is so close that we can study it with very high spatial, spectral and temporal resolution, and we can see something happen and then ‘touch’ the resulting material as it passes by our spacecraft.

My research therefore has everyday implications but is also useful to help us understand our place in the universe.

What are some of the biggest challenges or misconceptions you face as a researcher in your field?

Once you mention astronomy, most people tend to think you spend your days looking through a telescope. Most, if not all, of the data I use comes from spacecraft in orbit around the Earth and the sun, so I spend most of my days looking at the sun on a computer screen. I’ve gone to observatories in different places around the world to get data, but again, a lot of that is sitting looking at a screen rather than through an eyepiece.

Astronomy, and I guess research in general, really isn’t a 9-to-5 job, and it’s hard to switch off at times. I worked long hours and did a lot of travelling to conferences and to work with collaborators while a student and postdoc. Even today as an assistant professor I’ll find myself thinking about work at all hours of the day and night.

Do you think public engagement with science and data has changed in recent years?

I think astronomy is one of those topics that has always captured the public’s imagination. It’s easy to walk outside, look up, see stars and planets, and think about our place in the universe.

That said, as the world has become more interconnected, and with the recent strong solar activity that produced the aurorae over Ireland in May, there is definitely more of an awareness among the public of the work being done to try and understand these phenomena and how they affect us.

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