Where and when

ASI - Agenzia Spaziale Italiana - organizes "Science with current and future solar physics missions", a workshop that will take place in Rome at its headquarters. The main objective of this workshop is to discuss the recent progress in the field of new solar physics missions, which will start in the coming years, and to promote new collaborations and synergies within the Italian community ^{(source: https://www.asi.it/event/workshop-science-with-current-and-future-solar…)}

The topics that will be covered during the meeting are:

• Solar atmosphere: heating, coupling, dynamics
• Fundamental plasma processes in the solar atmosphere
• Solar wind
• Space weather science with solar physics missions
• Synergies with ground based projects and other astrophysical contexts

The MIDA Group will take part in the workshop with the following three talks:

• February 1^st, 2023 – at 3.00 pm

Speaker: Michele Piana  
Title: The reconstruction of electron maps by means of visibilities recorded by the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays on-board Solar Orbiter  
Authors: Michele Piana, Anna Volpara, Paolo Massa, Anna Maria Massone  
Abstract: Solar hard X-ray imaging spectroscopy aims to infer information on the electrons accelerated by magnetic reconnection and on the temperature of the correspondingly heated plasma throughout the whole flaring volume and in a spatially resolved fashion. This talk will describe a formal process that exploits the visibility-based technology at the base of the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) to reconstruct both electron flux and differential emission measure maps in a regularized way, i.e., by including smoothing constraints along the energy and temperature directions, respectively. Preliminary results concerned with experimental STIX data will be illustrated and discussed in the framework of standard theoretical models for solar flare physics.

• February 2^nd, 2023 – at 9.30 am

Speaker: Anna Maria Massone 
Title: Two research projects on space weather forecasting: computational background and main objectives
Authors: Anna Maria Massone, Sabrina Guastavino, Emma Perracchione, Francesco Marchetti, Federico Benvenuto, Cristina Campi, Michele Piana
Abstract: Two research projects devoted to the use of AI-based methods for space weather forecasting have been recently funded at the MIDA group, Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Genova. Specifically, from the one hand, the Horizon Europe ‘ARCAFF’ project promises to formulate and implement machine/deep learning methods for the classification
of solar active regions contained in SDO/HMI magnetograms; the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo ‘AIxtreme’ project aims to construct a computational pipeline for the prediction of solar storms and of their impact on the satellite infrastructures monitoring extreme meteorological events. This talk will illustrate the main scientific aspects of the two projects, the kind of space data will be utilized for their realization, and some computational tools that represent the methodological background for their implementation.

• February 2^nd, 2023 – at 5.00 pm

Speaker: Anna Volpara  
Title: Data formation process and image reconstruction methods for the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays on-board Solar Orbiter  
Authors: Anna Volpara, Paolo Massa, Emma Perracchione, Federico Benvenuto, Andrea Francesco Battaglia, Sam Krucker, Gordon Hurford, Michele Piana, Anna Maria Massone  
Abstract: The Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) on-board Solar Orbiter modulates the incident X-ray radiation emitted by solar flares by means of a Moiré pattern system. Therefore, the native nature of STIX data is made of visibilities, i.e. sparse samples of the Fourier components of the flaring source. After illustrating the STIX data formation process, this talk focuses on the image reconstruction methods that allow imaging–spectroscopy analysis. Specifically, the performances of methods like constrained maximum entropy, multi-scale CLEAN, feature augmentation, and Particle Swarm Optimization for parametric imaging will be applied to experimental STIX data, and validated by comparison with EUV maps provided by SDO/AIA and possibly EUI on-board Solar Orbiter.