Dr. Jason Derr KI5YMW Discusses the Effects of the 10 May 2024 G5 Geomagnetic Storm Observed in the Hudson Valley on September 12th as Part Of the 2024 HamSCI Speaker Series Beginning on 7 May 2024, a sequence of nine CMEs erupted from solar active region 3664, with several merging together in transit through the solar wind towards Earth. The first combined CME impacted the dayside magnetosphere on 10 May and triggered an extreme G5 geomagnetic storm. The storm commenced at 16:37 UTC on 10 May, reached maximum intensity at 03:33 UTC on 11 May, and persisted into recovery through May 13. An array of instruments was online throughout New York’s Hudson River Valley during the event, including scientific grade GPS receivers, amateur radios, Personal Space Weather Stations and a ground magnetometer. The Hudson Valley is in the mid-latitude region and ranges from just upstate of New York City in Yonkers, NY to as far north as Troy, NY. At these mid-latitudes, the storm induced beautiful red and green auroral activity, amplitude and phase scintillation of GPS signals, flare- and storm-induced radio blackouts within the amateur radio bands, plasma density modifications, geoelectric and geomagnetic field perturbations, plasma flows, etc. In this discussion, we characterize the storm beginning with the eruption of coronal mass ejections on the surface of the Sun, through the intensification of the ring current and ultimately with the auroral, ionospheric plasma density and ground magnetic signatures. Time-lagged correlation procedures are performed to examine the relationship between coronal mass ejection measurements taken by the DISCOVR satellite at the L1 Lagrange point and both the AE and the SYM-H indices, which characterize the auroral substorm and ring current dynamics, respectively. We then give an in-depth treatment of the locally observed ionospheric scintillation and plasma dynamics as inferred by CASES GPS receivers, amateur radios and Grape Personal Space Weather Stations." Dr. Jason Derr will discuss this subject on Thursday, 12 September 2024 at 4PM EDT (2000 UTC) via Zoom. The program is open to all with a question-and-answer session to follow. The link can be found here, or on the hamsci.org/get-involved page (look for the HamSCIENCE telecon link): https://scranton.zoom.us/j/286316405?pwd=QWdwMlFPbDlYeXg5ZDg1dmYzeFdCUT09 Meeting ID: 286 316 405 Passcode: hamsci Jason Derr grew up in Montoursville, PA, and has had a passion for the natural sciences since a young age. He attended Bloomsburg University to obtain a B.S. in Physics, moved to Houston and worked on biophysics research for several years, and then obtained a Ph.D. in Plasma Physics at UT Austin. His focus was (and has since been) auroral physics, particularly through the lens of plasma stability theory, magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, and ultra-low frequency waves. Following his Ph.D., he did postdoctoral research at Rice University in Houston on global magnetospheric dynamics, ballooning-interchange instabilities, and field-aligned potential drops which accelerate particles from the magnetosphere to the ionosphere. While at Rice University, he hosted the Rice University Space Physics Seminar Series for several years. With COL Diana Loucks, he established the Correspondence of Operations, Space weather and Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (COSMIC) research group at West Point and hosted the COSMIC seminar series. His research at West Point focuses on incoherent scatter radars, GPS scintillation and ionospheric radio wave propagation, particularly during geomagnetic storms and auroral substorms. He has an amateur radio license (call sign KI5YMW) and has helped West Point to obtain a Personal Space Weather Station. The COSMIC research group is now setting up a distributed network of GPS receivers, magnetometers and other measuring devices throughout West Point to monitor the space weather above and geomagnetically induced currents below. His outside interests include philosophy, mathematics, logic, biology and artificial intelligence. His hobbies include walking, reading and meditating. So please plan on attending this interesting and important topic to the amateur radio and ionospheric science community. HamSCI serves as a means for fostering collaboration between professional researchers and amateur radio operators. It assists in developing and maintaining standards and agreements between all people and organizations involved. Its goals are to advance scientific research and understanding through amateur radio activities, encourage the development of modern technologies to support this research and provide educational opportunities for the amateur community and the public. For more information about HamSCI, and to join our mailing list, please visit the HamSCI website. For those unable to attend in person, check back on the HamSCI website shortly following the discussion. ###
