Radiation Events of Interest


Date Shutdown Fluence Actual [1e9] Fluence Saved [1e9] Event Notes
2023-02-26 manual 1.7 0.9 See its corresponding radiation memo and storm page.
2023-03-20 manual 3.3 1.4 See its corresponding radiation memo and storm page.
2023-04-23 manual 3.3 0.8 See its corresponding radiation memo and storm page
2023-11-20 manual 1.6 1.8 See its corresponding radiation memo
2023-11-28 no 1.6 - M9.8 flare on the heels of a M3.4 flare, with an associated CME. On Dec 1, ACE rates were approximately stable at an elevated rate of >~30,000, with 1.5 days until RADMON disable. Extrapolated orbital fluence was ~4.7e9, with present fluence <~1e9. From ACIS-Ops discussion it was decided not to shut down. The storm passed several hours after, and ACE rates dropped precipitously, and the total orbital fluence was ~1.6e9. Not shutting down was the right call.
2023-12-16 no ~1 - X2.8 flare on Dec. 14th occurred following two earlier flares in the same day of amplitude M2.3 and M5.8. The next day there was an M6.8 flare. One major CME impacted later on the 15th, raising ACE P3 rates to >~1e4. A second, much larger CME was predicted to arrive in the next 24-48 hours, with a range of predictions on the CME Scoreboard page ranging from midday (local) on the 16th to the early morning of the 17th (local). A new science orbit began the morning of the 16th, with a projected fluence of 2e9 at the elevated ACE rates, absent a CME. It was agreed there was no sense arguing for a shutdown before the CME impact was in the offing and could be assessed. And in the end, the CME either never arrived, or was only a very glancing blow that barely altered declining ACE rates and only ~1e9 fluence was recorded and the large CME predicted was not a major impact on Earth. The best guess is it produced a minor impact on the morning of the 17th, ~10 hours later than the ENLIL prediction, for which the projected impact was severe.
2024-01-22 manual 1.7 2.6 Flare during an otherwise calm week led to an Earth-directed CME. This peaked just as ACIS exited the belts, with P3 rates reaching nearly 2e5/s. The shutdown decision was fairly straightforward; rates were slow with the entire orbit to go, with no HRC time. Enlil plots showed a second crest of the CME was possible. There was a stepped decay with a long plateau at ~25e3-50e3 which persisted for >12 hours, followed by a slow decline, ~10x over the next 24 hours.. The recovery was slated for ~24 hours after the manual shutdown, athough that load was interrupted by an unrelated NSM. Shutting down was the right call.
2024-03-24 autonomous (txings) 0.2 4.3 An X1.1 flare occurred in the evening of Friday, March 22, during a week rifewith small M-class flares. The CME was Earth-directed and arrived about 1.5 days later, on Sunday March 24. Monitoring during the radiation event was complicated by recurrences of noisy/bogus (and high) data from the Korean ground station for ACE. This resulted in spurious MTA alerts and also contaminated the Replan Central orbital fluence values and predictions. On Sunday morning, ACE P3 rates rose rapidly over the course of several hours, peaking at >350,000. The P5- and P7-scaled P3 rates were even higher, by factors of a few. A radiation telecon was called and a manual shutdown planned for the first available contact, near 2pm local time. During the SOH checks at comm, we were relieved to see that txings had tripped, and relatively early on while P3 rates were below 10,000. This saved ACIS from nearly all of the storm's fluence.