{ "abstract": "Understanding when and where a solar flare will occur continues to be an important goal for the heliophysics community, relevant to fundamental research, coordinated flare observations, and space weather applications. In 2024 April, the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI-4) and High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C Flare) carried out NASA’s first coordinated sounding rocket solar flare campaign at the Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR) in Fairbanks, Alaska, for the purpose of performing a triggered launch to observe a large (>C5 class) solar flare with flare-optimized instrumentation. For this campaign, we developed and successfully implemented a novel real-time early flare alert system that leverages low-latency solar imaging and irradiance measurements of the early stages of flares to establish when a large flare is imminent, predict the remaining duration, and identify the flare location in real time. By providing actionable flare nowcasts, this optimized collection of tools/visualizations informed real-time launch decisions and enabled the successful launch of the FOXSI-4 and Hi-C Flare experiments to observe a long-duration M-class flare. We detail the implementation of this early flare alert system, its operational validation during the launch, and the lessons learned to inform future flare monitoring systems and solar flare observing campaigns.", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory", "University of Minnesota", "Space Sciences Laboratory", "Department of Physics & Astronomy", "University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland", "Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder", "Department of Astronomical Science", "National Astronomical Observatory of Japan", "NASA Headquarters", "NASA Marshall Space Flight Center", "Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research", "National Institute of Information and Communications Technology", "BAE Systems", "Mullard Space Science Laboratory", "Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian", "University of Alabama Huntsville", "University of Lancashire", "Queen’s University Belfast" ], "article_type": null, "arxiv": null, "author_total": 29, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Juliana T. Vievering", "orcid": "0000-0002-7407-6740" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Marianne Peterson", "orcid": "0000-0002-9852-0869" }, { "affs": [ 2 ], "name": "Juan Camilo Buitrago-Casas", "orcid": "0000-0002-8203-4794" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "A. Gordon Emslie", "orcid": "0000-0001-8720-0723" }, { "affs": [ 3, 4 ], "name": "Paolo Massa", "orcid": "0000-0002-0993-1974" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Andrew Jones", "orcid": "0000-0001-5533-5498" }, { "affs": [ 6, 7 ], "name": "Yoshiaki Sato", "orcid": "0000-0003-3735-944X" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Lindsay Glesener", "orcid": "0000-0001-7092-2703" }, { "affs": [ 8, 9 ], "name": "Sabrina Savage", "orcid": "0000-0002-6172-0517" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Phillip Chamberlin", "orcid": "0000-0003-4372-7405" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Kristopher Cooper", "orcid": "0000-0001-8589-3378" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Jake Boils" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Simon Shepard" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Rita Borelli", "orcid": "0000-0002-6170-7793" }, { "affs": [ 7, 6 ], "name": "Noriyuki Narukage", "orcid": "0000-0002-6330-3944" }, { "affs": [ 10 ], "name": "Kanya Kusano", "orcid": "0000-0002-6814-6810" }, { "affs": [ 11 ], "name": "Yumi Bamba", "orcid": "0000-0001-8385-8990" }, { "affs": [ 9 ], "name": "Genevieve Vigil", "orcid": "0000-0002-7219-1526" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Athanasios Pantazides", "orcid": "0000-0002-8726-9429" }, { "affs": [ 5, 12 ], "name": "Vicki L. Herde", "orcid": "0000-0001-9139-8939" }, { "affs": [ 13 ], "name": "Daniel Ryan", "orcid": "0000-0001-8661-3825" }, { "affs": [ 2 ], "name": "Orlando M. Romeo", "orcid": "0000-0002-4559-2199" }, { "affs": [ 9 ], "name": "Amy Winebarger", "orcid": "0000-0002-5608-531X" }, { "affs": [ 14 ], "name": "Katharine K. Reeves", "orcid": "0000-0002-6903-6832" }, { "affs": [ 15 ], "name": "P. S. Athiray", "orcid": "0000-0002-4454-147X" }, { "affs": [ 16 ], "name": "Robert W. Walsh", "orcid": "0000-0002-1025-9863" }, { "affs": [ 16 ], "name": "Ndifreke Okon Nyah" }, { "affs": [ 17 ], "name": "Ryan Milligan", "orcid": "0000-0001-5031-1892" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Yixian Zhang", "orcid": "0000-0001-8941-2017" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6qfd99d85x6p7.bib", "cited_by": 0, "doi": "10.3847/1538-4357/ae95fd", "fulltext_url": null, "id": "6qfd99d85x6p7", "issns": [ "1538-4357", "0004-637X" ], "landing_url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae95fd", "language": null, "licence": "CC-BY-4.0", "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0", "licence_source": "article", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "feed-journal", "astronomy/general" ] ], "openalex": null, "pdf_url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae95fd/pdf", "pmcid": null, "pmid": null, "published": "2026-11-04", "publisher": "American Astronomical Society", "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6qfd99d85x6p7.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-11-04T18:20:26Z", "native_id": "10.3847/1538-4357/ae95fd", "source": "feed-iop", "url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae95fd" }, { "first_seen": "2026-11-05T00:20:44Z", "native_id": "10.3847/1538-4357/ae95fd", "source": "crossref", "url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae95fd" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "astronomy", "origin": "journal-openalex:3103|Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies", "subfield": "stellar" } ], "title": "Real-time Early Flare Alert System for the First Sounding Rocket Solar Flare Campaign", "title_text": "Real-time Early Flare Alert System for the First Sounding Rocket Solar Flare Campaign", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-11-06T00:21:00Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6qfd99d85x6p7", "venue": "The Astrophysical Journal", "versions": [] }