Solar proton event

solar proton event

(Abbreviated SPE.) Strong enhancement in energetic proton flux (typically >10 MeV), commonly from a shock caused by an energetic solar eruption. SPEs can be detected throughout the heliosphere; however, for space weather purposes, they are characterized by the episodic detection and measurement of proton flux reaching and sustaining 10 particle flux units (1 PFU = 1 particle per square cm per second per steradian) for at least 15 minutes at energies >10 MeV by the primary NOAA satellite or GOES. Periods of at least 10 PFU at the 10-MeV level are also referred to as solar proton events or radiation storms and are quantified by the use of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration S-scale.

Space Weather Prediction Center, 2018: Solar radiation storm. Accessed 14 August 2018. Available at https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/solar-radiation-storm.

Term edited 14 August 2018.

A positively charged subatomic particle with a rest mass of 1.67262 x 10^-27 kg, slightly less than that of the neutron and about 1836 times that of the electron.

An aggregation of sufficiently many atoms or molecules that it can be assigned macroscopic properties such as volume, density, pressure, and temperature.

See numerical weather prediction, climate prediction;